House Republicans said a plan to create a new congressional committee to oversee the coronavirus response was redundant and unnecessary.
They also rejected a plan by House Democrats to draft a new economic relief bill immediately.
The creation of a new congressional committee first requires a vote in the House, which won’t be in session for weeks, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, told reporters Thursday.
“I’m not quite sure if this is political,” McCarthy said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced plans to create the Select Committee on the Coronavirus Response in a Thursday press call with reporters. She appointed Majority Whip and South Carolina Democrat James Clyburn to oversee the panel.
McCarthy panned the idea of creating a select committee, noting the most recent relief package, worth $2.2 trillion, created three oversight groups, including a congressionally appointed panel. The measure added tens of millions of dollars for the groups to conduct oversight.
McCarthy said a select committee would also repeat the oversight authorities of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee as well as various subcommittees that are authorized to perform oversight.
“This seems to be really redundant,” McCarthy said, responding to Pelosi’s select committee announcement.
McCarthy criticized the appointment of Clyburn to run the committee, pointing to Clyburn’s desire to use the coronavirus response to advance the Democratic agenda, which he expressed in a leaked conference call last month.
McCarthy also threw cold water on Pelosi’s efforts to speed ahead with a new economic relief package. Congress passed three spending bills last month to address the coronavirus, including the $2.2 trillion measure signed into law last week.
“I know the speaker is trying to talk about a fourth bill,” McCarthy said. “I don’t think that’s appropriate at this time. We just passed the largest bill in history. We’ve got to make sure this is implemented correctly.”
The House must first approve the creation of a select committee, McCarthy said. The House is not scheduled to be in session until April 20 at the earliest.
“I don’t know when we would get back and vote on this,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy said Pelosi called him Thursday, but he was unable to take the call. He plans to speak to her later Thursday about the select committee.
“You have to vote on it in Congress,” McCarthy said. “I’m not sure when this would ever be up and running. Our focus now should be on implementing the trillions of dollars that we have passed.”
