GOP’s new committee leaders prepare blitz of investigations
Rep. Jim Jordan. Image via AP

Jim Jordan
Who will run each committee?

House Republicans are promising aggressive oversight of the Joe Biden administration once they assume the majority next year, with a particular focus on the business dealings of presidential son Hunter Biden, illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border and the originations of COVID-19.

Republicans won’t have enough votes to advance key legislative priorities if there is no Democratic buy-in, but their oversight of government agencies could put Democrats on the defensive and dampen support for the Biden administration going into the 2024 presidential elections.

Some of the lawmakers expected to lead those investigations once House Republicans select their new committee chairs:

Judiciary’s big role

Rep. Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican, is expected to serve as the next chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Jordan helped form and then lead the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus and voted on Jan. 6, 2021, to object to counting Pennsylvania’s electoral vote. President Donald Trump thought so highly of Jordan that he presented the Congressman with the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The Judiciary Committee handles oversight of the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security and issues such as crime, immigration and protection of civil liberties. It’s typically one of the most partisan committees on Capitol Hill, yet Jordan’s combative style stands out even there. The committee would be the place where any effort would begin to impeach a member of the Biden administration, as some Republicans have been proposing for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Jordan’s inquiries to the administration in recent months make clear the committee will investigate the FBI’s execution of a search warrant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence. He has also advocated for a wide-ranging look at the Biden administration’s immigration policies and the origins of COVID-19.

“All those things need to be investigated just so you have the truth,” Jordan told conservative activists last summer at a conference. “Plus that will frame up the 2024 race when I hope and I think President Trump is going to run again and we need to make sure that he wins.”

Oversight’s long list

Rep. James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, is expected to serve as the next chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee and has made clear that investigating President Biden’s son Hunter will be one of his top priorities. The Republicans say their investigation of Hunter Biden’s business dealings is to “determine whether these activities compromise U.S. national security and President Biden’s ability to lead with impartiality.”

Comer has also been laying the groundwork for investigating the situation on the U.S-Mexico border. He sent a letter to Mayorkas seeking an array of documents and communications pertaining to the administration’s border policy. “We cannot endure another year of the Biden Administration’s failed border policies,” the letter said.

But that’s just a slice the committee’s focus.

“We’re going to investigate between 40 and 50 different things,” Comer said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet The Press.” “We have the capacity. We’ll have 25 members on the committee, and we’re going to have a staff close to 70. So we have the ability to investigate a lot of things.”

The federal government’s spending in response to COVID-19 will also be scrutinized.

“We believe that there have been hundreds of billions, if not trillions of dollars wasted over the past three years, so that spans two administrations, in the name of COVID.

“We want to have hearings on that. We want to try to determine what happened with the fraudulent unemployment insurance funds, the fraudulent PPP loan funds, some of this money that’s being spent for state and local governments in the COVID stimulus money,” Comer said.

Afghanistan in focus

Rep. Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican, is expected to serve as the next chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which will be investigating the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. McCaul reiterated a request in mid-October for various documents and directed the State Department to preserve all records related to the chaotic withdrawal, which included the loss of 13 U.S. service members killed during a suicide bombing attack.

“The way it was done was such a disaster and such a disgrace to our veterans that served in Afghanistan. They deserve answers to the many questions we have,” McCaul said on ABC’s “This Week.” He added: “Why wasn’t there a plan to evacuate? How did it go so wrong?”

Spotlight on energy and taxes

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Washington Republican, is expected to serve as the next chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, which has the broadest jurisdiction of any authorizing committee in Congress, from health care to environmental protection to national energy policy. Republicans on the committee have already spent months investigating the origins of COVID-19 and are expected to continue that work in the next Congress.

Reps. Jason Smith, a Missouri Republican, Adrian Smith, a Nebraska Republican, and Vern Buchanan, a Longboat Key Republican, have expressed interest in serving as the next chairman of the tax-writing House Ways & Means Committee, which has already been seeking documents related to the spending in the nearly $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package that Democrats passed early last year. The committee also has oversight over the IRS, a frequent target of GOP scrutiny and scorn.

Other key spots

Likely leaders of other prominent committees:

— Agriculture Committee: Glenn Thompson, a Pennsylvania Republican.

— Appropriations Committee: Kay Granger, a Texas Republican.

— Armed Services Committee: Mike Rogers, an Alabama Republican.

— Budget Committee: Lloyd Smucker, a Pennsylvania Republican, Buddy Carter, a Georgia Republican, and Jodey Arrington, a Texas Republican, have all expressed interest in the chairmanship.

— Financial Services Committee: Patrick McHenry, a North Carolina Republican.

