WASHINGTON – Congresswoman Maxine Waters of California’s 43rd congressional district said her coronavirus select committee Chairman Jim Clyburn wants the committee to start meeting at least once a week. Waters is one of 12 members on the committee and the only lawmaker from California.

Since the select committee passed the House along party lines four weeks ago, the group of lawmakers has held one meeting, on May 13. During that meeting, lawmakers successfully named five large companies that took small business loans from the federal government: MiMedx Group, EVO Transportation & Energy Services, Gulf Island Fabrication, Quantum Corporation, and Universal Stainless & Alloy Products.

The panel demanded the companies return the money.

At the start of that meeting, Republicans ridiculed Democrats for joining the meeting remotely, saying Congress should lead by example, with Republican Whip Steve Scalise saying they can achieve “model social distancing.” 

Now, Waters said she’s laying out her priorities for the select committee. She said they need to look into why some governors are struggling for equipment and protective gear, while others are not. Waters said there’s some “information” to indicate there may be some “fraud” in the way equipment was sorted out to the states. 

Waters also said she’s concerned with how the president is using the Defense Production Act, or DPA, to keep meatpacking factories running, especially since employees are getting sick or are too afraid to come in, yet many have no choice. She added she felt this DPA unfairly targeted the workers, many of who are immigrants and minorities. 

Waters said the main priority of the select committee is to go over every dollar in the latest stimulus bills, and future bills like the HEROES Act, and make sure they’re used how they’re intended. 

“It is tremendous; the $3 trillion that has been talked about in this bill, added to the other money that we’ve been able to put together, must be given oversight,” Waters said. “We cannot spend the people’s money without assuring them that it is being spent properly, that it has not been used or misused in ways that certain elements of our society will benefit from rather than the people that it should be directed toward. We wanted to be equitable and we’re going to make sure that we learn everything that must be learned about how this money is being allocated and hows it’s being spent and whether or not we have some criminality involved in the way that it has been accessed.”

Republicans have pushed back on the idea of the select committee, and said with two more Democrats than Republicans, 7-5 respectively, the committee favors the majority party in a partisan way. 

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said this committee could just be “another stab at impeachment 2.0”, and said the oversight that comes with the relief packages are enough, and that this is just another way to attack the president. 

Republicans on the committee said their priorities for this committee is to look into holding China accountable for misinformation about the virus while ensuring clear and immediate guidance on how to safely reopen the economy. 

Waters said she hopes to work with Republicans to go over how all the money is issued and to make sure there are “no criminalities” involved.