Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., questions witnesses throughout a Home Oversight and Authorities Reform subcommittee listening to on Feb. 12, 2025, on Capitol Hill.
Rod Lamkey/AP
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Rod Lamkey/AP
The brand new prime Democrat on the Home Oversight and Authorities Reform committee is prepared for a combat.
“I feel I obtained elected as a result of I’m aggressive,” Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., stated in an interview. “I feel that we have got to be fighters on this second.”
In June, Home Democrats picked Garcia, a sophomore congressman, over a number of extra senior colleagues to steer their occasion on the committee. At 47, the California native is the youngest rating member in Congress.
Recognized for its raucous hearings and investigations into among the most distinguished and divisive areas of American politics, the Home Oversight Committee is among the many most excessive profile arenas in Congress. The committee chair has the facility to subpoena witnesses and the broad authority to dig into nearly any matter — that has included the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist assaults, steroid utilization in Main League Baseball, and the federal government’s dealing with of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Garcia succeeds the late Gerry Connolly, D-Va., who died in Might following a battle with most cancers, and Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., who briefly crammed the position for Democrats on an performing foundation.
He involves the job at a second when Democrats are craving extra direct confrontation with President Trump and Republicans in Congress, however as rating member, he faces inherent challenges. Not like the GOP chair, he is unable to set the agenda for the committee and lacks subpoena energy.
That does not faze Garcia, who stated he is able to lean into the fray.
“Persons are simply pissed off at what’s occurred with Donald Trump, Elon Musk, the Home Republicans,” Garcia stated. “And other people wish to see a very good combat.”
Garcia already has a status for doing simply that.
In February, Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., tried to censure Garcia for his feedback on CNN saying People need Democrats to “convey precise weapons to this bar combat” whereas referencing Elon Musk’s authorities work. Days later, Garcia obtained a letter from the Division of Justice which stated it takes “threats in opposition to public officers very critically.”
Garcia stated his phrases weren’t a risk, and that he would not be intimidated.
“You bought to face as much as bullies,” Garcia stated. “I’ve achieved that my entire life.”
From Peru to Lengthy Seaside
Garcia was born in Peru and immigrated to the US as a younger little one together with his mom.
“My mother, once we first obtained right here, she cleaned homes. I keep in mind watching her and my aunt going to those properties,” Garcia stated. “I keep in mind pondering, ‘Wow, it could be so good to stay in a spot like this.'”
His household settled east of Los Angeles in Covina, Calif., as undocumented residents. On the encouragement of his mother, Garcia utilized to California State College, Lengthy Seaside, the place he obtained his begin in politics as scholar authorities president.
“After I was in faculty, more often than not I used to be not a citizen,” Garcia stated. “And I keep in mind pondering, ‘Wow, I am getting these alternatives to characterize all these people. I am unable to even, like, vote in an election myself.'”
Then-student authorities president Robert Garcia (center) stands with fellow college students Probability Decker (left), Casey Mercer (left of heart), Sheryl Mauricio (proper of heart) and Wayne Stickney-Smith (proper).
Picture Courtesy of California State College Lengthy Seaside, College Library
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Picture Courtesy of California State College Lengthy Seaside, College Library
Finally, Garcia grew to become a citizen in his 20s, alongside together with his mother, due to the amnesty legislation signed by President Ronald Reagan.
After commencement, Garcia began a neighborhood information website known as The Lengthy Seaside Publish, however earlier than too lengthy, politics would come calling once more. He received a seat on town council, after which at simply 37 years previous, received election as mayor.
Throughout Garcia’s second time period as mayor, the pandemic hit Lengthy Seaside and the world.
“Each my mother and my stepdad died as a result of COVID, which is horrific, clearly,” Garcia stated. “And I used to be the mayor on the time. And so that actually had a profound affect on me. Notably what Donald Trump was saying and doing in that first time period.”
He stated this motivated him to run for nationwide workplace in 2022, when a Home seat representing the Lengthy Seaside space opened up.
At his swearing in, Garcia grew to become the primary overtly homosexual immigrant to serve in Congress.
‘A bully pulpit to refute’
Throughout his first time period, Garcia rapidly rose up the Democratic ranks, gaining a seat on the Oversight Committee after being recruited to the panel by Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., a former rating member himself.
Raskin stated Garcia is the fitting choose for this explicit second on the Oversight panel.
“I feel that what we see shaping up on this century is a battle between proper wing authoritarian populism and progressive multicultural populism,” Raskin stated. “And he’s very in contact with all the new actions of our day and never in any form of dogmatic or politically appropriate approach. But it surely’s a part of who he’s.”
As rating member on the committee, Garcia is taking over a key position amongst Democrats and bringing a youthful perspective to occasion management at a second when many citizens are calling for generational change.
And though his powers within the minority might be restricted, he is nonetheless in search of solutions from the administration.
“We nonetheless have the facility to research even within the minority,” Garcia stated. “We’re asking Homeland Safety and Secretary (Kristi) Noem for solutions on a wide range of questions and demanding that members of Congress be allowed their oversight accountability.”
Raskin stated Garcia’s greatest weapon as a rating member might be his elevated visibility.
“What Robert will get is a bully pulpit to refute and rebut all the propaganda and disinformation coming forth from James Comer and the GOP,” Raskin stated, referring to the panel’s GOP chairman. “So he’ll be taking part in offense and protection on the identical time.”
When requested if there are any present areas of frequent floor between Republicans and Democrats on the committee, Garcia stated no.
“These people will not be desirous about bipartisanship,” Garcia stated. “And so I do not see plenty of locations there that there is plenty of shared pursuits.”
Now, Garcia stated he is working to flip the Home. And if he turns into chairman of the committee underneath a Democrat majority, Garcia stated he is aware of who he’d examine.
“Of us like Stephen Miller, people like Elon Musk,” Garcia stated. “These are folks that should be held accountable for what they’ve achieved to the general public, regardless of how a lot cash they’ve or how highly effective they could be, or near the president they could be.”
