McCarthy pulls GOP picks off House economic panel

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has pulled all six Republican lawmakers off of Democrats’ special committee on economic disparity, sources said Tuesday, in protest of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) decision to block a pair of Republicans from serving on an unrelated panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot.

McCarthy took the action a week ago, at the same time that he yanked all five of his GOP picks off the special Jan. 6 committee after Pelosi refused to allow two key allies of former President Trump to sit on the panel — GOP Reps. Jim Jordan (Ohio) and Jim Banks (Ind.).

Pelosi answered by appointing two Republicans to the Jan. 6 panel, Reps. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (Ill.). That committee held its first public hearing on Tuesday, featuring testimony from police officers who defended the Capitol during the attack.

The news about the economic panel was first reported by CNN and later confirmed to The Hill by a Pelosi spokesman.

McCarthy’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

The six members McCarthy withdrew from the House Select Committee on Economic Disparity and Fairness in Growth are ranking member Bryan Steil (Wis.) and Reps. Warren Davidson (Ohio), Jodey Arrington (Texas), Stephanie Bice (Okla.), Kat Cammack (Fla.) and Byron Donalds (Fla.).

Last month, Pelosi named her picks for the committee, including its chairman, Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.). 

For now, it doesn’t appear that McCarthy is withdrawing other Republicans from several other special committees that have been holding hearings for many months, including select committees on the climate crisis and on the COVID-19 pandemic.