House Democrats led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi are expected to vote Thursday on creating a new select committee to oversee economic stimulus spending and also to look into the Trump administration’s initial preparedness to handle the coronavirus crisis, according to several news reports.
The committee, which would be chaired by Majority Whip Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, will have subpoena power and broad investigative authority over the spending of federal coronavirus relief funds, CNN reported, citing a resolution to establish the committee that was released by House Democrats on Wednesday.
What’s the issue?
Details of the resolution revealed the panel will mount a “full and complete investigation” to probe the “efficiency, effectiveness, equity and transparency” of taxpayer funds.
But it’s the oversight of the government’s initial response to the pandemic that is bristling Republicans, along with the fact that the $2.2 trillion stimulus package passed last month already established several layers of oversight.
“We have eight different entities looking at this,” said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. “Why the ninth? Do we need a 10th?”
Pelosi on Thursday defended the Democratic delay on passing the latest emergency coronavirus relief funds.
“What we have on the floor today is the result of — not the time we delayed the legislation — but the time that the Republicans refused to accept the facts that we needed $100 billion for our hospitals and our testing,” Pelosi, a California Democrat, said on the House floor. “I think it’s really important for people to understand what this fight is about.”
Previously
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump fired Glenn Fine, the Defense Department’s inspector general who was appointed to oversee spending from the economic stimulus. Fine immediately became ineligible to serve on the oversight board because the law only allows current inspectors general to serve on the audit panel.
As the law allows, Trump appointed Sean O’Donnell, the inspector general at the Environmental Protection Agency, to serve as Fine’s replacement in addition to his other responsibilities.
“The president is sending in some of his loyalists. This is really a problem,” Pelosi said at the time.
What Democrats want
Democrats want to investigate the “preparedness for and response to the coronavirus crisis,” including the “planning for and implementation of testing, containment and mitigation,” distribution of medical supplies, protective equipment and development of vaccines, according to CNN.
The resolution states the committee can delve into “executive branch policies, deliberations, decisions, activities, internal and external communications related to the coronavirus crisis.”
Republicans not on board
Republicans swiftly characterized the committee as a political tool to be used against Trump.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-California, raised his own concerns about the panel during a Wednesday phone call with Pelosi, saying he does not think Republicans would support it.
“The speaker tried to commit to me that this would be a bipartisan committee. I told her I don’t view it that way. I view it more as a political one,” McCarthy said during a news conference.
“I don’t see a lot of members voting for it on our side. And I told her I would wait before I would appoint anybody to it, to see who she appoints to this, (and if) she is serious about making this a committee that works.”
Given the Democratic majority in the House, however, McCarthy said he would wait for Democrats to make appointments to the panel before he decided which Republicans would be seated, according to a report by Politico.
What’s next
The vote was expected some time after House members voted on replenishing nearly $500 billion in aid to small businesses that had been stalled for weeks.
The vote to establish the new committee replaced a planned vote on a new rule to allow members to vote remotely during the pandemic, which Pelosi said needed to be studied further.
The committee will be an arm of the Oversight Committee and will comprise seven Democrats and five Republicans, CNN reported.
The CARES Act has several oversight provisions, including inspectors general from nine government agencies who serve as an oversight body and an independent congressional panel appointed by House and Senate leaders. The law also gave $20 million to the nonpartisan congressional watchdog, the Government Accountability Office.
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