Republican Representative Nancy Mace is being investigated by the House ethics committee over allegations that she may have improperly claimed more than $9,000 in reimbursements intended to subsidize housing costs for members of Congress.
According to a report from the nonpartisan Office of Congressional Conduct (OCC), which reviews ethics complaints against lawmakers, the South Carolina representative’s reimbursement requests had exceeded her total property expenses in DC for several months in 2023 and 2024, “amounting to an excess of $9,485.46.”
The OCC said in its referral to the House ethics committee that there are “substantial reasons to believe” that she had “engaged in inappropriate reimbursement practices.”
Mace was participating in a federal program that aims to help subsidize lodging, food and travel expenses for lawmakers who must maintain homes both in Washington, D.C. and in their districts.
The report said she consistently “requested and received the maximum reimbursement allowed,” and the OCC’s review of invoices, utility bills and other documents “identified discrepancies between the amounts requested and received by Rep Mace…and the total of these associated invoices.”
According to the report, the finding of more than $9,000 in excessive refunds is based on the assumption that Mace was responsible for 100% of the property costs even though he only had a 28% ownership interest.
According to the OCC report, Mace did not respond to questions and declined to be interviewed for review. “Because Rep Mace declined to interview with the OCC in this review, the OCC was unable to confirm the extent of Rep Mace’s financial obligations with respect to the DC Property,” the report says.
The Guardian has contacted Mace’s office for comment.
In a statement to Politico, her office accused the OCC of being a partisan office that “retaliates against women and ignores its own evidentiary standards.” Mace said in a post on X on Monday that he “does not take” the ethics complaint seriously.
An attorney for her, William Sullivan, disputed the claims in a letter to the House ethics panel, calling the OCC report “fundamentally flawed.” Sullivan suggested that the report’s “narrative appears to incorporate unverified claims and materials that may have originated or been influenced by Rep. Mace’s former fiancé,” Patrick Bryant, who co-owned the property with her.
Mace publicly accused Bryant and three other men of sexual misconduct during a House subcommittee hearing last February. Bryant denied those allegations and filed a defamation lawsuit against Mace.
“Representative Mace is confident that the committee will carefully evaluate the origins and credibility of the information at issue and recognize significant deficiencies that undermine” the report, Sullivan wrote.
Mace is not seeking re-election to the House. Instead, she is running for the Republican nomination for governor of South Carolina, which will hold its primary on June 9. The allegations will no doubt add more confusion to her gubernatorial bid after she reportedly berated staff at Charleston International Airport, which she has denied.
