Open border, Hunter Biden deals, FBI surveillance abuses on oversight agenda if GOP takes House

House Republican leaders have pledged to step up oversight of the Biden Administration with subpoena power if the GOP becomes the majority party in the House of Representatives as a result of this year's midterm elections.

A top GOP lawmaker told Just the News that FBI Director Chris Wray would be brought before the House Judiciary Committee for questioning about the progress of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) reform under a GOP majority.

Louisiana Rep. Mike Johnson, ranking member of the Subcommittee on Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, said lawmakers need answers from the FBI about warrantless surveillance. 

"When the FBI collects all this data when they do warrantless surveillance, you're supposed to go through some very important checkpoints to ensure that privacy protections and constitutional rights are not violated," Johnson noted. "But there was widespread non-compliance with these procedures," he said, referring to the Russia collusion probe.

"The Office of the Inspector General pointed this out, they gave ... 10 corrective measures that the FBI was supposed to implement and take," he added. "So far, at least five of those 10 — so far as we know on the House Judiciary Committee — they have not yet been completed."

Johnson said lawmakers need an "accounting of this" from the FBI.

"We're on the House Judiciary Committee, we have jurisdiction over this, our job is oversight of this agency and these abuses," he said. "And so we have to have these answers. We'll see what he does to respond. If we were in the majority, I can assure you that we'd have him in front of us under oath right now. But in the minority, we only have so much strength."

Illinois GOP Rep. Rodney Davis, the ranking member of the House Administration Committee, wants to subpoena the sergeant-at-arms communications related to security of the Capitol complex prior to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Davis and other Republican leaders have said there are many unanswered questions about the security decisions that were made in advance of the rally that took place that day before the riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Record numbers of illegal immigrants are coming across the U.S.-Mexico border, and the Biden administration is allowing a significant number of them to enter the U.S. Last year, 2.1 million illegal immigrants were encountered by border officials on the southern border.

Texas Republican Rep. Lance Gooden said the U.S. government is fully funding the transport of the illegal immigrants that they release into the U.S. and the United Nations is handing out debit cards to migrants seeking entry to the U.S. through Mexico.

"The government, unfortunately, run by this president, is encouraging nonprofits like Catholic Charities and the Jewish Family Council to fund transportation for them and housing when they get here, and they're paying for plane tickets and shuttling to the airport with these arrest warrants to get them on planes to wherever it is they want to go," Gooden said.

Gooden also said that "impeachment" is an option if the GOP takes the House majority, specifically due to Biden administration border policy.

"It's very difficult without the majority in either the House or the Senate," he acknowledged. "But some of the things that we're working on now in preparation for what we hope is a Republican majority in the House is oversight. We're going to have subpoena power. We're going to be bringing in members of this administration to answer — at this point, I really believe that impeachment could be on the table. And I would support that, certainly." 

"I also believe," Gooden continued, "that we will see legislation passed in the House — and certainly have a better chance in the Senate than it does today — that does things like prevents arrest warrants from being used as an ID to get on a plane. We're working on comprehensive legislation now with Senator Marco Rubio and we're hoping that actually becomes law in a year. But there are so many options on the table once we retake the majority in either or both the House or Senate. And I'm looking forward to that" 

Kentucky GOP Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, said he expects Hunter Biden, the president's son, to testify before the committee if the GOP takes the House majority.

"We have a lot of questions about where he gets his money, from his artwork, and from his consulting deals," Comer said on CNN.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has argued that Democrats in Congress haven't done enough to investigate the origins of COVID-19 and hold China accountable for the toll it has taken globally. Republicans are expected to dig deeper into China's actions in the lead-up to the COVID-19 pandemic if they recapture the House and/or Senate. 

Republicans, such as House Education and Labor Committee ranking member Virginia Foxx, have been critical of Attorney General Merrick Garland for a Department of Justice memo that instructed the FBI to strategize with state and local law enforcement on a response to alleged intimidation and threats by parents at heated school board meetings.

Local school board meetings have been thrust into the national spotlight due to debates over mask mandates, COVID-19 vaccines for children, and the injection of critical race theory into schools. DOJ's targeting of parents at school board meetings as a result of the memo could be the subject of additional investigation under a GOP majority.