Rep. Mike Kelly, a Republican who represents the Pennsylvania district where former President Donald Trump was nearly killed at a rally earlier this month, will chair a special House bipartisan task force empaneled to investigate the assassination attempt.
House Speaker Mike Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Monday announced the lawmakers who will serve on the 13-member task force examining the events surrounding Mr. Trump’s July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where the Republican presidential nominee was shot by a lone gunman. One person was killed and two others were seriously wounded.
In addition to Mr. Kelly, the other Republican members are Reps. Mark Green of Tennessee, who chairs the Homeland Security Committee; David Joyce of Ohio; Laurel Lee and Michael Waltz of Florida; Clay Higgins of Louisiana and Pat Fallon of Texas.
Rep. Jason Crow, Colorado Democrat, will serve as the ranking member of the task force. The other Democrats on the panel are Reps. Lou Correa of California; Madeleine Dean and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania; Glenn Ivey of Maryland and Jared Moskowitz of Florida.
“We have the utmost confidence in this bipartisan group of steady, highly qualified, and capable members of Congress to move quickly to find the facts, ensure accountability, and help make certain such failures never happen again,” Mr. Johnson and Mr. Jeffries said in a joint statement.
Mr. Johnson and Mr. Jeffries will serve as ex-officio members of the task force, but will not have voting privileges. They each will designate a leadership staffer to have access to task force meetings, hearings, briefings and materials.
The task force, which will have the power to subpoena witnesses and documents, must issue a final report of its findings and recommend any legislative proposals to the House no later than Dec. 13. The panel also can issue interim reports as it deems necessary.
In a rare unanimous vote, the House adopted a resolution last week to establish the task force, 416-0.
Mr. Kelly, an auto dealership owner, grew up and still lives in Butler. He was at Mr. Trump’s July 13 rally and authored the resolution to impanel the task force.
“It’s important that we don’t jump to any conclusions as we begin these investigations,” he said in a Newsweek op-ed. “I look forward to working with my colleagues to get the American people the answers they deserve.”
The other task force members have backgrounds in law or the military.
Four of the task force members are Army veterans: Mr. Green and Mr. Crow both served in Iraq and Afghanistan and were awarded the Bronze Star. Mr. Waltz, also a Bronze Star recipient, served in the Special Forces and later as a White House and Pentagon advisor. Mr. Higgins worked in law enforcement after his Army service and maintains an active commission and Peace Officer’s Standards and Training certification.
Mr. Fallon and Ms. Houlahan are Air Force veterans.
The bipartisan support for the task force is unlike some past House investigative panels that had partisan origins, such as the special committees that looked into the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol and the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
Mr. Johnson proposed the task force to streamline investigations that the House Oversight and Accountability, Homeland Security and Judiciary committees have already started. All three panels held hearings on the assassination attempt last week.
Homeland Security ranking member Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, Mississippi Democrat, was not named to serve on the task force, although his GOP counterpart Mr. Green was selected.
Mr. Thompson reportedly said he was not interested in serving on the panel. Republicans also sought to keep him off it. Mr. Johnson, who had ultimately say over the picks from both parties, communicated to Mr. Jeffries that he didn’t think Mr. Thompson would be a good choice.
The House Freedom Caucus took a rare official position urging the speaker to keep Mr. Thompson off the panel, citing a bill he authored that would have denied Secret to Service protection to Mr. Trump if he were sent to prison.
“Americans cannot trust that he will be an unbiased arbiter of the facts,” the Freedom Caucus said.
Including Mr. Green, five task force members also serve on the Homeland Security Committee. The others are Mr. Higgins, Mr. Correa, Ms. Lee and Mr. Ivey.
While the top Republicans and Democrats on the Oversight and Judiciary Committees were not named to the task force, four members from each panel were.
Mr. Waltz, Mr. Moskowitz, Mr. Higgans and Mr. Fallon serve on Oversight.
Ms. Lee, Mr. Correa, Ms. Dean and Mr. Ivey serve on Judiciary.
• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.
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