Fewer than two-thirds of the chamber supported the resolution.
The 35-year-old New York lawmaker has pleaded not guilty to charges accusing him of crimes including laundering funds to pay for his personal expenses, illegally receiving unemployment benefits and charging donors' credit cards without their consent.
The former treasurer for Santos' campaign pleaded guilty on Oct. 5 to a conspiracy charge for inflating fundraising numbers.
"I must warn my colleagues that voting for expulsion at this point would circumvent the judicial system's right to due process that I'm entitled to and desanctify the long-held premise that one is presumed innocent until proven guilty," Santos said ahead of the vote.
Expulsion of a lawmaker requires a vote by two-thirds of the chamber. Only five people have been expelled from the House in the country's history, three for fighting against the U.S. government in the Civil War.
This is why I keep telling people we can't pass an Amendment to do things like change gun control.
It starts with a 2/3rds majority in the House, 290 votes.
We couldn't get 290 votes to agree on Santos' obvious crimimal behavior, we'll NEVER get it on something like the 2nd Amendment, or Supreme Court term limits, or anything else remotely useful.
And even with simple majority there's still stupid argument that 'if we pass something without bipartisan support, the other party will just revert it when they're in power'. No shit. That's how democracy in every civilized country works. Only in US is this preventing the ruling party from doing any serious reforms. And obviously they know. It's just that both parties are equally corrupt.
Cowardly criminals are more likely to commit a violent crime if they have a gun to hide behind. Doubt most of them would even consider doing some of the stuff they do if they only had access to knives and bats.