Marjorie Taylor Greene, Paul Gosar land Oversight committee assignments after removal by Democrats

Reps. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Ga.) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) are set to get committee assignments back after being stripped from their assignments in the Democratic-controlled Congress in 2021.

The House GOP Steering Committee on Tuesday selected Greene to sit on the House Homeland Security and Oversight Committees and Gosar to sit on the House Natural Resources and Oversight Committees, which he sat on before being stripped of his slot on the panel, according to two sources familiar with the selections.

The selections of the Steering Committee, a panel of around 30 members of House Leadership and elected regional representatives, will have to be approved by the full House GOP conference. The conference typically approves the Steering Committee’s recommendations.

The House Homeland Security Committee, chaired by Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.), is expected to put sharp focus on the U.S.-Mexico border and plans to have two committee staff members working from the border. Greene has called to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejando Mayorkas over management of the border.

In a statement on her assignment to the Homeland Security committee, Greene said that the panel “will investigate the Biden administration’s violations of our laws and fund (and defund) programs to defend our border and American sovereignty.” 

The House Oversight Committee is also set to dive into border issues, as well as investigate the business dealings of President Biden’s son Hunter Biden and the origins of COVID-19. Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) will lead that panel.

“Joe Biden, be prepared. We are going to uncover every corrupt business dealing, every foreign entanglement, every abuse of power, and every check cut for The Big Guy,” Greene said in a statement. “And it’s not just the Biden Crime Family, the GOP majority will investigate every bit of government being used to abuse the American people. Every three and four letter agency will now have to answer to Republican oversight, not the rubber-stamp of Democrat rule.”

The House voted to remove Greene from her committee assignments in February 2021, just a month after she was sworn into Congress, over her past embrace of conspiracy theories and social media interactions encouraging violence against Democratic officials. Greene said on the House floor that day that she regretted believing conspiracies that were not true.

Of the eleven House Republicans who voted in favor of stripping Greene from her posts on the House Education and Budget committees, seven are still in Congress: Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart (Fla.), Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.), Carlos Giménez (Fla.), Young Kim (Calif.), Nicole Malliotakis (N.Y.), Maria Elvira Salazar (Fla.), and Chris Smith (N.J.).

In November 2021, the House voted to censure Gosar and strip him from his committee assignments after he posted an edited anime video on Twitter that depicted him swinging swords at President Biden and killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). Gosar said on the House floor that he does not “espouse violence towards anyone,” and voluntarily took the video down “out of compassion for those who genuinely felt offense.”

Then-Reps. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (Ill.) were the only two Republicans to vote to strip Gosar of his committee assignments, while Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio) voted “present.”

Greene and Gosar went on to appear at a conference hosted by white nationalist Nick Fuentes in early 2022, prompting widespread condemnation from leaders in both parties. Greene said months later that if she had known about Fuentes’s views, she would not have spoken at the conference.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) pledged in November 2021 that Greene and Gosar would be put back on committees if the GOP retook the House majority, and potentially even “better” ones.

And in retaliation for Democrats removing Greene and Gosar from committees, as well as then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) blocking two of his picks from the Jan. 6 select committee, McCarthy has said Republicans will block Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) from sitting on the House Intelligence Committee and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from sitting on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Greene was one of the most vocal supporters of McCarthy for Speaker, in a break with many of her fellow hard-right colleagues in the House. But she repeatedly said that she had not been promised any committee assignments.

Greene had also previously expressed interest in the House Judiciary Committee in a 2022 interview, but was not selected to be on that panel.

This story was updated at 5:58 p.m.