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."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Judge bars Trump’s National Guard moves in OregonSpeed Read In an emergency hearing, a federal judge blocked President Donald Trump from sending National Guard troops into Portland
-
Museum head ousted after Trump sword gift denialSpeed Read Todd Arrington, who led the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, denied the Trump administration a sword from the collection as a gift for King Charles
-
Trump declares ‘armed conflict’ with drug cartelsspeed read This provides a legal justification for recent lethal military strikes on three alleged drug trafficking boats
-
Supreme Court rules for Fed’s Cook in Trump feudSpeed Read Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook can remain in her role following Trump’s attempts to oust her
-
Judge rules Trump illegally targeted Gaza protestersSpeed Read The Trump administration’s push to arrest and deport international students for supporting Palestine is deemed illegal
-
Trump: US cities should be military ‘training grounds’Speed Read In a hastily assembled summit, Trump said he wants the military to fight the ‘enemy within’ the US
-
US government shuts down amid health care standoffSpeed Read Democrats said they won’t vote for a deal that doesn’t renew Affordable Care Act health care subsidies
-
YouTube to pay Trump $22M over Jan. 6 expulsionSpeed Read The president accused the company of censorship following the suspension of accounts post-Capitol riot
