Robert Garcia picked for top congressional post, part of a new Democratic generation
Rep. Robert Garcia emerged Tuesday as a major player in a new generation of California congressional leaders as he was elected as top Democrat on the House committee charged with investigating White House actions.
The California Democrat, a former Long Beach mayor, is in his second House term. He was chosen for the top committee job over Reps. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas and Kweisi Mfume, D-Md. Garcia got a strong push from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
Garcia, 47, is part of an emerging group of younger Democrats replacing the veterans who slowly have been leaving.
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, is no longer House Speaker, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who served 31 years, died in 2023.
Among the up and comers are House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar, D-San Bernardino, and Vice Chairman Ted Lieu, D-Los Angeles.
Garcia is an immigrant from Peru who became a U.S. citizen as an adult, Garcia is the first openly LGBTQ immigrant in Congress.
He calls himself a “comic book nerd,” saying comics helped him to read and write English.
He’ll now be a leading voice on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and if Democrats win control of the House would be in line for the chairmanship.
Garcia said after being chosen Tuesday, “We will hold Donald Trump and his Administration accountable for their corruption and abuses of power, and will work to make our government more efficient and effective for the American people.”
But Republicans have the majority, so chances are there will be no major investigations of the Trump administration during this Congress.
The committee has been a forum in recent years for looking into — and in some cases helping promote — actions of the Biden and Trump administrations.
Tuesday, for instance, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE), held a hearing on “Locking in the DOGE Cuts: Ending Waste, Fraud, and Abuse for Good.”
This story was originally published June 24, 2025 at 10:08 AM.
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