House lawmakers voted along party lines Thursday to create a new oversight panel to investigate the use of more than $2 trillion in coronavirus aid.
The 12-member panel comprised seven Democrats and five Republicans – the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis within the House Oversight and Reform Committee – will be tasked to review the “efficiency, effectiveness, equity and transparency” of how relief funds are doled out and to examine the Trump administration’s overall response to the public health crisis.
House Majority Whip James Clyburn, (D-S.C.), will lead the subcommittee, which will also have subpoena power and the ability to conduct depositions. Lawmakers passed a resolution to establish the new oversight body on a 212-182 party-line vote. No Republican backed the move.
The committee will ensure the government’s response to the pandemic is “based on the best possible science and guided by health experts,” rather than being exploited by “profiteers and price gougers,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.
“The committee will root out waste, fraud and abuse,” Pelosi said Thursday.
House Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), said the new panel is needed since President Trump has already worked to undercut oversight of economic rescue law.
“When it comes to $2 trillion, I don’t think there can be enough oversight,” McGovern said. “I think our constituents expect us to make sure that that money is being spent, where it should be spent, where Congress intended it.”
But the House Rules Committee’s top Republican Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole, insisted the body would “simply turn into yet another partisan witch hunt” aimed at President Trump.
Another Republican, Rep. Jody Hice of Georgia, said Democrats created the panel out of “hate” toward the president.
With Post wires
