House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) have agreed to create a bipartisan task force aimed at revising the process for removing lawmakers from their committee assignments, three sources familiar with the matter confirmed to the Washington Examiner.
The move comes in the wake of House Republicans overwhelmingly voting to remove progressive Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) from her position on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, citing her previous inflammatory comments about Israel that were criticized by members on both sides of the aisle as antisemitic.
While all but one Republican voted in favor of the resolution, the move to establish the task force comes in the wake of GOP members nonetheless having misgivings about the resolution and raising concerns about a lack of due process.
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McCarthy tapped Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) to lead the task force, reported by the Washington Post, with Rep. Dave Joyce (R-OH), the chairman of the centrist Republican Governance Group who voted present on the resolution; House Rules Committee Chairman Tom Cole (R-OK); and Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO).
Jeffries selected House Rules Committee ranking member Jim McGovern (D-MA) and Reps. Veronica Escobar (D-TX), Nikema Williams (D-GA), and Derek Kilmer (WA) to sit on the task force. Both Joyce and Escobar are members of the House Ethics Committee, the panel on which the Omar resolution directs members being removed from their positions to make their appeal.
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McCarthy removed Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Eric Swalwell (D-CA) from the House Intelligence Committee last month, in addition to Republicans pulling Omar from her position on Foreign Affairs. McCarthy argued Schiff’s conduct during the Trump-Russia investigation and Swalwell’s ties to an alleged Chinese spy disqualified them from serving on the Intelligence panel.
Democrats blasted the move as an act of “political vengeance” in response to Democrats and a handful of GOP lawmakers voting to remove conservative Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ) from their committees after a string of controversies during the last Congress.
One senior GOP aide told the Washington Examiner the goal of the task force is to find “a way to not have this devolve into a every time it flips, anybody the majority doesn’t like comes off their committees.”
