House members voted largely along party lines Wednesday to formally establish a new panel to investigate the events around the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.

It’s the latest chapter in the Republican effort to rewrite the history of the events at the Capitol on that day, when a violent mob stormed the building as lawmakers attempted to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election in favor of Joe Biden over Donald Trump.

House Democrats ran their own Jan. 6 committee when they held the majority, where they held public hearings and released a report detailing Trump’s efforts to circumvent the election results and his failure to stop his supporters from taking over the complex.

This new, GOP-led select subcommittee will fall under the purview of the House Judiciary Committee and be chaired by Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), who will in his new role have unilateral authority to issue subpoenas. He plans to use his gavel to review security and intelligence failures around the attacks; many GOP lawmakers have blamed then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for allowing the Capitol to be breached in the first place and have in general downplayed the significance of the event.

Loudermilk will preside over a group of eight lawmakers to be appointed by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.); Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) will be able to consult on at most three of those members. In an interview, Loudermilk said he was sending Johnson his picks, and while the list had not yet been finalized, he pointed to Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) as a potential selection.

Nehls is a former sheriff who helped Capitol Police stave off rioters who tried break onto the House floor during the siege. Then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) had initially made Nehls one of his picks to sit on the Democratic-led Jan. 6 committee, but withdrew GOP participation after Pelosi refused to seat his other selections, including the current Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

Asked how the previous Jan. 6 committee will inform the new panel’s work, Loudermilk said the goal was to create a report that more accurately reflected the events at the Capitol that day.

“The evidence is irrefutable that there was more politics than there was truth in that,” he said of the previous panel’s findings. “What we saw in the initial investigation, there was a lot more politics involved in decision-making than there ever should’ve been.”

Loudermilk will be required to produce a final report of the subcommittee’s finding by the end of 2026.

Some House Republicans joined every Democrat in voting to sink an effort to censure Rep. LaMonica McIver over her involvement in a chaotic May scuffle outside an immigration detention center.

Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) forced the vote to formally reprimand McIver and remove her from her position on the House Homeland Security Committee, a handful of his GOP colleagues had little appetite for moving forward with the punishment.

Five Republicans — Reps. Don Bacon and Mike Flood of Nebraska, Dave Joyce and Mike Turner of Ohio and David Valadao of California — joined every Democrat in voting to table the measure, while two Republicans — Reps. Andrew Garbarino of New York and Nathaniel Moran of Texas — voted present.

“I think it’s best to let Ethics Committee finish its report,” Bacon said.

A spokesperson for Turner said after the vote the Ohio Republican inadvertently voted to kill McIver’s censure; the incorrect vote did not change the outcome.

Several Democratic officials, including McIver and Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman and Rob Menendez, were attempting to conduct an oversight visit of the Newark, New Jersey, facility when federal agents arrested the city’s mayor.

Federal prosecutors abandoned a charge against the mayor, but acting U.S. Attorney Alina Habba then charged McIver with offenses that come with a maximum sentence of 17 years in prison. Habba accused McIver of slamming a federal agent with her forearm, “forcibly” grabbing him and using her forearms to strike another agent.

McIver denied wrongdoing, with her lawyers explaining that an “unnecessary, reckless, and disproportionate escalation” by federal agents led to “chaos and a serious scuffle involving a great deal of physical contact.”

The McIver censure resolution prompted Democrats to threaten retaliation, with some members introducing a measure earlier Wednesday to censure Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) over a litany of ethics allegations. Censure resolution and other discipline-related matters can be fast-tracked to a House vote, but it’s not clear whether Democrats will now withdraw the Mills resolution now that the McIver censure failed.

“I’m going to have some conversations with my colleagues, with Ms. McIver in particular, and some of our leadership, and we’ll make that determination,” said Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), who introduced the Mills resolution.

Ry Rivard and Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.

The House approved a symbolic measure that would affirm the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s investigation into the handling of case against convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The measure, included in a House rule that cleared in 212-208 vote, has no practical implications, as the Oversight panel is free to continue its probe without any further action on the floor. However, the House GOP leadership has been touting the investigation as a better alternative to Republican Rep. Thomas Massie’s controversial legislation that would compel the release of materials in the Epstein case in 30 days.

Massie and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), his chief co-sponsor, have been building support for a discharge petition that would compel a floor vote on their measure. The duo need two more Republican votes, if all Democrats sign on as expected, to force the vote.

Entering the House floor just before the vote, Speaker Mike Johnson insisted again to reporters that the Oversight provision in the rule would bear fruit.

Johnson also reiterated his opposition to Massie’s discharge petition, even as some victims have said they support Massie’s effort.

“I don’t begrudge anything that the victims have said. … It’s a heroic thing that they’re doing,” Johnson said. “But there are hundreds and hundreds of other women, some of them recruited and groomed as minors, as young as 13 years old, who do not want their identities to be known.”

Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.

House Democrats are moving to formally reprimand Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) in response to a GOP lawmaker’s effort to censure Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.).

Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) is proposing to rebuke McIver and remove her from the House Homeland Security Committee after she was charged with assault following a May scuffle outside an New Jersey immigration facility. The House is expected to take up the measure Wednesday.

McIver has denied wrongdoing and vowed to fight the federal assault charge, which Democrats have denounced as partisan.

