# Could a Member of the House or Senate Not Serve on Any Committees? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 3, 2021, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-member-of-the-house-or-senate-not-serve-on-any-committees/932170 "2021-02-03T23:22:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2021, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-member-of-the-house-or-senate-not-serve-on-any-committees/932170/1 "2021-02-03T23:22:51Z")
Is there a precedent for a congress-person being stripped of their committee posts and just … not serving on any of them? ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2021, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-member-of-the-house-or-senate-not-serve-on-any-committees/932170/2 "2021-02-03T23:37:08Z")
Steve King (R-IA) remained in the House for a while after being stripped of his committee assignments, but then was primaried and lost. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2021, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-member-of-the-house-or-senate-not-serve-on-any-committees/932170/3 "2021-02-04T01:14:04Z")
The Washington Post has [a list of Congresspeople who’ve been kicked off committees.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/02/03/congress-comittees-removed/) For those of you who find the Post article is paywalled, it looks like there have been 9 members since 2005. Most of them were under some form of criminal investigation or indictment, but it seems that three were purged in 2012 either for disagreeing with House leadership or being Tea Party members, depending on whose story you believe. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2021, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-member-of-the-house-or-senate-not-serve-on-any-committees/932170/4 "2021-02-04T11:42:00Z")
I don’t believe there’s a _requirement_ to serve on any committees but why would you run for Congress and then not place yourself in positions to have influence if you had the option? (Obviously, if one is removed from committees that option no longer exists.) ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2021, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-member-of-the-house-or-senate-not-serve-on-any-committees/932170/5 "2021-02-04T12:39:33Z")
The way committee assignments have worked is that that the party leaders in each chamber agree on how many Republicans and Democrats will serve on each committee. Then each party’s leadership decides which of their specific members will fill those slots. In all past cases of a member being removed from a committee, it has been the party leader who has either asked him/her to step down or kicked him/her off the committee. This is the first time that the House as a whole is voting to remove a member from a committee against the party leader’s wishes. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2021, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-member-of-the-house-or-senate-not-serve-on-any-committees/932170/6 "2021-02-04T16:59:14Z")
From the Votemaster: > If Greene were to be removed from her committees, it wouldn’t be the first time this happened, but it is rare. In 2001, Democrat Jim Traficant voted for Dennis Hastert (R) for speaker and he was stripped of his committee assignments. In 2006, William Jefferson (D) was kicked off the House Ways and Means Committee after the FBI found $90,000 in bribes he had accepted in the form of cold hard cash—hidden in his freezer. In 2007, Larry Craig (R) was caught playing footsie with a cop in a mens’ room at the MSP airport and voluntarily gave up his committee assignments and didn’t seek reelection in 2008. In 2018, Chris Collins (R) and Duncan Hunter (R) were stripped of committee assignments—after they were indicted for financial crimes. In 2019, Steve King (R) was stripped of his committee assignments for saying white supremacy isn’t so bad. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2021, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-member-of-the-house-or-senate-not-serve-on-any-committees/932170/7 "2021-02-20T03:36:49Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > From the Votemaster: > > Larry Craig (R) was caught playing footsie with a cop in a mens’ room at the MSP airport and voluntarily gave up his committee assignments and didn’t seek reelection in 2008. Don’t forget, Larry Craig was the lead singer for the wildly popular barbershop quartet, The Singing Senators, which also featured Trent Lott. You can still pick up their only CD _Let Freedom Sing_ on Amazon, but hurry, there’s only one copy left. > **[Let Freedom Sing - Amazon.com Music](https://www.amazon.com/Let-Freedom-Sing-Singing-Senators/dp/B0044FN5BI)** > > Let Freedom Sing - Amazon.com Music It 's a steal at just $902.81, plus $3.99 shipping.