Pelosi announces Democrats named to House coronavirus committee

Washington — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Whip Jim Clyburn announced the Democratic members of a newly established House committee tasked with overseeing the distribution of the $2 trillion coronavirus relief package signed into law last month.

Clyburn will be the chair of the bipartisan House Select Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis, which was established in a vote by the House last week. Other Democratic members of the committee are:

• Maxine Waters
• Carolyn Maloney
• Nydia Velázquez
• Bill Foster
• Jamie Raskin
• Andy Kim

“As House Speaker, I am proud to appoint these distinguished and accomplished leaders of the Congress and country to the Select Committee on the Coronavirus,” Pelosi said in a statement accompanying the announcement. “They bring outstanding mastery of congressional oversight and decades of experience fighting for working families to our critical mission to ensure that our coronavirus response puts working families first.”

In a press conference at the Capitol announcing the appointments, Clyburn said that the committee would work in a bipartisan manner.

“We have no higher priority than the health and well-being of the American people,” Clyburn said.

Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has not yet appointed any Republican members to the committee. Republicans have accused Democrats of creating the committee in an attempt to damage Mr. Trump’s electoral chances in November.

Pelosi also defended the committee’s purpose in the press conference.

“Of course we’re going to act in a nonpartisan way in this,” the speaker said.