House Republicans Begin Investigations In COVID Relief Spending, Biden's Border Response

After months of promising, first on the campaign trail and then during the lame duck session, to hold the Biden administration accountable for its ‘failed policies’, House Republicans on Wednesday began in earnest their attempt to make good on that promise.

The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability held its first hearing in the new Congress, titled “Federal Pandemic Spending: A Prescription for Waste, Fraud and Abuse.”

Congress approved about $4.6 trillion in spending in six coronavirus relief laws, beginning in March 2020 when Donald Trump was president.

The committee’s chairman, Rep. James Comer (R-KY), began the meeting by criticizing Democrats for, he said, having conducted no meaningful oversight of the Covid relief programs.

“We owe it to the American people to get to the bottom of the greatest theft of American taxpayer dollars in history,” said Rep. Comer.

Of $4.6 trillion allocated in six bills under two administrations, Comer said hundreds of billions have been paid out improperly.

One of the witnesses, Gene Dodaro, Comptroller General for the Government Accountability Office, said the government has 'an improper payment problem.'

"It occurs in a wide range of federal programs. It's pervasive across the government," said Dodaro. "So, when you have that type of problem that we're not dealing with on a regular basis and you add additional spending -- billions, hundreds of billions, in this case trillions of dollars -- you're going to have these type of problems in place."

Down the hall, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jim Jordan, opened a hearing on the “Biden Border Crisis” by pointedly noting that some 4.5 million illegal immigrants have crossed the southwest border since President Biden took office in January 2021.

"These numbers make clear that the Biden administration does not have operational control of the border," Jordan stated. "Month after month after month, we have set records for migrants coming into the country, and frankly, I think it's intentional. I don't know how anyone with common sense or logic can reach any other conclusion."

But one of the witnesses, Ricardo Samaniego, an El Paso County Judge, said the notion that under President Biden, the border is essentially 'open' just isn't true.

"Well, we don't see that," Judge Samaniego said. "We process every individual that comes through. We make sure we coordinate. We get a lot of information."

Fulfilling another campaign promise Wednesday, Representative Andy Biggs, who sits on Judiciary, and a group of about a dozen other Republicans announced they had filed articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over his handling of border security.