The House voted on Tuesday to establish select committees addressing China’s growing influence as well as the “weaponization” of the Justice Department.
The move comes as Republicans have vowed to ramp up investigations after taking control of the lower chamber. While the resolution establishing the panel on China passed easily in a 365-65 vote, the committee on alleged abuses by federal law enforcement passed along party lines.
The Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government will fall under the jurisdiction of the House Judiciary Committee and is geared toward “the expansive role of Article II authority vested in the Executive Branch to collect information on or otherwise investigate citizens of the United States, including ongoing criminal investigations,” according to the language in the House Rules package passed on Monday evening.
The panel will be given subpoena power, with Republicans applauding its creation as a necessary step in allowing them to investigate the law enforcement agencies that fell under GOP scrutiny during the Trump years.
“This select subcommittee is modeled on the famous Church Committee, which investigated the American intelligence community in the 1970s and uncovered and exposed a wide variety of abuses including many directives against American citizens. Similar to the situation that confronted America in the 1970s, in recent years, we have witnessed abuses of the civil liberties of American citizens committed by the executive branch,” House Rules Committee Chairman Tom Cole (R-OK) said on the floor.
Democrats have slammed the panel as a partisan exercise aimed at attacking the Biden administration and downplaying the severity of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
“This is all about deep state nonsense. Republicans claim without merit that this subcommittee will investigate the so-called weaponization of the federal government,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said.
“But what it’s really intended to do is to undermine the legitimate investigation of President Trump’s incitement of a violent attack on this building, on this Capitol, on this citadel of democracy, an investigation that implicates some of the very members of the body who want to sit on that committee,” he continued. “Make no mistake, this investigation, this ‘investigate the investigators’ committee, will do deep damage to our national security and only breed distrust with our national security professionals who will be reluctant to share with Congress the information policymakers need.”
The Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party is slated to probe an array of topics ranging from security threats to the U.S. and its allies to China’s role in the coronavirus pandemic.
While Republicans were in the minority, they created a China Task Force that looked into similar issues, but Democrats opted not to participate during the last Congress.
The committee is slated to led by Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), who said he is looking forward to working in a bipartisan capacity to address issues with China.
“I’ll be honest, I have reservations here. Many of us have been concerned about this turning into a committee that focuses on pushing Republican conspiracy theories and partisan talking points,” he said on the floor.
“We certainly don’t want it to turn into a place that perpetuates anti-Asian hate,” he continued. “We cannot and we will not tolerate that. But instead, I would hope that this new committee would work in a similar fashion as the [Congressional-Executive Commission on China], producing bipartisan work with a fact-based tone and approach that could be received by the international community, seriously and substantively.”
