The House and Senate resume work this week after their Martin Luther King Jr. break, and both are getting down to the work of organizing committees. The Senate hasn’t been convened since Jan. 3; it recessed immediately after swearing in the new and reelected crowd. The House—well, you know what happened there to delay this work. The Senate’s organizing should go relatively smoothly. The House not so much.
While the ratio of Democrat to Republican on the committees will be basically the same as the previous Congress, just with the majorities flipped, the composition of a few committees will make for a fight. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries kicked it off over the weekend, informing Barely Speaker Kevin McCarthy that he was formally nominating Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell, both of California, to continue their tenure on the Select Committee on Intelligence.
McCarthy has been vowing for months to keep those two off of the committee, purely in retaliation for their work on Trump investigations and impeachment. It’s also retribution for last Congress, when GOP Reps. Marjorie Taylor Green and Paul Gosar were stripped of committee assignments because of their violent tendencies and threats to the safety of other members.
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McCarthy has very thin justifications for blackballing the two Democrats; the debunked accusations that Schiff lied about the probes into Trump’s ties to Russia, and that Swalwell is involved with a suspected Chinese spy who helped fundraise for him in 2014. Swalwell cut ties with the Chinese national when the FBI informed him of their concerns and is under no cloud of suspicion. Their exclusion from the panel is retaliation and vengeance, pure and simple.
“This action was taken by both Democrats and Republicans given the seriousness of the conduct involved, particularly in the aftermath of a violent insurrection and attack on the Capitol,” Jeffries wrote in his letter to McCarthy. “It does not serve as precedent or justification for the removal of Representatives Schiff and Swalwell, given that they have never exhibited violent thoughts or behavior.”
He also pointed out that McCarthy has given “serial fraudster” Rep. George Santos two committee assignments, and has been “welcomed into your conference.” Santos is under multiple investigations for, well, everything. “The apparent double standard [with Santos] risks undermining the spirit of bipartisan cooperation that is so desperately needed in Congress,” Jeffries wrote.
McCarthy can unilaterally decide to keep Schiff and Swalwell off the intelligence committee because it’s not a standing committee, one of the permanent committees with jurisdiction determined in the House rules. He can’t do the same with the other Democratic member he intends to strip of a committee assignment, like Rep. Ilhan Omar. He’s vowed to deny her the seat she’s held on the Foreign Affairs Committee. The Democratic Steering and Policy Committee will meet this week to determine committee assignments and is expected to keep Omar on the committee.
McCarthy is going to have to go to a floor vote this week to deny her that seat, the same process that stripped Greene’s and Gosar’s seats—in bipartisan votes. That’s going to be a test of his teeny majority. One Republican, Rep. Nancy Mace, has suggested she won’t vote with him because she voted against kicking Greene and Gosar off of committees last Congress. “I’m going to treat everybody equally,” she said. “I want to be consistent on it.” That’s one likely lost vote. It’s possible that Florida Man Rep. Greg Steube, who seriously injured himself last week falling off a 25-foot ladder while wielding a chainsaw (he was cutting tree limbs, clearly a job for the professionals), won’t be back at work this week.
Over on the Senate side of things, the committees can start organizing with the swearing in of Sen.-designee Pete Ricketts. He’s filling the seat vacated by Ben Sasse, who went off to be a Florida man in a job as president at the University of Florida. The Senate will also vote on the nomination of Brendan Owens to be assistant secretary of Defense for energy, installations, and environment. The committee assignments on the Senate shouldn’t provide any drama now that Democrats have a clear majority.
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