Oversight Republicans Question Democrats’ State Voting Rights Probe

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Oversight Committee Republicans raised concerns about Chairman Elijah Cummings’s (D-MD) partisan attack on states’ rights. These concerns come in response to investigations initiated by Chairman Cummings and Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties about state elections in Texas, Georgia, and Kansas. The Chairmen began their investigations without consulting the Committee Members who represent the states they targeted.

Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH), Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, Congressman Chip Roy (R-TX), Ranking Member of the Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Subcommittee, Congressman Jody Hice (R-GA), Ranking Member of National Security Subcommittee, Congressman Michael Cloud (R-TX), Ranking Member of the Economic and Consumer Policy Subcommittee, sent a letter to Chairman Cummings and Chairman Raskin detailing their concerns with this partisan probe. They also sent letters to various state and local officials in Texas, Kansas and Georgia.

Excerpt of the letter to Chairman Cummings:

“The Supreme Court has made clear that Congress is not ‘a law enforcement or trial agency’ and that ‘[n]o inquiry is an end in itself; it must be related to, and in furtherance of, a legitimate task of the Congress.’ We have serious concerns that your letters appear to be an attempt to insert the Committee into particular state election proceedings, for which we do not see a legitimate legislative purpose.”

Full text of the letters can be found here.