Matt Gaetz quietly replaces Chip Roy on ‘weaponization’ panel

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) quietly replaced Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) on the new House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.

The change was noted in the Congressional Record last week, but was not widely noticed for days. All Republican members of the panel are appointed by Speaker Kevin McCarthy (Calif.).

“In order to devote adequate time to the Rules, Judiciary and Budget Committees, as well as be a dad and do my job as the Representative of Texas’ 21st Congressional District, I was happy to give my spot on the Weaponization Subcommittee to my friend, Matt Gaetz,” Roy said in a statement.

A spokesman for Gaetz said that the Florida congressman “is honored to serve on the Weaponization Subcommittee and will be working very hard.”

The subcommittee was created in large part as a response to calls from House Republicans who withheld support from McCarthy to create a “Church-style” select committee to investigate alleged government abuses, a reference to a 1975 Senate select committee led by former Sen. Frank Church (D-Idaho) that investigated intelligence agencies.

Roy and Gaetz were both among those McCarthy detractors. But for Roy, other commitments are taking precedence.

As a part of negotiations during the drawn-out Speaker battle last month, right-wing holdouts secured a commitment to have three hard-line conservative members on the House Rules Committee, which controls the structure of debate and the floor amendment process for legislation that goes to a final vote though a normal process.

During the Speakership saga, Roy had volunteered himself to sit Rules Committee in order to ensure enough hard-liners could be on the time-consuming panel, and was selected by McCarthy, along with Reps. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.).

Members of the House Budget Committee, including Roy, were announced on Tuesday.

Both Roy and Gaetz opposed McCarthy for Speaker on multiple ballots, but Gaetz — unlike Roy — never voted for McCarthy for Speaker, instead voting “present” on the final vote.

The weaponization subcommittee, which is chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), will hold its first hearing on Wednesday, consisting of two panels “to discuss the politicization of the FBI and DOJ [Department of Justice] and attacks on American civil liberties.”

Announced witnesses are Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (R-Hawaii), George Washington University Law Center Professor Jonathan Turley, former FBI agents Thomas Baker and Nicole Parker, and Elliot Williams of the Raben Group.