Planned Parenthood's Cecile Richards testifies at congressional hearing
The Republicans insist that the select committee they've created to investigate Planned Parenthood will be not be political. At all. Just like the Benghazi Committee (cough, cough). Amid those protestations, here's
what they're really doing.
But lawmakers and aides on both sides of the aisle are raising eyebrows at the optics of GOP leaders soliciting buy-in from outside groups as they make decisions about which members will sit on the special committee.
The original plan was to convene a subcommittee of the Energy and Commerce Committee to investigate the women’s health organization and abortion provider, which is under fire after secret film footage seemed to implicate Planned Parenthood officials with illegally selling fetal tissues, a charge the group denied. […]
Outside advocates and leaders in the anti-abortion community urged Republican leaders to expand the committee to lawmakers outside Energy and Commerce to include more stalwarts of their movement. GOP leadership agreed and has also listened to outside advice on exactly whom to appoint.
Speaker John A. Boehner will make the appointments, but Tom McClusky, the vice president of government affairs for the March for Life Education and Action Fund, said he has also spoken with representatives from the offices of Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Majority Whip Steve Scalise, who "welcomed" feedback.
Of course. For the record, Penny Nance, the president and CEO of Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee, approves of Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) as the chair and "urged appointments for Republican Reps. Joe Pitts of Texas, Christopher H. Smith of New Jersey, Diane Black of Tennessee, Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, Vicki Hartzler of Missouri and Andy Harris of Maryland." So check the final committee membership when it's finalized, just to see how the CWA's involvement totally did not help politicize the committee.
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