Fact check: Ilhan Omar removed from House committee, not Congress

BrieAnna J. Frank, USA TODAY
·2 min read
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The claim: The GOP approved a resolution to remove Ilhan Omar from Congress

A Feb. 19 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) includes a video that makes a dramatic claim about Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar.

“BREAKING GOP Approves Resolution to Expel Omar from Congress!” reads the post's caption. “It’s OVER For Her!”

The post was shared more than 700 times in less than a week.

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Our rating: False

Omar was removed from the House Foreign Affairs Committee in early February but remains a member of Congress. The post refers to a 2019 resolution from the Alabama Republican Party to remove her from Congress.

Omar removed from House committee, not Congress

The Republican-led House of Representatives voted to remove Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Feb. 2 for her past comments about Israel that members of both parties deemed antisemitic, as USA TODAY reported at the time.

Omar remained listed as a representative on Congress.gov as of Feb. 24. Her latest activity at that point was on Feb. 21, when a bill she co-sponsored to reduce funds for the Department of Defense was referred to the House Committee on Armed Services.

Ilhan Omar
Ilhan Omar

Despite its caption, the video in the post references a 2019 action by the Alabama Republican Party, not the Republican Party as a whole.

That year, the state party passed a resolution urging its congressional delegation to launch expulsion proceedings against Omar. Expulsion proceedings at that point would have had little chance of success given that the House was then controlled by Democrats, USA TODAY reported at the time.

The U.S. Constitution allows the House to expel a member with a two-thirds vote. The House has done so only five times in its history, as reported by The Washington Post.

More: Rep. Ilhan Omar vows to 'continue to speak up' after GOP House removes her from committee

USA TODAY has previously debunked false claims about Omar, including that House Democrats removed her from Congress in 2022, that she was photographed at an al-Qaida training camp and that she said police shouldn’t exist after learning some of them are Jewish.

USA TODAY reached out to users who shared the latest claim for comment.

Check Your Fact and PolitiFact previously debunked the claim.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Ilhan Omar removed from committee, not Congress