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Washington Post photo by Jabin Botsford Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Chip Roy (R-Texas) shake hands after 15 rounds of voting for the House speakership in early January concluded with McCarthy winning the gavel.
The Washington Post / Mariana Alfaro
12:13 JST, January 24, 2023
WASHINGTON – The House’s powerful Rules Committee has moved to the right, according to lists shared by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Monday.
The committee, which will be chaired by Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), includes Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas), Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ralph Norman (R-S.C.).
Cole said Monday night on social media that he was delighted to “welcome a diverse slate” of Republican lawmakers to the committee. He added that they will work to “restore regular order and ensure thorough debate” in the chamber.
Roy and Norman were among the group of Republican holdouts who withheld support for McCarthy’s speakership during the 15 rounds of voting earlier this month until after he’d made several concessions to the more extremist wing of the party.
“This was about empowering people – empowering rank-and-file members,” Roy said after the speakership votes were completed, having voted against McCarthy 11 times before supporting him in the final rounds.
The concessions McCarthy made to hard-right Republicans include lowering, from five to one, the number of members required to force a vote on ousting the speaker – a change that the California Republican had previously said he would not accept. McCarthy also promised to seat House Freedom Caucus members on the Rules Committee, a promise he fulfilled with Monday’s announcement.
Left out of Monday’s announcement, however, was any word on the fates of two California Democrats whom House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) formally recommended to the intelligence committee, but whom McCarthy had vowed to deny seats – Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell.
In addition to the announcement of the Republican lawmakers on the Rules Committee, the speaker introduced the GOP members on two additional committees. The group of Republicans on the intelligence committee includes returning Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) – the only Republican woman on the panel – and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), and counts Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) among its new members.
The committee’s GOP membership is relatively more moderate than the rules one – none of the speaker holdouts were added to the panel.
McCarthy also unveiled the GOP members on the newly formed select committee tasked with investigating the United States’ competition with China. The panel, created with bipartisan support, will include Republican Reps. Garland “Andy” Barr (Ky.), Jim Banks (Ind.) and Ashley Hinson (Iowa).
Of these committee rosters, McCarthy said in a statement that the Republican majority “will work to shift power back to the American people.”
