Dem
51
GOP
49
Over the course of the 117th Congress, Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ) were stripped of their committee memberships for having made statements/sent tweets that encouraged violence. Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), desperate for their votes in the speakership election, promised to put the duo back on some committees. And yesterday, he delivered.
Committee assignments are actually doled out by the GOP Steering Committee, and then have to be approved by the entire Republican conference. However, speakers always stack the Steering Committee with loyalists, and the approval of committee assignments by the whole conference is effectively pro forma. So, although the committee assignments were not directly conferred by McCarthy, they came at his behest. And while the assignments haven't been approved yet, they will be.
Both Gosar and Greene have been given seats on the Oversight and Accountability Committee. This committee will take the lead in many investigations of Joe Biden, Joe Biden's classified documents, Hunter Biden, Hunter Biden's laptop, whether or not there were copies of Joe Biden's classified documents on Hunter Biden's laptop, etc. McCarthy and the rest of the conference want members on that committee who have no shame about bloviating and grandstanding, and Gosar and Greene certainly fit the bill.
Gosar will also serve on the Natural Resources Committee, where he was serving previously until getting the boot from the Democratic majority. Greene, meanwhile, will get a seat on... the Homeland Security Committee. This would be the same Marjorie Taylor Greene who, in reference to the events of 1/6, said: "I want to tell you something: If Steve Bannon and I had organized that, we would have won, not to mention, it would have been armed."
McCarthy also told reporters on Tuesday that Rep. "George Santos" (R-NY) would be given committee assignments, but that the exact ones have not been determined yet. Since the apparent standard for these decisions is "What would be most ironic?," might we suggest the House Ethics Committee? (Z)