Act Daily News
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Republican Rep. Victoria Spartz of Indiana introduced on Tuesday that she opposes House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s push to take away three Democrats – Reps. Adam Schiff, Eric Swalwell and Ilhan Omar – from committees.
The new House GOP majority is gearing up for a showdown with Democrats over the problem, however pushback from inside the House GOP has the potential to complicate an effort to oust Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, specifically. Spartz is the second Republican to counsel she’d vote towards such a transfer. Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina signaled to Act Daily News earlier this month she’d be unlikely to again a measure to oust Omar if it got here to the ground.
McCarthy has cited a “new standard” from Democrats for why he would strip them of their committee assignments after the Democrat-led House in 2021 eliminated GOP Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona from their committees for inflammatory rhetoric and posts.
In her assertion, Spartz referenced the earlier transfer by House Democrats, saying that “two wrongs do not make a right.”
“Speaker Pelosi took unprecedented actions last Congress to remove Reps. Greene and Gosar from their committees without proper due process. Speaker McCarthy is taking unprecedented actions this Congress to deny some committee assignments to the Minority without proper due process again,” Spartz continued.
“As I spoke against it on the House floor two years ago, I will not support this charade again,” the congresswoman stated.
Democratic leaders have formally renominated Schiff and Swalwell to the House Intelligence Committee. And Omar has formally requested to have a seat on the Foreign Affairs Committee.
McCarthy has the facility to unilaterally block Schiff and Swalwell from serving on the House Intelligence Committee as a result of it’s a choose committee. In a letter to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries Tuesday night time, McCarthy formally denied the California Democrats seats on the panel.
Ousting Omar, nevertheless, from the House Foreign Affairs Committee would require a vote of the complete House of Representatives. Democrats would oppose and it could solely take a handful of GOP members to dam McCarthy from shifting ahead on condition that Republicans management solely a razor-thin majority within the House.
Omar informed reporters that Pelosi had been “very clear” on why Greene and Gosar had been eliminated.
“It was because they threatened the lives of their colleagues,” she informed reporters. “They posed danger to folks that they would serve on committees with, to the actual institution they were sworn to protect. Unless McCarthy can say how myself, Adam Schiff, and Eric Swalwell are a danger to the institution and our colleagues, then he’s not following the example that was set by Speaker Pelosi.”
Spartz voted “present” throughout a number of rounds of votes as McCarthy was making an attempt to lock up the help to win the speakership at the beginning of the brand new Congress. Ultimately, nevertheless, the congresswoman voted for McCarthy within the closing spherical during which he secured the gavel.
This story has been up to date with further particulars.