In early April, which is like five years ago in coronavirus time, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the House would create a select committee to oversee the Trump administration's COVID-19 response. It would be overseen by Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina and would "examine all aspects of the federal response to the coronavirus and ensure the taxpayers’ dollars are being wisely and efficiently spent."
That oversight committee is getting a vote in the House on Thursday. The committee will have subpoena power and have power to investigate how the trillions of dollars being authorized and appropriated are being spent. It will also have the power to probe the administration's preparation—or lack thereof—for the crisis. It will be a special investigatory subcommittee of the Oversight Committee, which Clyburn chairs.
The resolution creating the committee says it will investigate the "preparedness for and response to the coronavirus crisis," including the "planning for and implementation of testing, containment and mitigation," as well as federal distribution of medical supplies and protective equipment, and vaccine development. It will also have in its scope the "executive branch policies, deliberations, decisions, activities, internal and external communications related to the coronavirus crisis."
It won't get bipartisan support. Rules Committee ranking member Rep. Tom Cole said Thursday morning on the floor that "it's entirely plausible to conclude this select committee will simply turn into yet another partisan witch hunt aimed at damaging the President." Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters at a news conference: "The speaker tried to commit to me that this would be a bipartisan committee. I told her I don't view it that way. I view it more as a political one. […] I don't see a lot of members voting for it on our side. And I told her I would wait before I would appoint anybody to it, to see who she appoints to this, (and if) she is serious about making this a committee that works."
Obviously, Trump and Republicans have a lot to fear here because the administration has screwed this response up in every conceivable way. The Trump administration in general has become the poster child for waste, fraud, and abuse. It's been no different in this crisis, when the stakes have been deadly.