Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) speaks during an on-camera interview near the House Chambers during a series of votes in the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 9, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
A new House panel investigating the “weaponization of the federal government” will hold its first hearing Thursday, as part of the Republican majority‘s push to ramp up scrutiny of the Biden administration.
Republicans promised to investigate the Biden family and White House if they won control of Congress in last year’s midterm elections. With a Democratic president ready to veto any potential GOP legislation, amping up oversight became a key part of the party’s campaign platform.
The new subcommittee hearing is the latest effort to make good on that promise. Hardline conservatives had pushed for the panel’s formation in negotiations with now-Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
The weaponization subcommittee is expected to probe claims that the Department of Justice, FBI and other federal agencies are biased against conservatives. Republicans have voiced a long list of concerns, alleging the department mishandled allegations against former President Donald Trump, abused its surveillance powers and retaliated against parents who spoke out at school board meetings.
“We have a government that now I believe is targeting the very people it is supposed to serve,” subcommittee chair Rep. Jim Jordan said Tuesday. “We plan on, as a Republican majority, holding them accountable.”
Thursday’s hearing will address “the politicization of the FBI and DOJ and attacks on American civil liberties,” the panel announced this week. The announcement was sparse on details, but witnesses are expected to include current Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.), former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, and former FBI agents who have criticized the agency.
Already this session, the Republican-controlled House Judiciary and Oversight committees have held hearings on Biden’s border policies, federal COVID relief spending and Twitter’s handling of allegations surrounding Hunter Biden’s laptop. GOP lawmakers, led by Jordan and Oversight Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-KY) also intend to investigate the military withdrawal from Afghanistan, and whether Biden engaged in what they have called “influence peddling” while serving as vice president.
Democrats say these investigations are more about electoral politics than accountability.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, who serves as ranking member of the House Oversight Committee and will be testifying at Thursday’s hearing, told NPR last month that “oversight is not about scandal mongering and sticking it to the other guys.”
The ranking Democrat on the new subcommittee, Del. Stacey Plaskett, who represents the U.S. Virgin Islands, said the inaugural hearing will “set the tone” for the next two years.
But what she’s seen from the Republican conference so far, she said, “doesn’t give me a great sense of confidence as to the comity or the collegiality.”
Hours before the meeting was set to begin, Ian Sams, Special Assistant to the President, released a memo attacking the hearing’s objectives, citing recent polls.
One of those surveys suggests a larger perception problem for the subcommittee: 56 percent of Americans said the panel is “just an attempt to score political points” in a Washington Post-ABC News poll.