Dear Friend,

In 2021, Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats removed two standing Republican Members from their committees for actions that were unbecoming of a Member of Congress. While I did not agree with what these Members said, I also spoke out against the process the Democrats used to remove Members of the opposing party from their committee assignments. I — and many Members on my side of the aisle — warned that this Majority veto over a Minority Party’s committee appointments dangerously removed important rights of the Minority Party.

Then-Leader McCarthy promised that the same procedure would be used when Republicans retook the Majority.

Today, Republicans upheld this promise. This morning, I managed the resolution on the House Floor to remove Representative Ilhan Omar from her assignment to the Foreign Affairs Committee for the troubling remarks she made as a sitting Member of Congress. 

In March 2019, Representative Omar trivialized the terrorist attacks of September 11, that killed 2,977 people by describing it as “some people did something.”

Again, on June 7, 2021, Representative Omar compared the United States and Israeli militaries to Hamas and the Taliban, terrorist groups responsible for extreme atrocities against innocent civilians. 

Even before she served in Congress, Representative Omar made troubling statements. For example, in 2012, Representative Omar tweeted, “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.”

Representative Omar attempted to defend herself on the floor, saying “My voice will get louder and stronger, and my leadership will be celebrated around the world."

The resolution that the House considered today details a total of 6 statements Representative Ilhan Omar made that, disqualify her from serving on the Committee on Foreign Affairs — a panel viewed by nations around the world as speaking for Congress on matters of international importance and national security. As a former Member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, I believe Representative Ilhan Omar disqualified herself from serving on this important committee by making statements attacking people of Jewish faith, as well as trivializing our American heroes and the worst attack on American soil. 

As Chairman of the House Ethics Committee, I managed this legislation on the House Floor to remove Representative Omar from the Committee on Foreign Affairs and uphold the standard the people of our great nation expect from their elected officials. 

Not only do Representative Omar's comments have no place in the Foreign Affairs Committee, I hold that anyone who makes such statements have no place serving on the Foreign Affairs Committee, and I ask all Members to support this resolution removing Ms. Omar from the Committee on Foreign Affairs."

Denouncing Socialism

Today, the House of Representatives also passed a bill that I cosponsored to denounce the horrors of socialism. Over the last two years of Democratic leadership, we have seen a mad dash by the Left towards the ideals of socialism.

President Ronald Reagan once said, “Socialism only works in two places: Heaven where they don't need it and hell where they already have it.”

The proponents of socialism like to say that real socialism has never been tried, but the truth is that real socialism has never worked. It takes only a cursory glance at history to see the devastation that socialism has left in its wake: the Soviet Famine of 1930-1933 that led to the deaths of at least 5.7 million people due to starvation and the Great Leap Forward, which took the lives of tens of millions of people.

The fact that any American today is comfortable with socialist ideals is a failure of our leaders and institutions of education to properly convey the extreme dangers of this ideology. 

Today, the House of Representatives took a strong step towards protecting our nation against the dangers of socialism by officially denouncing this disastrous ideology.