House Republicans seem to have had a rocky start in launching their subcommittee examining the “weaponization” of federal agencies under the Biden administration. Led by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), the subcommittee is tasked with rooting out the myriad of ways the Justice Department, FBI, ATF, and other government agencies have been used against Americans in a politically-motivated manner.
Now, Republicans are looking at the budgets of various federal law enforcement agencies to consider defunding areas of the government that are being used for nefarious purposes. This could be an important element in this equation because Congress controls the purse strings and could conceivably use this authority to hamper or punish agencies that are unfairly targeting Americans based on politics.
Axios noted that conservative lawmakers “gained new representation on the Appropriations Committee as a part of a deal with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.”
“The focus of what we do in terms of immediate cuts should be reducing the weaponization of government,” Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC) told the news outlet.
Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA), who now sits on the Appropriations subcommittee overseeing the Justice Department’s budget, told Axios that he would be “surprised” if the panel investigating weaponization of the federal government did not appear during the budget process.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) concurred, saying that the work the subcommittee is doing “sets up appropriations fights.”
Jordan also affirmed that House Republicans are “definitely looking at the appropriations process.”
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) might also be on the chopping block depending on what the investigations turn up.
Not everyone is on board with this possibility, however. Appropriations Chair Kay Granger (R-TX) told Axios that holding agencies accountable through the appropriations process “is not the goal.”
The report notes:
Jordan’s targets include the federal government’s responses to school board threats, the Hunter Biden laptop story and Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover, as well as efforts by CISA to battle disinformation, which some Republicans view as censorship.
As part of a probe into the intelligence community allegedly targeting the right, Jordan has also touted FBI “whistleblowers” – some of whom showed early credibility problems — who allege the Bureau is overly fixated on domestic terrorism, Jan. 6 and Trump-related probes.
This news might be welcome for conservatives and libertarians who believe federal law enforcement agencies are being used to target right-leaning Americans through censorship and other malevolent practices. But there might be reason for concern considering the shaky start the weaponization subcommittee has gone through.
A prior Axios report suggested that Jordan has faced criticism related to the subcommittee with some complaining that the investigation “has moved too slowly and found little.”
This development emerged amid reports that some of the subcommittee’s FBI whistleblowers had not offered much in the way of information and had supposedly peddled in conspiracy theories. Two of these individuals have received financial assistance from an ally of former President Donald Trump.
Democrats, in a 316-page report, argued that “nearly all of the Republicans involved in this investigation – the witnesses, some of the members, and certainly their outside operators” are supposedly trying to whitewash the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol building.
Other detractors accuse Jordan of lacking structure in his leadership of the subcommittee and making statements without facts to back them up.
“Jordan is overextended and short-staffed, biting off much more than he can chew,” Mike Davis, former chief counsel for nominations for Rep. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), tweeted. “This is doomed to fail.”
Fact Check: True.
"Jordan is overextended and short-staffed, biting off much more than he can chew," Mike Davis, former chief counsel for nominations for then-Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), wrote in a tweet thread. https://t.co/arTfxmG5af… https://t.co/YFMWTrPznz
— 🇺🇸 Mike Davis 🇺🇸 (@mrddmia) March 7, 2023
Nevertheless, House Republicans still seem confident in their effort to expose how the federal government has been leveraged as a political weapon against folks on the right. But could the appropriations process be the key to holding these agencies accountable? Sure, Congress holds the purse strings. The question is: Are there enough lawmakers in the lower chamber willing to take on these agencies or is this nothing more than political theater designed to win votes in the upcoming elections?
