WASHINGTON—House Committee on Oversight and Reform Ranking Member James Comer (R-Ky.) and Oversight Committee Republican lawmakers today blasted the Biden Administration’s newly created “Disinformation Governance Board” at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as an attempt to suppress free speech. In a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the Republican lawmakers call for all documents and communications regarding the creation of the board, selection of its executive director, and how DHS determines what constitutes “disinformation.”

“The United States’ internal security apparatus must serve to protect the American people from threats to the homeland, not be weaponized by an unpopular President to push false narratives and discredit lawful discourse,” wrote the Republican lawmakers. “The creation of the ‘Disinformation Governance Board’ appears to double down on this Administration’s continued abuse of taxpayer dollars and the federal government’s powers to attack Americans who disagree with its policies, smearing them as extremists and perpetrators of ‘mis- dis- and mal-information.’ Whether maligning opponents of the Administration’s COVID-19 vaccine and mask mandates as ‘domestic violent extremists,’ or smearing parents concerned with ensuring their children receive a quality, in-person education as domestic terrorists, the Administration appears dead-set on suppressing opinions in opposition to its radical agenda.”

DHS is creating the Orwellian-named “Disinformation Governance Board” to monitor speech related to irregular migration and Russia. Nina Jankowicz has been tapped to lead the board as its Executive Director and she has a history of pushing misinformation. She has promoted the work of Christopher Steele, the author of the widely discredited Steele dossier, and promoted the false narrative that the Hunter Biden laptop story was Russian disinformation. The Republican lawmakers raise concerns her appointment signals the newly created board is being set up to provide cover for the Biden Administration and launch political attacks against conservatives.

“It comes as no surprise that the ‘Disinformation Governance Board’ will begin to focus on promoting the Administration’s narrative around ‘irregular migration,’ likely promoting the demonstrably false claim repeated constantly by senior Administration officials that the Administration is creating a ‘safe, orderly, and humane immigration system.’ In fact, the Administration has already been caught trying to prevent unfavorable media coverage of the border crisis by banning media drones during a surge in Del Rio, Texas last year. Instead of laundering the facts of the border crisis—which is anything but ‘safe, orderly, and humane’—through a lens of Administration-approved talking points, DHS political leadership should cease their efforts to cater to radical open-borders advocates and their allies, and instead work to implement policies that will actually solve the crisis,” concluded the Republican lawmakers.