State House drops proposal to remove Eastman from committees

Alaska House leaders last Friday backed away from a proposal to strip committee assignments from Wasilla Republican Rep. David Eastman, a member of the far-right organization Oath Keepers. For now, they plan to hold at least one hearing on the group.

House Majority Leader Chris Tuck said members had been prepared earlier this week to vote on the proposal but said it was "questionable" whether the votes were there to remove Eastman from committees.

Tuck described as informational the planned hearing, set to be held by the House Military and Veterans' Affairs Committee, which Tuck chairs. He said the intent is to learn more about the group.

"This is in no way setting the grounds for any type of action but trying to basically relieve pressure from going a little bit too far, too fast" with removing Eastman from legislative committees, Tuck said.

A leader of the Oath Keepers and other members or associates have been charged with seditious conspiracy related to the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Eastman has said he did not condone the storming of the Capitol. He has said that he attended a Jan. 6, 2021, rally in Washington, D.C., for outgoing President Donald Trump, but said he did not take part in the riot and he has not been accused of any crimes.

Eastman has cast the current debate around him as an extension of "cancel culture."

On Jan. 31, the House Committee on Committees, meeting with little notice, voted 5-2 to remove him from committees. The dissenting votes were members of the Republican minority, of which Eastman is a part.

A vote on the proposal later that same day by the full House was delayed after Eastman objected. He said a vote affecting his role as an alternate on a legislative ethics committee needed to be handled separately.

That led to a lengthy break in the floor session before the proposal was tabled.

Tuck and House Speaker Louise Stutes are among the leaders on the House Committee on Committees. Stutes told reporters last Friday that taking someone's committee assignments from them "is a serious issue and before we go down that avenue, we want to make sure we have thoroughly vetted the situation. That's the right thing to do."

Stutes, one of two Republicans in the bipartisan majority, said there was "maybe a little bit of a rush to try and address a situation that we should have taken a little slower process in doing. So that's what we're going to do."

This issue "has been on the front page far too long. We need to move forward with the state's business," she said.