House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, on Thursday dismissed Democratic charges that the Benghazi select committee is political and would not provide the basis for a fair investigation.

Legislation creating the committee calls for a panel of 12, with the majority Republicans controlling seven seats and Democrats holding five. During his weekly news conference, Boehner said Republicans have gone to great lengths to minimize the potential for partisanship, noting that the ratio of majority party to minority party seats is smaller than the nine-six split on the global warming select committee that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., created in 2007 when she was speaker.