The Escalating War Over House Committee Seats

Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) & Adam Schiff (D-CA)

I had every intention today of writing an article about the strange, likely losing balancing act that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was going to have to undertake in regard to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), a very liberal (and admittedly controversial) member of the House of Representatives who has served on the House Foreign Affairs committee.  Throughout 2022, one of the most consistent promises that McCarthy had made was to remove Omar, along with Reps. Adam Schiff & Eric Swalwell, from their powerful House committees.  While McCarthy had unilateral power to remove both Schiff & Swalwell from the Intelligence committee, the rules of the Foreign Affairs committee were different, and in order to deny Omar her seat, McCarthy had to put this up for a vote in front of the entire House.  It was not clear even yesterday where the vote would land-while the vast majority of Democrats stood with Omar, not all had publicly supported her, and only two Republicans (Reps. Nancy Mace & Victoria Spartz) had said they would not support the removal.  McCarthy handing in the towel, though, indicated that behind-the-scenes Republicans didn't want to have to take this vote, and it was likely that moderates (and Democrats) would band together to stop him, even if they had complicated relationships with Omar.

This was the right decision, but it also begs a question about removal from congressional committees.  Last Congress, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took the largely unprecedented (usually in the past when people were removed from committees, it was in relation to an ethical or legal scandal) of removing Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene & Paul Gosar from their House committees.  Pelosi clearly didn't do this lightly, and she resisted entreaties to do this with a third Republican despite calls from her caucus to do so (Lauren Boebert of Colorado).  Greene was removed due to her embrace of political conspiracy theories regarding school shootings (she believes that prominent school shootings, like those in Parkland, were staged), and most prominently, Pelosi talked about posts that Greene had made showing herself holding a gun alongside three of her House colleagues (Reps. Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, & Rashida Tlaib).  Gosar was removed from his committees for posting a violent video showing himself attacking President Biden & Rep. Ocasio-Cortez.

It should be noted that Omar, Swalwell, & Schiff have not done anything so heinous as to promote violent imagery against their colleagues (or anyone).  Omar has been criticized for statements she has made regarding Israel (which even other Democrats have criticized her for), but it's worth noting that Greene & Gosar were removed, at least per Pelosi, due to promoting violence, not because of their political beliefs.  Swalwell has become something of a false flag story for Republicans, including McCarthy, attacking him for his association with Christine Fang, a Chinese spy who attended fundraising events with Swalwell in 2014, but according to reports from law enforcement agencies, Swalwell didn't leak any classified information & was cleared of any wrongdoing.  Schiff was bumped from the Intelligence Committee at least on its surface due to his association with the Steele Dossier, though it was likely more so because he was one of the loudest & most persistent critics of the Trump administration.

I don't agree with McCarthy's removals, and I did agree with Pelosi's.  Part of that you could blame on politics, but I'll also state that I agree with Pelosi that Boebert deserved her House committee seats even if I find the Colorado Republican's politics personally repugnant.  House committee seats should largely go to the party that won them, and, barring extraordinary circumstances, they should get to pick what to do with them.  But I think the question here is, what would have happened if Pelosi had won another term.  Gosar & Greene were reelected to their seats, and likely will hold these seats for the foreseeable future; do we deny these members of Congress, who were duly elected by their constituents despite knowing what they were in for, a voice in committees forever?  Unlike someone like George Santos, there is no current criminal investigations into Gosar or Greene...I'm not super comfortable with the idea of never putting certain constituencies' representatives on committees forever.  This isn't an easy answer-I don't think that Greene or Gosar have any business being in Congress, but the people of their districts keep sending them, so we can't just continually expel them.  Personally, short of new allegations, and particularly for committees that do not deal with national security or ethics/oversight, I think Democrats probably need to seat them in 2025 if we get back the majority...though it'll be much harder to maintain such a stance after McCarthy chose petty revenge rather than acknowledging the unique circumstances of Greene & Gosar last Congress.