The U.S. House of Representatives voted 221-211 this week to establish a Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. It’s a temporary subcommittee of Committee on the Judiciary, and will be made up of eight Republicans and five Democrats.
Alaska Rep. Mary Peltola voted against the bill, as did all Democrats in the House.
HR 12, drafted by Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, establishes a subcommittee to investigate matters related to the collection, analysis, dissemination, and use of information on U.S. citizens by executive branch agencies and private agencies, including whether such efforts are illegal, unconstitutional, or otherwise unethical.
The investigation may encompass social media companies and their biased moderation of user content and collaboration with spy agencies to suppress certain political speech.
The subcommittee must make a final report of its findings by Jan. 2, 2025, and terminates 30 days after filing that report.
“With great power comes great responsibility,” said Republican Rep. Dan Bishop of North Carolina on the House floor. “We entrust our Department of Justice, FBI, and intelligence community with great power to keep us safe. Yet as long as thees agencies have existed, they’ve violated Americans’ civil rights. Everyday Americans. The security state believes itself to be above the Constitution and the laws passed by Congress.”
The agencies spied on Frank Sinatra Jr., John Lennon, Dr. Martin Luther King, and Muhammed Ali, Bishop reminded Americans, because they were identified as “national security threats.”
The intelligence community also abused its power by spying on presidential candidates, sitting presidents, a members of Congress and their staffs, he said.
“The FBI continuously coordinated with social media companies to moderate social content — the public square. So contemptuous are they and out of touch, when confronted with this just weeks ago, they said ‘we were merely engaging with our community partners.’ Leading up to the 2020 election, the FBI worked hand-in-hand with Twitter and Facebook to silence the Hunter Biden laptop story. Concealment from everyday Americans,” he continued.
Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper lied to Congress about the National Security Agency collecting data on millions of Americans, spying on groups, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and others, Bishop said. The intelligence community also spied on journalists and political figures.
Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas talked about parents who have dared to stand up to school boards and then were labeled as terrorists by the federal government.
“Everyday Americans should shudder at the power of the government, the federal government, target at parents for daring to stand up and defend a daughter who is abused in a bathroom in the Loudoun County Public Schools. By the way, the superintendent in Loudoun has been indicted. This is the truth. Yet this Administration wanted to make Scott Smith the bad guy, not the rapist.”
Peltola this week also voted against preserving the life of babies born alive during or after abortion procedures, and voted against condemning violence and vandalism against crisis pregnancy clinics and churches. She voted against Rep. Kevin McCarthy for House Speaker, and voted against the bill that reversed the appropriation of more than $80 billion to the IRS.
