As the 118th Congress draws closer to its final recess before the 2024 election, House Republicans are more desperate than ever to elevate the MAGA Project 2025 agenda and serve as an arm of the Trump campaign in order to attack his political opponents. This week, MAGA Republicans enter their third week of bogus hearings thrusting a spotlight on Trump’s far-right agenda while targeting the Biden-Harris administration. One of these hearings, led by Oversight Chair James Comer (R-KY) features three witnesses who all have close ties to Project 2025 – one even authored a chapter calling for the abolishment of the Federal Reserve. This hearing caps off nearly 90 weeks of continuous partisan stunts – their latest play only further shows that the House GOP would rather spend its time pursuing the wrong priorities of political stunts to do Donald Trump’s bidding instead of solving the real issues facing Americans.
WITNESSES
Paul Winfree
Former Trump White House Official
Winfree Authored Part of Project 2025; He Wants to Abolish the Federal Reserve and Return to Gold-Backed Currency. Winfree – who spent years working for the right-wing think tank behind Project 2025 – authored chapter 24 of Project 2025’s Mandate For Leadership, which focuses on the Federal Reserve. He first calls for abolishing the agency completely and returning the U.S. Dollar to a commodity-backed currency, preferably gold. Abolishing the Federal Reserve is a fringe proposal embraced by the likes of MAGA GOP Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) and far-right Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY). Winfree also lists a host of radical alternatives to fully abolishing the agency, including instating a “K-Percent” rule to take the agency’s discretion for growing the money supply off the table, revoking its ability to make key decisions about inflation targets and interest rates.
Winfree Is A Former Trump White House Official. In January 2017, Winfree joined the Trump White House as the Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, the Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council, and the Director of Budget Policy. During his time in the Trump White House, Winfree authored the administration’s first budget proposal, as well as an executive order establishing a plan for “reorganizing the executive branch.” The budget included proposals to eliminate PBS, AmeriCorps, and the National Endowment for the Arts and the Humanities.
Chuck DeVore
Chief National Initiatives Officer, Texas Public Policy Foundation
DeVore Is A Former Republican Legislator. DeVore spent years working as a state-level Republican official during his tenure in the California State Assembly from 2004 to 2010. He was a top GOP legislator in the state, serving as Chief Republican Whip in 2008. He later ran for U.S. Senate in 2010 as a Republican, losing in the primary to Carly Fiorina.
DeVore Is Part Of A Koch-Funded Right-Wing Think Tank Linked to Project 2025. After losing the Senate race, DeVore joined a right-wing think tank known as the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) as a visiting scholar, later becoming a Vice President at the organization. TPPF is a member of the advisory board of Project 2025, has been partially attributed to the Texas GOP’s far-right shift. TPPF is funded by the Koch Brothers as well as fossil fuel industry interests. The organization is closely affiliated with a grab-bag of right-wing think tanks and legislative networks like the State Policy Network, and the massive right-wing model legislation farm American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).
DeVore Is A Right-Wing Mainstay Who Contributes to the Federalist and Regularly Appears on Fox News. As his TPPF biography points out, DeVore “regularly appears on Fox News and is a senior contributor at The Federalist.” He has authored dozens of partisan Fox News op-eds attacking President Biden on everything from clean energy to foreign policy and border security.
Patrice Onwuka
Director of the Center for Economic Opportunity, Independent Women’s Forum
Onwuka Works For A Right-Wing Policy Group With Ties To Project 2025. Onwuka currently serves as a director at the Independent Women’s Forum (IWF), an advocacy group characterized in a New York Times editorial as “a right-wing public policy group that provides pseudofeminist support for extreme positions that are in fact dangerous to women.” The Forum holds ties to several right-wing policy networks behind Project 2025, including the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the Council for National Policy, which has been described as a “secretive network of conservative activists” that “coordinates the activities of right-wing donors, media, and front organizations.” The IWF is also funded in part by the billionaire Koch Brothers, who bought and paid for Project 2025.
- The Independent Women’s Forum Worked To Stop Schools From Teaching About Global Warming And Climate Change. In 2010, the IWF launched an effort to eradicate the teaching of global warming and climate change from schools, forming a group called “Balanced Education for Everyone” concentrating efforts in Colorado. The group called global warming “junk science,” and claimed teaching it would unnecessarily frighten children.
Onwuka Is A Repeat Witness Right-Wing Mainstay Who Regularly Appears on Fox News and Newsmax. Onwuka is a repeat GOP witness, having just appeared on Capitol Hill last week for an Energy & Commerce hearing at the invitation of House Republicans. She has a well-established presence in the right-wing media ecosystem. She is a frequent face on Fox News and Fox Business and hosts a column on Newsmax. She also contributes to the right-leaning Washington Examiner.