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As part of the many deals he made to secure the votes of several House Freedom Caucus members in his quest to become speaker, California Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy agreed to the formation of a subcommittee tasked with looking into alleged politicization and abuses of power by the FBI, according to a top ally of former President Donald Trump.
During a Friday evening appearance on “Hannity” just a few hours before McCarthy won the job after a tense night of back-and-forth with GOP members, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said that the then-Speaker candidate “committed to forming a subcommittee to the House Judiciary Committee and vowed to provide it with at least as many resources as the previous House devoted to the committee investigating the Capitol incursion of Jan. 6, 2021, under former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi,” the Western Journal reported.
“Roy said the subcommittee would be similar to the well-known Church Committee, set up by Democratic Sen. Frank Church in 1975 to investigate the abuses of U.S. intelligence agencies,” the outlet noted further.
He noted that the new subcommittee will investigate the alleged “the weaponization of government, the FBI, the intel agencies, DHS, all of them.”
“We got more resources, more specificity, more power to go after this recalcitrant Biden administration,” said Roy.
In addition to providing oversight of those agencies, Roy said that Congress must also exercise spending restraint in order to hold them accountable.
“We can do all the hearings we want in the world, but if we can’t limit the spending that funds the bureaucrats, and stop buying the FBI a $400 million new headquarters that [Senate Minority Leader] Mitch McConnell just funded, then we can’t win the fight. You cannot win the fight for freedom if you don’t stop the bureaucrats. That’s what this entire fight this week was about,” Roy told Fox News host Sean Hannity.
He added that corruption won’t end with just hearings.
“You stop it by not giving them the money to continue to do it. You gotta hold them accountable, limit their funds, and hold them accountable through the power of the purse,” he said.
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Reports noted that Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the new head of the House Judiciary Committee, will also be leading the new subcommittee.
“The text of the resolution establishing the subcommittee would give the panel essentially open-ended jurisdiction to scrutinize any issue related to civil liberties or to examine how any agency of the federal government has collected, analyzed and used information about Americans — including ‘ongoing criminal investigations,'” The New York Times reported, describing the role of the new panel.
Shortly after his victory after the 15th ballot, McCarthy said, “We will hold the swamp accountable, from the withdrawal of Afghanistan, to the origins of COVID and to the weaponization of the FBI. Let me be very clear: We will use the power of the purse and the power of the subpoena to get the job done.”
“Speaking of committees, we will hold the swamp accountable, from the withdrawal of Afghanistan, to the origins of Covid and to the weaponization of the FBI. Let me be very clear. We will use the power of the purse and the power of the subpoena to get the job done,” he added.
McCarthy: "Speaking of committees, we will hold the swamp accountable, from the withdrawal of Afghanistan, to the origins of Covid and to the weaponization of the FBI. Let me be very clear. We will use the power of the purse and the power of the subpoena to get the job done." pic.twitter.com/QGJs0p1bMp
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) January 7, 2023
The Times went on to note that, despite Congress’ oversight role, House Majority Republicans are likely to have a difficult time getting the Biden administration to cooperate, even when it comes to the issuance of subpoenas, considering they would have to be enforced by a Democratic attorney general against his own FBI.
A former GOP rival of newly elected McCarthy is making a prediction as to how successful he believes the California Republican will become after agreeing to several rule changes demanded by conservative Freedom Caucus members in exchange for their support. Rep. Daniel Webster (R-Fla.), who ran against McCarthy for the GOP leadership position in 2015, believes the new speaker “will do great.”
“Kevin will do great with these rules changes,” Webster told Newsmax’s John Gizzi. “He’s agreed to all the things I ran on in the speaker’s race in ’15.”
