The House of Representatives on Wednesday formally approved the creation of a special committee to investigate the assassination attempt against former President Trump, focusing the House’s investigation on the attack.
House members on Wednesday night showed bipartisanship by unanimously approving a resolution establishing the task force.
The committee is made up of 13 members, seven Republicans and six Democrats, and has subpoena power.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) have been working closely on the issue and announced details of the task force in a joint statement earlier this week.
Johnson said the lawmakers on the committee “will be experts in the areas at stake.”
“They have three primary responsibilities: Of course they have to get answers about what happened. They have to ensure there is accountability to the American people. And they have to make sure something like this never happens again,” Johnson said earlier this week.
Johnson said the task force will produce a final report by Dec. 13, but will also produce interim reports along the way.
The speaker said Wednesday that he and Jeffries are still finalizing the list of members they will appoint to the committee, but plan to announce their selections on Thursday before lawmakers leave Washington for their early August recess.
Some stances on the committee’s composition were expressed early Wednesday when the hardline conservative House Freedom Caucus issued a statement saying that Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee, should not be appointed to the task force. The group said: Led by Bill Thompson The bill would strip protected persons who have been convicted of felonies of Secret Service protection, in a clear nod to President Trump.
But Thompson himself quickly nullified the issue: When asked if he wanted to join the task force, he told The Hill, “No.”
“I don’t even want to be on that list,” Thompson said. “I’ve never expressed any interest.”
The House Select Committee on the Butler, Pennsylvania, mass shooting in which a gunman wounded the former president, killed one rally attendee, and seriously injured two others will centralize the House investigation into the incident, which has so far been spread across multiple committees.
The House Oversight Committee held a major hearing on Monday with Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, whose evasions have so frustrated lawmakers that even the committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), has called for her resignation, in an unusual deal with committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.).
Cheatle resigned on Tuesday after facing bipartisan opposition and pressure.
The House Homeland Security Committee is also involved in evaluating the security failures, with Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.) leading a bipartisan delegation to the rally and shooting scene in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Monday and holding a hearing with local law enforcement officials on Tuesday.
Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pennsylvania), who was sitting in the front row at Trump’s rally at the time of the attack, was the lead sponsor of the resolution to establish the task force.
Speaking on the House floor, Rep. Kelly paid tribute to rally attendee Corey Comperatore, who was killed in the attack, and mourned his community. Rep. Kelly said his hometown of Butler, Pennsylvania, will be “forever remembered” for the assassination attempt.
“The people of Butler and the American people deserve answers,” Kelly said.
