Why the House was able to kick Greene off her committees, explained by a former congressman

(Image credit: Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images for MoveOn)

published 5 February 2021

The House voted 230 to 199 on Thursday to strip Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) of her seats on the education and budget committees, with 11 Republicans joining the Democrats in what is believed to be an unprecedented action. Typically, each party decides which of its members will sit on which committees, and occasionally a party punishes its members by stripping them of committee assignments, as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) did with former Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) in 2019. McCarthy indicated Wednesday he had no plans to sanction Greene.

But the entire House actually votes to put every member on committees, former Rep. Justin Amash (I-Mich.) explained Thursday, linking to the bill the House approved Jan. 28. And the House can therefore vote to take members off their committees.

A lot of individual House members may not have even known they voted Greene onto the two committees, Amash said, "but congressional leaders certainly know, and the assignments are always voted on by the whole House."