House Republican leadership committed to addressing affordability and national security issues at the Republican National Committee on Tuesday. 

House Republican Conference Chairwoman Lisa McClain, R-Mich., who started the press conference by offering her prayers and condolences to the families of the two National Guard members shot in the nation’s capital, promised legislative work on lowering the burden of regulations.

“House Republicans are acting on our affordability agenda. Will move forward with the Dump Red Tape Act and the Small Business Regulatory Reduction Act. These are real reforms to roll back Washington’s overreach and put power back where it belongs. The power needs to be with the workers, with the families and with the job creators, not with the government,” McClain said.

Other Republicans at Tuesday’s press conference pointed to government waste and unaccountability as driving forces of the affordability crisis, both on the state and federal level.

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., addressed recent reports of millions of dollars worth of fraud crushing his home state’s social services.

“One billion—that’s how much money has been stolen from the hard working taxpayers in my home state of Minnesota,” Emmer told reporters. “And if that’s not egregious enough, some of these taxpayer dollars have allegedly been diverted to Al-Shabaab terrorists.”

“Under the failed leadership of [Gov.] Tim Walz, Minnesota has become a hotbed for fraud,” Emmer added.

Emmer emphasized the importance of discussing the massive fraud perpetuated on taxpayers without fear. 

“Let me be clear, it is not racist to call out criminal behavior, and we’re going to not cower to baseless labels, while Minnesotans, including law abiding Somali Americans, get robbed blind,” the Minnesota congressman said.

He also thanked President Donald Trump for raising awareness about the systemic defrauding, which he said had been under covered despite awareness of the existence of criminal behavior for years. 

Walz, a Democrat, said, “You commit fraud in Minnesota, you’re going to prison. I don’t care what color you are, what religion you are.”

“But sitting on the sidelines and throwing out accusations, and let’s be very clear, demonizing an entire population and lying to people about the safety and security of this state, is beneath that,” he added, according to a Minneapolis-St. Paul Fox affiliate.

When asked about the president’s description of Walz as “retarded,” Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., said, “that’s not the word that I would choose.”

Meanwhile, a growing contingent on Capitol Hill is looking to perform more oversight of the Trump administrations strikes on Venezuelan drug boats. Johnson was asked about these strikes on Tuesday, but wanted to avoid getting ahead of the relevant committees.

“I’m not going to prejudge any of that,” Johnson said of the strikes. “As you know, both of the Armed Services Committees in the Senate and the House will be having hearings on this to review, and that’s their role.”

“I don’t know how much of the tape should be released, because I’m not sure how much is sensitive with regard to national security and all that. I haven’t had a chance to review it, so I’m not going to prejudge it. But I will say that, you know, it’s not an unprecedented thing,” Johnson said.

The speaker then noted the precedent set by previous administrations.

“One of the things I was reminded of this morning is that under Barack Obama, President Obama, he had, I think there were 550 drone strikes on people who were targeted as enemies of the country, and nobody ever questioned it okay? And second secondary strikes are not unusual. It has to happen if a mission is going to be completed,” the speaker explained.

Republican leadership also promised to address concerns over Chinese Communist Party influence operations in the United States.

Rep. Zach Nunn, R-Iowa, noted that Congress would be considering legislation this week designed to combat the influence of the Chinese Communist Party on American youth. He explained how a Des Moines public school group had been taken on an all-expenses-paid-for trip to China where they were surveilled and propagandized. 

“I’ve had parents across Iowa say, ‘How is this allowed to happen?’ And the simple truth is, there’s no law preventing it,” Nunn explained, adding that, “The Chinese government is creating a series of shell organizations to recruit kids to come to China and then exploit them the moment they sit down in soil inside Beijing.”

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