— Homeland Security Committee: Dan Crenshaw, a Texas Republican, Mark Green, a Tennessee Republican, and Clay Higgins, a Louisiana Republican, have all expressed interest in the chairmanship.

— Intelligence Committee: Michael Turner, an Ohio Republican.

— Natural Resources Committee: Bruce Westerman, an Arkansas Republican.

— Science, Space and Technology Committee: Frank Lucas, an Oklahoma Republican.

— Transportation and Infrastructure Committee: Sam Graves, a Missouri Republican.

— Veterans’ Affairs Committee: Mike Bost, an Illinois Republican.

Associated Press


16 comments

  • Tom

    November 29, 2022 at 7:28 am

    Jordan, Comer and McCaul will hold the executive branch and bureaucracy accountable.
    Mayorkas is vulnerable as are a few more cabinet members.

    • Joe Corsin

      November 29, 2022 at 8:13 am

      Phoney, frivolous, fake, and retaliatory investigations will result in more problems for the GOP. You know better than that!

      • Tom

        November 29, 2022 at 10:04 am

        Multiple impeachment’s coming, you will be included corsin in testimony. I’ve provided your fake aliases and your Soros bot connections.

        Contempt and impeachment’s on the table, gross incompetence not acceptable excuse.

        Schiff, swawell and Omar being expelled!

  • Tom

    November 29, 2022 at 7:28 am

    Jordan, Comer and McCaul will hold the executive branch and bureaucracy accountable.
    Mayorkas is vulnerable as are a few more cabinet members.

    • Joe Corsin

      November 29, 2022 at 8:17 am

      DOJ too busy with Trump debacle. Don’t have enough personnel to do phoney investigations into Hunter Biden. Still tied up with Trump administration crime spree which you support. Accessory to sedition and election crimes.

      • Joe Corsin

        November 29, 2022 at 7:27 pm

        I’ve spent the last couple years locked in my room 24 hours a day everyday refreshing this website waiting for the day that I read the headline “Trump arrested for crimes against America.” I’ve cut all contact with my friends, my family, my job all so I could fight for democracy by arguing with people in the comments of this article. Yet despite all my hard work, Republicans still won Congress and Ron Desanctimonious still won by a landslide. Why doesn’t anyone listen to me? It doesn’t matter though, I know THE WALLS ARE CLOSING IN on Trump and his cronies. Even after nothing stemmed from Russiagate or the two impeachments surely this time things will be different. Surely…………….

        Oh my gosh. My life sucks! Won’t somebody just shoot me and put me out of my misery already!??

  • Bill

    November 29, 2022 at 7:39 am

    Wow – that’s quite the agenda. I guess petty vindictiveness is more important that actually doing the work they were elected to do. Politicians are so pathetic these days. I wish we had better choices.

    • Tom

      November 29, 2022 at 7:49 am

      Yes idiot Bill, no vindictiveness from Pelosi the last 4 years. What a moron!

  • Bill

    November 29, 2022 at 9:50 am

    If you want to see a moron, look in the mirror you idiot. I said politicians which is non party specific – you should learn some basic comprehension skills before running your yapper.

    • Tom

      November 29, 2022 at 10:00 am

      You can kiss my ass!
      You are the consummate apologist and hater! The Dums destroyed thus country, fake investigations and impeachment’s.

      Don’t act innocent. You support Pelosi! F off!

    • Bill

      November 29, 2022 at 7:32 pm

      Tom, I’m sorry for insulting you! Please forgive me!! I DIDN’T MEAN IT!! It’s just that I’ve been having such a hard time at work lately and I’m so stressed out and and IM SORRY OK???? I shouldn’t have taken it out you Tom. I LOVE YOU! I ALWAYS WILL! Please take me back. I miss you 😢

      • Tom

        November 29, 2022 at 7:36 pm

        I forgive you baby❤️ I’m sorry too!
        I should’ve never talked to you like that. I just get really heated about these things but that is no excuse for the way I treated you. LOVE should always come before politics and I shamefully forgot that today. Let’s put this behind us and move back in together. I miss your touch!

        • Bill

          November 29, 2022 at 7:38 pm

          Of course baby😍 Nothing can keep us apart!! I’ll always love you Tom!

  • Tom

    November 29, 2022 at 8:27 pm

    Corsin, you are retarded.
    Only I speak for FP legend Tom.
    So low end.

  • Tom

    November 29, 2022 at 8:27 pm

    Corsin, you are retarded.
    Only I speak for FP legend Tom.
    So low end.

  • Albert R. Calleros

    December 6, 2022 at 11:14 am

    The impending takeover of the (U. S.) House of Representatives by today’s batch of radicalized Republicans has validated my argument that my irreparably shattered faith in the fragile governmental institutions of the United States will never be rectified during my lifetime.

Comments are closed.


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