Coronavirus: Trump's response to health crisis to be probed by new House watchdog panel aiming to 'root out waste, fraud and abuse'

The new select panel of seven Democrats and five Republicans is certain to be a contentious new forum for partisan battles over the Trump administration's response to the Covid-19 pandemic as 2020 presidential election approaches

The House voted on Thursday to create a Select Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis, setting up what is certain to be a contentious new forum for partisan battles over the Trump administration's response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The panel will be chaired by Majority Whip Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, a longtime ally of Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The committee will consist of seven Democrats and five Republicans, and will have broad oversight power not only on how federal dollars are being spent to battle the pandemic, but also to assess the government’s "preparedness for and response to the coronavirus crisis,” according to the legislation.

The resolution text places the panel under the umbrella of the House Oversight Committee and grants it the authority to probe "executive branch policies, deliberations, decisions, activities, internal and external communications related to the coronavirus crisis” and “any other issues” related to the pandemic.

Ms Pelosi has insisted the new committee would be bipartisan, but such broad oversight powers for the panel plays into Republicans’ fears that Democrats will use the panel to bludgeon the Trump administration during a presidential election year.

"I don't see a lot of members voting for it on our side,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters before the vote on Wednesday.

“I told [Ms Pelosi] I would wait before I would appoint anybody to it,” McCarthy said, “to see who she appoints to this, [and if] she is serious about making this a committee that works."

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Mr McCarthy's words proved prescient: The resolution to form the select committee passed, but on a party-line 212-182 vote, with every Republican present voting against it. Independent Congressman Justin Amash of Michigan also voted against the creation of the panel.

Republicans have questioned the need for yet another panel to conduct oversight over the federal government's ongoing coronavirus response when every House committee already exercises its extensive constitutional oversight powers.

And the economic recovery package passed in March created multiple independent oversight bodies to oversee the coronavirus response specifically, including a panel of inspectors general, an office for a special inspector general for pandemic recovery endowed with a $25m budget from the Treasury Department, and a five-member congressional oversight commission chosen by congressional leaders.

Nevertheless, Ms Pelosi marched forward with the resolution.

"The committee will root out waste, fraud and abuse," the speaker said on the House floor on Thursday in a speech touting the panel. "It will be laser-focused on ensuring that taxpayer money goes to workers' paychecks and benefits, and it will ensure the federal response is based on the best possible science and guided by health experts and that the money invested is not being exploited by profiteers and price gougers."