These Republicans will serve on panels to probe COVID-19, ‘weaponization’ of government

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has released the names of the Republicans who will serve on a pair of subcommittees as part of the GOP’s promise to launch investigations into the Biden administration. 

McCarthy in a tweet Tuesday announced the GOP membership of two select subcommittees on the “Weaponization of the Federal Government” and the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The House voted along party lines to establish the weaponization committee earlier this month to probe ongoing investigations from the Department of Justice. The subcommittee was part of a list of demands that hard-line GOP House members had for McCarthy to win their support to become Speaker. 

McCarthy later promised to create both the weaponization and COVID-19 subcommittees a couple of days ahead of the Speaker vote. Republicans have described the weaponization subcommittee as “Church-style,” referring to a Senate select committee led by former Sen. Frank Church (D-Idaho) that looked into intelligence agencies. 

McCarthy said in a letter to his Republican colleagues that the subcommittee will expose the “weaponization of government against our citizenry, writ large.” 

The subcommittee will be led by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who was a close supporter of McCarthy during his Speaker bid and who serves as the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. McCarthy said earlier this month that Jordan would chair the subcommittee. 

The other GOP members of the committee will be Reps. Darrell Issa (Calif.), Thomas Massie (Ky.), Chris Stewart (Utah), Elise Stefanik (N.Y.), Mike Johnson (La.), Chip Roy (Texas), Kelly Armstrong (N.D.), Greg Steube (Fla.), Dan Bishop (N.C.), Kat Cammack (Fla.) and Harriet Hageman (Wyo.).  

Roy and Bishop withheld their support for McCarthy through more than 10 ballots of the Speaker vote before switching to back him after McCarthy agreed to additional concessions. 

McCarthy previously announced last week that Steube will serve on the weaponization subcommittee following Steube’s hospitalization from falling off a 25-foot ladder and receiving multiple “severe” injuries. 

Steube was released from the hospital on Saturday, but he said he will be “sidelined” from Washington, D.C., at his home in Sarasota, Fla., for several weeks. He said he is “eager” to rejoin his colleagues in D.C. “as soon as possible.” 

The subcommittee will also include five Democratic members. 

Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) will serve as the chairman of the COVID-19 committee. 

The other members rounding out the GOP membership will be Reps. Nicole Malliotakis (N.Y.), Mariannette Miller-Meeks (Iowa), Debbie Lesko (Ariz.), Michael Cloud (Texas), John Joyce (Pa.), Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), Ronny Jackson (Texas) and Rich McCormick (Ga.). 

Cloud was also opposed to McCarthy through most of the Speakership votes until throwing his support behind him for the last few ballots. 

Greene has repeatedly voiced misinformation surrounding the pandemic since its start in 2020. Her personal Twitter account was suspended for violating the platform’s COVID-19 misinformation policies last January, but it was restored in November as part of several accounts that CEO Elon Musk reinstated after he took over the company. 

A Democratic-led House subcommittee released a report on the pandemic last month toward the end of the past session of Congress, blaming the Trump administration for harming the country’s response to the virus.