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

[BumRushDaShow]

20. It's complicated based on the type of Committee but this seems to explain it better

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

By Louis Jacobson PolitiFact Senior Correspondent

Published Dec. 23, 2022

(snip)

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.

(snip)

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

I.e., apparently if the Committee is a "Select Committee", then yes it can pretty much be unilarteral. But if it is one of the "Standing Committees", then that normally goes to creation of a Resolution voted on by the whole House (where within a party's Caucus, they can have internal votes to seat or not to seat their own members on Committees). These types of things are usually codified via Rules.

Here is a list of all the House Committees for the 118th Congress - https://www.house.gov/committees

There apparently are only 2 "Select Committees" this session -

Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party

There were 4 additional "Select Committees" for the 117th Congress that were all disbanded - https://www.house.gov/committees/committees-no-longer-standing

Select Committee on the Climate Crisis

Select Committee on Economic Disparity and Fairness in Growth

Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress

Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol