Updated Feb 24, 2023 - Politics & Policy

House to launch bipartisan task force on committee removals

Andrew Solender

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy holds a gavel while speaking to Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries at the House rostrum. Both are wearing blue suits. — House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) have agreed to create a bipartisan task force to forge a new process for removing lawmakers from their committees, McCarthy's office confirmed to Axios.

Why it matters: The task force would address a partisan tit-for-tat over committee assignments that has seen five members of the minority party kicked off panels in the last two years.

That's a break from the long-standing precedent of party caucuses determining committee assignments internally.
The news of the task force was first reported by the Washington Post.

The backdrop: The most recent example was a party-line vote earlier this month to kick Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) off the Foreign Affairs Committee.

That was in retaliation for all Democrats — and a handful of Republicans — voting to kick Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) off their committees in 2021.
McCarthy also removed Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) from the House Intelligence Committee last month.

The details: Jeffries' picks for the task force are Reps. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), Veronica Escobar (D-Texas), Nikema Williams (D-Ga.) and Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.), according to a senior leadership aide.

Each lawmaker has or had a role relevant to the task force: McGovern is the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee; Escobar serves on the Ethics Committee and Williams served on the now-disbanded Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress, which Kilmer chaired.

The other side: McCarthy’s picks are Reps. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), Dave Joyce (R-Ohio), Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) and Ken Buck (R-Colo.), according to his office.

Cole chairs the Rules Committee while Joyce serves on the Ethics Committee.
Buck and Mace had both publicly resisted voting to remove Omar until McCarthy agreed to kickstart reform talks, with Mace specifically securing a commitment to be on the task force.

Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional reporting.

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House to launch bipartisan task force on committee removals

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