Republicans outline three committee investigations they will focus on

Republicans have outlined three investigative subcommittees they intend to create within the new Congress once a president is elected and a new rules package is approved.

Proposed rules of procedure for the 118th Congress have been released, and the 55-page document pledges to create committees to probe the Biden administration, the COVID-19 pandemic and U.S. relations with China.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has used the rules package in part as a way to make concessions to members of his own party who oppose his election as president.

The rules will not pass the House until a president is elected on Tuesday and there are doubts whether McCarthy will have the votes needed to win in the first round.

With the House facing perhaps the most contentious presidential election in a century, the three investigative subcommittees contained in the new rules could help appease McCarthy’s opponents.

The first subcommittee will deal with “strategic competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party,” according to the proposed package.

The second subcommittee, which will likely focus on the Biden administration, will examine “the militarization of the federal government” and will be “a select investigative subcommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary.”

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene specifically linked that subcommittee to President Joe Biden in a tweet on Sunday, saying of the administration’s investigations “We’re so serious, it’s not just a goal, it’s a rule.” .

“Create the select subcommittee on the militarization of the federal government to investigate the full extent of the Biden administration’s assault on the constitutional rights of American citizens,” she added, citing the rules package. .

Newsweek asked the White House for comment.

House Republicans also intend to create a select subcommittee of the House Oversight Committee to focus on the COVID-19 pandemic, and the rules document contains more details about that subcommittee.

The COVID-19 committee will be responsible for investigating the origins of the pandemic, the use of taxpayers’ money to deal with the pandemic, and the development of vaccines, among others.

The subcommittee is tasked “to conduct a full and complete investigation and study and, no later than January 2, 2025, to deliver a final report to the House” with its findings.

Some Republicans have previously called for an investigation into the origins of COVID-19 and the US government’s response to the pandemic.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, recently retired director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), is a likely target of the investigation and could be called as a witness.

However, the committees cannot begin work until a chair is elected and it is unclear how quickly that may happen on Tuesday. McCarthy’s allies were reportedly expecting multiple ballots, a situation that hadn’t happened since 1923.