Jeffries submits Schiff, Swalwell for Intel panel, forcing fight with McCarthy

How a House speaker could kick lawmakers off committees — and why it matters

By Louis Jacobson PolitiFact Senior Correspondent

Published Dec. 23, 2022

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How could McCarthy remove Democrats from committee seats?

Democrats do have the option not to offer Schiff, Swalwell and Omar for the minority-party slots in those committees. But there’s little indication the Democrats plan to do that. So, the ball would be in the new speaker’s court. Of the three Democrats, the two who serve on the Intelligence Committee, Schiff and Swalwell, are on the thinnest ice for keeping their assignments. That’s because the Intelligence Committee is a select committee rather than a standing committee — and the speaker has much more robust powers to choose the membership of select committees. Wolfensberger describes the speaker’s right to block Intelligence Committee members as “unchallengeable.”

By contrast, removing Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee, which is a standing committee, would require additional steps. The House votes that removed Greene and Gosar show it’s still possible. One option would be for McCarthy, if he is the speaker, to block a resolution that approves all committee memberships at the start of a new Congress. Each party submits its own resolution for its own members, and usually, these resolutions are pro forma and approved by voice vote, which is a process reserved for uncontroversial topics, Wolfensberger said.

But if Democrats nominate members McCarthy disapproves of, such as Omar, he could tell Democrats he’ll block their resolution until they remove the members from those committee assignments. Because Republicans will have the majority, they would have a good chance of winning this vote, seating Republican members but not Democrats.

Under an old House precedent that emerged under different circumstances, the House could organize its committees and proceed with business as long as committees had a majority quorum, even without any minority members. The risk for the Republicans in this scenario is potentially creating a spectacle. They could appear to be freezing out the Democrats from participating in any committees, which could make them look petty to the public when they want to make a good impression with their new majority.

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https://www.tampabay.com/news/nation-world/2022/12/23/mccarthy-unseat-committee-schiff-swalwell-omar-house/