Exclusive / Some Democrats push to keep House’s China committee - Semafor

As House Democrats debate the future of the select committee on China, some in their party are arguing for keeping it around.

“If you want to be able to look at the comprehensive issues facing the US-China relationship, there is not a single committee that covers all of it. It’s spread all over. So this puts it in one single committee,” said Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Ariz., who hails from a more centrist wing of the party and sits on the select panel now.

Some progressive groups led by Just Foreign Policy are mobilizing to defend it, too, after Semafor reported some lawmakers were lobbying to kill it.

A letter from the groups shared with Semafor praises the “different approach” from Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., its current top Democrat.

“We believe Democratic leadership now has an important opportunity to build on this progress and demonstrate a more responsible and constructive approach to US-China relations,” it states.

There’s a bipartisan push to save the committee as members consult House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on its future. He told reporters Wednesday the discussions with committee leaders and the caucus on the future of the China select panel and a proposed AI select committee were “ongoing.”

Rep. Greg Meeks, D-N.Y., the top Foreign Affairs Committee Democrat, who favors folding the select panel under his committee, has been pushing to make it a “special” committee under House Foreign Affairs, a person familiar with the talks said. That would mean it would resemble a Foreign Affairs subcommittee that off-committee members could still join.

Republicans made a similar move last Congress, putting a committee on the “Weaponization of the Federal Government” under the Judiciary Committee rather than standing up a separate panel.

“We will follow the lead of the incoming speaker on how he wants to handle the China select committee, but the Foreign Affairs Committee is well poised to conduct oversight of this administration’s China policy,” a spokesperson for Meeks said.