Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, other progressive Democrats land spots on powerful House Oversight Committee
Appointments are 'indicative of the direction this Congress is going to go,' says Rep. Andy Biggs, Republican member of the House Judiciary Committee.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., was among the firebrand freshmen lawmakers who landed spots on the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday -- a key panel that will soon be questioning former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen amid investigations into Trump's business dealings and more.
The Oversight Committee is the House’s main investigative committee, and was used by Republicans to investigate a range of Obama-era controversies when they were in power. Democrats will now use the committee to investigate President Trump, his business dealings and alleged connections to Russia. Next month, Cohen will testify to the committee in public, in what is likely to be the jumping-off point for further investigations.
The new lawmakers have all been fiercely critical of Trump and have called for opening investigations into his administration during the new Congress. Ocasio-Cortez is joined by other members of the Democratic Party’s more progressive wing, including Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., who earlier this year raised eyebrows by vowing to “impeach the motherf---er” in reference to the president.
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Other lawmakers added to the committee were Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., and second-term House member Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif.
“I’m so pleased to welcome our new Democratic Members to the Committee on Oversight and Reform," Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said in a statement. "Our Committee is the primary investigative body in Congress, and we will address the issues that affect the American people every day while we root out waste, fraud, and abuse. The American people voted for accountability and transparency this past election, and I’m eager to work in a bipartisan manner on behalf of all of our constituents to deliver on these goals.”
On the Republican side, ranking member Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio announced Tuesday that Rep. Carol Miller, R-W.Va., has been selected to join the committee.
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"Eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse must be the crucial role of our Oversight and Reform Committee. We will hold everyone serving the taxpayers to the highest standard of integrity," Miller said in the release.
Cummings dismissed moderate Democrats' concerns that the new lawmakers threaten to pull the party leftward.
"If I based the choices on the committee based on what people said of their reputations or whatever, I probably wouldn't have a committee," Cummings told Politico. "I am excited -- there were a lot of people that wanted to come on our committee."
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Ocasio-Cortez was also set to join California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters on the House Financial Services Committee -- which oversees Wall Street and the housing industry. Ocasio-Cortez has suggested that the nation's largest banks should be broken up, and she shunned corporate donations during her House run last year.
Waters, the chair of the committee, has vowed to counteract the Trump administration's 2018 rollback of the Dodd-Frank legislation, which the White House called "disastrous" and overbroad.
"Make no mistake, come January, in this committee, the days of this committee weakening regulations and putting our economy once again at risk of another financial crisis will come to an end," Waters said last year.
Fox News' Adam Shaw, Gregg Re and Kristin Brown contributed to this report.
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