George Santos Establishes Two House Committees: Small Business and Science

Despite growing calls to investigate representative George Santos and his resignation, House Republican leadership on Tuesday held the first New York meeting of the Small Business and Science, Space and Technology Committee chairs, according to a person briefed on the work.

The placement of the committee is a clear indication of the failed way Republican leaders are treating Mr. Santos amid growing controversy over falsehoods on the campaign trail and questions about fundraising and spending that were reported last month in the New York Times.

Neither of Mr. Santos’ two committees are seen as seats for lawmakers hoping to improve their reputation on Capitol Hill, and they are not as respected as the committees he originally targeted: either the House Financial Services or Foreign Affairs Committees. A person briefed on his actions said Santos requested the positions from Republican leaders.

But Mr. Santos’ chances of getting the job dwindled after he admitted to lying about his financial affairs and after reports cast doubt on his personal life, including claims of Jewish ancestry.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy, backed by many conservatives who include a group threatening his leadership, has seen some of his delegates join Democrats in calling for Santos to step down. But Mr McCarthy, who wants to be speaker was supported by Mr Santos, refused to criticize them outside.

Last week, he said he would not force Mr. Santos to resign despite pleas from the Nassau County Republican Party and members of Mr. Santos’ convention. McCarthy.

Mr McCarthy has said any potential wrongdoing should be investigated by the House Ethics Committee, which has been criticized by watchdog groups for moving too slowly. Two Democratic congressmen called for an investigation last week, involving Mr. Santos’ financial disclosure forms.

State and local prosecutors have also said they are investigating whether Santos committed any wrongdoing in connection with statements he made about his background, finances or campaign spending.

On Monday, Mr. McCarthy told CNN that he “always has a few questions” about Mr. Santos’ background. He said he spoke to Santos about the incident when a Santos aide was caught posing as McCarthy’s top man while soliciting campaign contributions.

However, Mr McCarthy has defended putting Mr Santos on the committees, saying that the people who voted for him elected him.

Mr. Santos, in an interview last week on the regular podcast, “Bannon’s War Room,” appeared to be backing away from his original demands and offering limited targets.

“I came to DC without any preconceived notions about which committees to serve on,” Santos said. He also said, “Whatever committee I may be assigned to, whether it is, I don’t know, Science and Technology, Education and Work or any committee that may be assigned to me, I will give 110 percent.”

Mr. Santos’ communications manager did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on Tuesday.

It is not clear how Santos will be treated by his fellow committee members; last week, Nassau County Republican leaders said he was no longer welcome and suspended him from the day-to-day operations of local government, barring him from meetings and local events.

Mr. Santos will sit in his seat on the Small Business Committee as he faces questions about his company, the Devolder Organization, which he said financially paid him $700,000 and profits between $1 million and $5 million.

The business is not in the public eye, and Mr. Santos did not say much about his work, only saying that he “did construction” and “special consulting” for wealthy clients. Mr. Santos did not list any clients on the financial disclosure form submitted last September despite the requirement to do so for any payment of more than $5,000 from a single source.

When Mr. Santos expressed interest in running for Congress, he presented a CV to party officials that included jobs at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. Both companies told The Times they had no record of having worked there.

Two previous articles posted on Indeed.com in 2017 and 2019 show that Mr. Santos has been saying this before. Both documents use the name George Devolder, a name he has used professionally for other purposes, and describe a strategy similar to what Mr. Santos said on the campaign trail.

The 2017 review states that Mr. Santos was a bilingual customer service representative at Citigroup in 2011 and 2012, while he was actually working on the Dish Network network, and also worked as a financial advisor. In a 2019 resume, Mr. Santos said he was an “assistant asset manager” at the company, which sold its asset management business in 2005.

Although Republican leaders have shown that they do not want to criticize Santos, 10 Republican representatives, including six former members of Congress from New York, have urged him to resign.

Some representatives have criticized Santos’ actions but stopped short of calling for his resignation. On Sunday, Representative James Comer of Kentucky, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said he had avoided speaking to Mr. Santos about the allegations.

“I don’t agree with the way he went about it in Congress, and I didn’t introduce myself to him because it’s disgusting, the lies he told,” Comer said on CNN.

However, Santos was not completely discredited. Even on his first day in the House, when he was considered a loser by many of his fellow members, he had a warm conversation with Representative Pat Fallon of Texas.

Mr. Fallon, a Republican, said in an interview that he told Mr. Santos that he had to be honest with voters going forward.

“One of the things I said was, ‘George, you have to be straight with people, you can’t do it anymore and you have to do it right now,’ ” Mr. Fallon said. He declined to elaborate on Mr. Santos’ response.

Emily Cochrane contributed reports from Washington, and Jay Root from Albany, NY