Republican lawmakers have outlined three investigative subcommittees that they intend to look into in the new GOP-controlled Congress.
The 118th Congress’s proposed House rules, a 55-page document, commit to creating committees to look into the Biden administration, the COVID-19 epidemic, and the U.S. relationship with China.
Newly elected House Speaker Kevin McCarthy partially used the rules package during his time as House Minority Leader as a means of appeasing members of his own party who were opposed to his election as speaker.
According to the proposed package, the first subcommittee will deal with “the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party,” while the second subcommittee will investigate “the Weaponization of the Federal Government” and will be “a select investigative [subcommittee] of the Committee on the Judiciary.”
GOP Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted earlier this year that the second subcommittee will likely focus on the Biden administration.
“Establish the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government to investigate the full extent of the Biden Administration’s assault on the constitutional rights of American citizens,” Greene said.
House Republicans also intend to establish a select subcommittee of the House Oversight Committee to focus on the COVID-19 pandemic. The subcommittee is directed at investigating the origins of the pandemic, the use of taxpayer money to deal with the pandemic, and the development of vaccines, among other matters.
This comes as McCarthy begins his first few days as the new Republican leader of the House by attempting to remove Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff, Eric Swalwell, and Ilhan Omar of their assignments as payback for the party ousting Republican Reps. Paul Gosar and Greene from their panels during the last Congress.
“Swalwell can’t get a security clearance in the private sector. I’m not going to give him a government security clearance. Schiff has lied to the American public,” McCarthy told The Associated Press.
Schiff and Swalwell would be removed from the House Intelligence Committee, while Minnesota’s Omar would be taken out of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
McCarthy previously vowed to remove the trio of Democrats if Republicans were to take control of the House in the 2022 midterm elections.
