AMAC Exclusive – By Shane Harris
Despite a White House and Democrat-led Senate determined to ram through their far-left agenda, the Republican House has already managed to fulfill a number of campaign promises and deliver important victories for the country this Congress. Here are some of the biggest wins for the House GOP so far.
Leading the Charge on COVID Transparency
Yesterday, President Biden signed a bill championed by House Republicans which requires the administration to declassify information regarding the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. Incredibly, all 204 House Democrats joined Republicans in voting for the measure.
The bill is just the latest example of House Republicans’ commitment to more transparency when it comes to the pandemic. GOP leadership also established a Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, which Republicans have promised will look at not just the pandemic, but also the disastrous ramifications of lockdown policies.
Ahead of the committee’s first hearing in early March, the panel also released a series of emails from Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, showing that Fauci commissioned a paper to disprove the lab leak theory – even after receiving evidence from other leading scientists that the virus might not be of natural origin.
The committee’s findings have started to fill in vital pieces of information about the government’s response to COVID that House Democrats and the Biden administration long sought to obscure.
Owning the China Issue
Republicans promised to make strategic competition with China a top concern last fall, and have delivered thus far this Congress – bringing most Democrats along with them.
After only half-hearted action from Pelosi and her leadership team on China last Congress, 146 House Democrats voted with Republicans to create the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party in January. Shortly thereafter, 113 House Democrats joined Republicans to prohibit the sale of oil from the U.S. Strategic Reserve to China.
Exposing Democrat Lies About January 6
The Democrat-led January 6 Committee reportedly had access to more than 40,000 hours of surveillance tapes from the Capitol riot. But until a few weeks ago, the public had only seen short, edited clips selectively released by the committee – which invariably were used to paint Republicans as a “threat to democracy.”
Following Kevin McCarthy’s release of the full tapes to Fox News host Tucker Carlson, it soon became clear that Democrats had been actively hiding the full story and even outright deceiving the public. For instance, while Democrats had gleefully released a shortened clip of Missouri Senator Josh Hawley appearing to run from the rioters, the full clip showed that Hawley was actually the last in a large group of lawmakers who were being led away from the unrest by Capitol Police. Hawley only appeared to be “running away” because he was catching up with other members of Congress ahead of him.
McCarthy’s decision to release the full footage has also put Democrats on the defensive by forcing them to explain why they did not release all the tapes to the public when they were in power. In one particularly revealing comment, January 6 Committee Chairman Benny Thompson admitted earlier this month that the Democrat members of the committee had not even seen the tapes – they only let staff go through them.
While January 6 was undoubtedly a bad day for the country, Republicans have finally begun to expose how Democrats have shamelessly rewritten history and weaponized the events of that day for political purposes.
Forcing the Biden Administration to Answer for the Border Crisis
For two years, the Democrat House majority shielded the Biden administration from any accountability on the border, allowing the White House to pretend as if the crisis didn’t exist at all. No longer.
Just last week, Biden’s Border Patrol chief Raúl Ortiz admitted to House Republicans during a hearing that “a bit of a policy crisis” is to blame for record illegal border crossings. During the same hearing, Ortiz testified that the number of illegal alien “gotaways” is actually far higher than previously reported – shedding more light on Biden’s complete failure to secure the border.
House Republicans are also reportedly planning a second push to pass border security legislation after a first attempt fizzled earlier this year. If House Republicans can stick together on a plan, they can place immense pressure on Senate Democrats and President Biden to admit that the country’s illegal immigration crisis indeed exists and do something to address it.
Taking the Fight for Parents Rights to the Federal Level
Republicans’ “Parents Bill of Rights” has thrust the battle over education policy back into the national spotlight and forced Democrats to take a position against common-sense policies favored by large majorities of Americans on both sides of the political aisle.
The House GOP bill would require schools to post curriculum information publicly, provide parents with a list of reading materials available in school classrooms and libraries, disclose district budgets and expenditures, and obtain parental consent before administering any physical or psychological medical treatment, among other provisions ensuring parents are involved in decisions about their children’s education and well-being.
Though the bill stands little chance of passing a Democrat-controlled Senate and White House, it nonetheless represents an important victory for the parents’ rights movement and will be a vital messaging tool for Republican candidates next November.
Forcing Democrats to Take a Position on Socialism
In a vote that came and went with little fanfare – but is sure to make a reappearance in campaign ads next fall – 86 Democrats voted “no” and 14 voted “present” on a resolution condemning the horrors of socialism.
Killing the DC Crime Law
Earlier this year, the Washington, D.C., City Council passed a radical overhaul of the District’s criminal code that law enforcement officials warned would mean even more chaos and lawlessness in the city.
But because D.C. laws are subject to review by Congress, House Republicans were able to introduce a resolution to stop the bill from taking effect. Several Democrats in the House and Senate voted in favor of Republicans’ resolution under the impression that Biden was going to veto it – thus allowing Democrats to publicly oppose the radical criminal justice “reform” agenda with the understanding that Biden would let it become law anyway.
But Biden did not veto the resolution, infuriating congressional Democrats.
In a Democrat-controlled Congress, such a resolution would have never seen a floor vote. With Republicans in control of the House, however, the GOP was able to both kill the disastrous bill (keeping America’s capital a little safer in the process) and expose divisions among Democrats on crime policy.
House Republicans still have a long way to go to deliver on all their campaign promises and hold Democrats accountable for their failures. But these bright spots represent a solid foundation to build on and begin making the case for why Republicans should retake the Senate and the White House in 2024.
Shane Harris is a writer and political consultant from Southwest Ohio. You can follow him on Twitter @Shane_Harris_.
