These Republicans were selected to chair House committees after Speaker battle delay
After a historic and prolonged battle over the Speakership, House Republicans on Monday moved to wrap up some unfinished organizing business that was put on hold due to opposition to Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) — including picking who will lead key panels.
The House GOP Steering Committee, a panel of around 30 lawmakers consisting of leadership and elected regional representatives that makes selections for most chairmanships and committee assignments, made its choices for chairs of panels that were uncontested in December.
But it put its selections for four key contested chairmanships on hold as a group of hard-line conservatives expressed opposition to McCarthy that threatened to tank his Speaker bid.
House Republicans typically choose their ranking members or committee chairs weeks before the new Congress to allow time for the incoming leaders to hire staff and get organized.
McCarthy gets outsize influence over the Steering panel with four votes, while Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) gets two and all other members get one.
Over the weekend, McCarthy also selected Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), who voted against McCarthy on most of the 15 Speaker ballots last week, to fill the “Speaker Designee” slot on the Steering Committee.
Here’s who the Steering Committee picked for contested chairmanships:
Homeland Security: Rep. Mark Green (Tenn.)
Green beat out Rep. Dan Crenshaw (Texas) to fill a vacancy created by former Rep. John Katko (N.Y.) retiring from Congress.
Green told reporters that he plans to have two full-time committee staffers working from the U.S.-Mexico border.
The staffers will ”be sitting there with [Customs and Border Protection],” Green said, “sending us real time updates on what CBP needs and the issues – whether it’s a big drug bust at the border, we’ll send a bunch of members down for, you know, for that and those kinds of things.”
The Homeland Security panel will have a major role in oversight and policy relating to the migration surge at the border, and plans to bring Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in to testify.
Green said that his focus will be not only on the physical border, but on cybersecurity and inter-agency responsibilities in the cyber space.
Green is a member of the House Freedom Caucus, and his selection to lead the panel is a win for the hard-line conservative group that was pressing for more conservative representation in committee chairmanships and on key panels.
Green praised his competitor Crenshaw as one of his “best friends in Congress,” and said beating him for the gavel was “not easy.”
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Source: TEST FEED1
