I know I shouldn’t be getting my hopes up, but it is difficult not to be at least a little optimistic about the new round of Republican lawmakers who will likely be taking over the House after the upcoming congressional elections. If you’re like me, you have seen, time and time again, that GOP lawmakers will make sweeping promises during campaign season only to become Diet Democrats once they win their races and enter the legislature. It’s like they know we the people won’t punish them for their duplicity. Sadly, they have been right for the most part.
But, this time just might be different.
After years of seeing Democrats wield their control of Congress to strip Republican lawmakers of their committee assignments, drag the nation through two absurd impeachment dramas, and waste taxpayer money on Jan. 6 hearings that everyone knows are designed to attack the Orange Man What Is Bad™, one would like to see them get their comeuppance, right? Even worse is the fact that while they have controlled both chambers of Congress, they have failed to enact any meaningful legislation to benefit the American people while launching their politically-motivated crusades.
It is time for them to get more than a taste of their own medicine. Fortunately, there are indications House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) will do just that. Starting earlier this year, McCarthy vowed to launch several investigations into the Biden administration over its handling of critical matters.
The Daily Caller obtained an email McCarthy and House Administration Committee ranking member Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL) sent to staffers on Tuesday morning inviting them to attend sessions called “informational briefing(s).” The message, titled “Oversight Education Series: Investigations 101,” is intended to prepare House committee staffers for conducting oversight investigations.
“Leader Kevin McCarthy and Ranking Member Rodney Davis would like to invite you to attend this informational briefing with Jon Skladany, Chief Oversight Counsel for the Committee on Financial Services, and Rachel Kaldahl, Republican Staff Director for the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight. This briefing will review the basics of performing effective oversight investigations and will highlight best practices to fulfill Congress’s Constitutional oversight obligations.”
Republicans have laid out an extensive list of issues they plan to investigate once they retake the House. The Daily Caller reported:
The investigations list, the Caller previously reported, includes border policies implemented under the Biden administration, the origins of COVID-19, and the administration’s reaction in testing, opening schools, and its dismissal of natural immunity. The person familiar with Republicans’ plans also said the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract at the Department of Defense (DOD) is on the investigations list.
GOP lawmakers are also expected to look into the disastrous military withdrawal from Afghanistan as well as the president’s son, Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings. If Republicans are serious about their promises, Democrats will have much to fear starting in 2023.
Republicans in Congress have already begun the preliminary steps to pursue their investigations. They have sent “hundreds of preservation notices throughout different parts of the Biden administration” to request that documentation relevant to a case be preserved, according to a person familiar with the GOP’s plans.
“We’re just laying the groundwork now, we’re going to keep sending our letters. I would imagine at some point … those letters are repackaged and we say, ‘Hey, you did not respond to this request we sent you six months ago. We expect you to turn over these documents,’” the aide told the Daily Caller.
But this endeavor could go even further than investigations. The aide noted that “everything will be on the table,” including “the possible impeachment of multiple cabinet officials.” Specifically, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Attorney General Merrick Garland are two officials that could find themselves in the GOP’s crosshairs.
If Republicans are already holding information training sessions and sending preservation requests to the White House, the odds are favorable that they aren’t going to wimp out when the time comes. After all, there isn’t much of a point in going through all that trouble if they were planning not to execute, right?
Maybe.
But many of us know that the GOP rarely misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity. We have been burned before, haven’t we? Indeed, it is the reason former President Donald Trump won in 2016. Hopefully, Republicans have learned their lesson and are serious about placing Democrats under the microscope for a change.
