Report: House GOP Could Strip Top Dems From Committee Leadership Under Majority

In the event Republicans take back the House in November, the party is weighing a chamber-wide imposition of term limits on committee leadership that would lead to the demotion of many influential Democrat ranking members, Punchbowl News reported on Monday.

The House Republican Conference already sets a term limit for committee leadership among its own members, but the Democratic Caucus does not.

If the proposal is followed through; Democrat Reps. Maxine Waters of California, Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, Frank Pallone of New Jersey, Adam Smith of Washington, Nydia Velazquez and Jerry Nadler of New York, and Richie Neal of Massachusetts would be stripped of their top-ranked positions in the Financial Services, Homeland Security, Energy and Commerce, Armed Services, Small Business, Judiciary, and Ways and Means Committees, respectively.

Several other Democrats would have been impacted under this rule, such as Reps. Peter DeFazio of Oregon and Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas, but they are retiring.

"This potential move by Republicans would have a seismic impact on the House and would be a huge breach of tradition," Punchbowl claimed.

However, the outlet noted Democrats broke the dynamic over the past year by booting Reps. Paul Gosar of Arizona and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia out of committees for allegedly insensitive remarks.

In a January Breitbart interview, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif, said he would kick controversial Democratic congress members off committees in retaliation if Republicans take the chamber.

"The Democrats have created a new thing where they're picking and choosing who could be on the committee," McCarthy said at the time. "Never in the history have you had the majority tell the minority who could be on committee."

"But this new standard which these Democrats have voted for — if Eric Swalwell cannot get a security clearance in the private sector, there is no reason why he should be given one to be on Intel or Homeland Security. He will not be serving there."

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