In the News

Bloomberg Government

September 14, 2022

House Republicans are using an under-the-radar legislative weapon in several committees today, bringing forward privileged resolutions seeking documents from the Biden administration on issues including the search of Mar-a-Lago and the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Under House rules, the resolutions of inquiry have floor privileges allowing any member to call them up unless committees take action on them. In practice, that often forces the president’s majority party in Congress to meet and vote against them.

The meetings give the minority the chance to talk about policies and decisions that irk them — at least in committees. This time, they provide a glimpse of Republicans’ plans for oversight in the next Congress, including the Biden administration’s Covid response policies, Alex Ruoff reports.

Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) the vice chair of the House Republican Conference, said the requests are “certainly a signal” about the issues Republicans will pursue.

“There are so many things that requires congressional oversight, but we only have so many hours in a day,” he said in an interview last night. “We’ve attempted to prioritize the ones that are most important and that is what you’ll see highlighted tomorrow.”

Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.), the top Republican on the House Natural Resources Committee, suggested that if Republicans were unable to get some of the resolutions through this year, it wouldn’t be their last attempt.

“Hopefully, the administration will give us the information we want if we pass some of these resolutions,” he said. “If we don’t, we have the midterms coming up.”

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