A spokeswoman for incoming House Financial Services Committee chairman Rep. Jeb Hensarling told Breitbart News on Wednesday that her boss had nothing whatsoever to do with the conservative purge of his committee. Hensarling is slated to take over as the committee’s chairman next Congress.
After conservative Republican Reps. David Schweikert of Arizona and Walter Jones of North Carolina were removed from their Financial Services committee slots this week, a GOP leadership aide tried to pin at least part of the blame on Hensarling.
“Changes are made for a variety of reasons, most often at the request of committee chairs,” the anonymous GOP leadership aide told Roll Call.
Hensarling saying he had nothing to do with the purge directly contradicts that story coming out of GOP leadership.
Officials in the offices of House Speaker John Boehner, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy refuse to discuss details about a secret criteria list document on the record with press. They won’t release the document either. That document was used to conduct the purge.
It’s still unclear if House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan – the Republican Party’s recent vice presidential candidate – had anything to do with the GOP leadership’s conservative purge. Reps. Tim Huelskamp of Kansas and Justin Amash of Michigan were pulled from Ryan’s committee heading into the next Congress. A spokesman for Ryan hasn’t responded to numerous requests for comment on the matter.
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