After the House voted in the last session of Congress to remove her assignments over a series of inflammatory statements, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is set to get new committee positions, marking a comeback.
The Hill reports that the House GOP Steering Committee decided on Tuesday to grant Greene a position on the influential House Oversight Committee as well as the House Homeland Security Committee, which oversees the Homeland Security Department.
Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), who was censured and lost his committee assignments due to a controversial video he shared on social media, was also reinstated on the House Natural Resources Committee and Oversight Committee by the GOP steering committee of around 30 members.
The entire House GOP conference still needs to ratify these assignments. Melanie Zanona of CNN emphasized that the conference normally accepts the recommendations of the steering committee. Greene and Gosar will join Chairman James Comer (R-KY), who has started looking into several Joe Biden-related controversies if they are confirmed to the Oversight Committee.
Greene’s quickly rose to prominence as a conservative firebrand and ardent supporter of former President Donald Trump. Her freshman term in Congress ended in the previous session.
The Democratic-led House voted in February 2021 to remove Greene from her positions on the Budget Committee and the Committee on Education and Labor due to comments she made before joining Congress about QAnon and school shootings. Eleven Republicans voted in favor of the measure along with the Democrats.
Right before the vote, Greene said, “These were words of the past, and these things do not represent me, they do not represent my district, and they do not represent my values.”
At the time, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) issued a statement denouncing Democrats for engaging in a “partisan power grab regarding the committee assignments of the other party,” but he also stated that he deplored Greene’s earlier remarks and had met with her to “make clear” the position of the House Republican Conference.
NEWS: MTG & Paul Gosar have been given committee assignments for the new Congress, after being booted by Dems (and some Rs) for incendiary remarks.
Greene has been placed on Homeland Security Committee, while Gosar will get a seat on Natural Resources. Decisions were unanimous.
— Melanie Zanona (@MZanona) January 17, 2023
McCarthy gained support from Greene in the weeks before the speaker vote as McCarthy battled for the gavel. In an interview with Axios, she said, “I’ve asked for committee positions, but I’m not doing it with a guaranteed deal.” As time passed, McCarthy said Greene and Gosar would be given new committee seats if Republicans won back the house in the 2022 midterm elections.
On her new assignments, according to Daily Wire, they reached out to Greene’s office for comment.
McCarthy has signaled he intends to follow through on a commitment to remove three prominent Democrats — Reps. Adam Schiff (CA), Eric Swalwell (CA), and Ilhan Omar (MN) — from positions on significant committees as Greene and Gosar are about to resume their committee duties.
Sources: DailyWire, Axios, TheHill