Mills, meanwhile, has faced a spate of ethical issues including an since-withdrawn allegation of assault and an ongoing legal dispute over a previous relationship. He also faces an ethics investigation into allegations he benefited from federal contracts while in office. Democrats are targeting his north central Florida district and have sought to turn the ethical controversies into a campaign liability.

Censures have become increasingly common in recent congressional history, with the House GOP moving this Congress to reprimand Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) for disrupting President Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress. Three other House Democrats faced censure in the prior Congress.

Disciplinary resolutions some of the few legislative moves available to the House minority — or individual lawmakers — to circumvent majority leadership because censure motions and other moves related to discipline are “privileged,” allowing them to bypass committees to be considered on the House floor.

The Congressional Black Caucus has led Democrats’ effort to defend McIver and is pushing the move against Mills.

“LaMonica is not afraid to fight for her constituents. The Congressional Black Caucus is not afraid to fight for her,” Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), the CBC chair, said in a Wednesday statement. “Our defense of Congresswoman McIver, and our work to hold Mr. Mills accountable are both in service of this Caucus’ relentless pursuit of justice.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Wednesday that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will face “hard questions” over a recent shakeup of top health officials when he appears before senators Thursday.

At Kennedy’s appearance before the Senate Finance Committee, which was first reported by POLITICO, Thune said that the secretary needs to “restore public trust” after Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez was fired and other top CDC officials quickly resigned.

“I would say that, you know, because somebody’s supportive or in favor of vaccines is not disqualifying for that job, so I assume he’ll have some questions to answer tomorrow,” Thune said.

The turnover at the CDC has sparked a wave of concern from some Senate Republicans on public health grounds. But it’s also exposed frustration that the administration is ousting officials just weeks or months into the job after the Senate spent valuable floor time confirming them.

“Honestly he’s got to take responsibility,” Thune added. “We confirm these people, we go through a lot of work to get them confirmed, and they’re in office a month?”

HHS isn’t the only Trump administration department that has seen quick exits. Two Senate-confirmed Treasury officials — IRS Administrator Billy Long and Deputy Secretary Michael Faulkender — departed after just months.

Thune added that Kennedy needs people in key positions who “have some stability and can hopefully command the trust of the American people.”

Thursday’s hearing was scheduled before the CDC shakeup. While Kennedy is coming to testify about Trump’s health agenda, he’s expected to face questions from both sides of the aisle about the turnover.

Kennedy defended the changes during a Fox News interview last week. Though he declined to talk about “personnel issues,” he added that the CDC “is in trouble, and we need to fix it, … and it may be that some people should not be working there anymore.”

Another Democrat is jumping into the crowded race to oust Republican Sen. Susan Collins.

Maine brewery owner Dan Kleban, 48, announced in a kickoff video Wednesday that he is mounting a Senate bid because Collins has “been in Washington for 30 years, she stopped looking out for us, she lied about protecting abortion rights, and she refuses to stand up to Donald Trump when it really matters.”

In an interview with POLITICO, Kleban said prices are “too damn high” and that he agreed with much of the so-called Abundance movement aimed at bringing costs down “before I even heard of the Abundance movement.” He also said he does not support Sen. Bernie Sanders’ recent resolution to block arms sales to Israel, a contentious issue that has roiled the Democratic Party.

“I believe Israel has a right to defend itself. I don’t think that we solve the horrific humanitarian crisis in Gaza by disarming Israel and exposing them to harm,” said Kleban.

Senate Democrats are targeting Maine in their long-shot campaign to take back the Senate, and many top Democrats are encouraging Gov. Janet Mills to enter the race. Mills has said she is “seriously considering” a run and will make a decision by mid-November. Sanders-endorsed oyster farmer Graham Platner and former End Citizens United Vice President Jordan Wood are also vying for the Democratic Senate nomination in Maine.

Asked whether he would stay in the race if Mills threw her hat in the ring, Kleban was noncommittal.

“If Gov. Mills decides to get into the race, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there,” he said.

Georgia Republican Senate candidate Buddy Carter dropped a new television ad Wednesday, part of a seven-figure blitz that includes the statewide television and streaming spots as well as direct mail aimed at boosting his name ID.

Carter, a fifth-term congressmember, is looking to differentiate himself from a crowded field of candidates to unseat incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff that includes fellow Rep. Mike Collins and former college football coach Derek Dooley, a political novice hand-picked by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who officially endorsed Dooley in next year’s marquee Senate race.

The Carter ad touts him as a “trusted MAGA warrior” and leans fully into culture war issues, including a championing of bans on trans people from girls sports and serving as a staunch ally of President Donald Trump on illegal border crossings. The ad also splices remarks from Trump from a campaign rally in September 2024 in Savannah, where the then-presidential candidate said “Buddy Carter…warrior…great guy.”

The adds also notes Carter has “racked up win after win” while in Washington, including the passage of the Laken Riley Act, a law named after a University of Georgia student slain by a migrant and a bill Collins was a lead sponsor of.

The Georgia Senate contest is expected to be among the most expensive races in next year’s midterms and is a key race for Democrats to hold in a state Trump won last year.

A poll last month from TechnoMetrica Institute of Policy and and Politics showed the contest for the GOP nomination remains relatively tight, with Collins at 27 percent, Carter at 20 percent and Dooley, who launched his bid last month at 8 percent, with nearly 40 percent of Republican voters undecided.