{"id":52895,"date":"2020-07-17T17:55:32","date_gmt":"2020-07-17T17:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/07\/17\/army-vet-steps-down-from-congressional-committees-amid-voter-fraud-charges\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T10:53:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T10:53:46","slug":"army-vet-steps-down-from-congressional-committees-amid-voter-fraud-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/veterans\/2020\/07\/17\/army-vet-steps-down-from-congressional-committees-amid-voter-fraud-charges\/","title":{"rendered":"Army vet steps down from congressional committees amid voter fraud charges"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An Army veteran and Republican member of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2020\/07\/17\/will-a-new-push-to-end-veteran-suicide-have-more-success-than-past-promises\/\" target=_blank>House Veterans\u2019 Affairs Committee<\/a> stepped down from that panel on Friday amid charges of voter fraud and lying to law enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"http:\/\/caucus.militarytimes.com\/speaker\/steve-watkins\/\" target=_blank>Rep. Steve Watkins<\/a>, R-Kansas, said in a statement that the moves are designed to allow the veterans panel and two others he is a member of to \u201ccontinue their critical work\u201d while he works to \u201cfight these bogus charges.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Earlier this week, the Shawnee County District Attorney charged Watkins with three felony counts related to illegally casting a vote in local Kansas elections last year. Officials said that he used the address of a UPS store for his home address to register for the election.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2020\/07\/17\/will-a-new-push-to-end-veteran-suicide-have-more-success-than-past-promises\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"171\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Reach.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Will a new push to end veteran suicide have more success than past promises?<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">A just-released White House campaign and upcoming congressional legislative push aim to reduce the 20 veterans lost each day to suicide.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Watkins has insisted the incident was a simple mistake, and accused local officials of a politically motivated attack in the middle of his re-election campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s unclear whether Watkins could have remained on his committees amid the local investigation. House Republican Caucus rules state that members facing certain felony charges must step down from their assignments while law enforcement work is conducted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2018, then-California Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter was forced to give up his committee assignments in the wake of campaign finance fraud charges. He eventually resigned from Congress altogether, and was sentenced to 11 months in prison earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Watkins, 43, is a U.S. Military Academy graduate who deployed to Iraq in 2004. After his five years on active-duty, he traveled to Afghanistan to work as a defense contractor, where he said he sustained some injuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He has spoken about personal experiences with post-traumatic stress disorder and other combat complications during his time in Congress and on the campaign trail.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2020\/07\/14\/veterans-affairs-covid-cases-reach-highest-levels-yet-but-hospitalization-rates-keep-heading-downward\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/6359041543_dfd497a2c4_o.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Veterans Affairs COVID cases reach highest levels yet, but hospitalization rates keep heading downward<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">More than 135,000 Americans and nearly 1,800 VA patients have died from coronavirus complications since early March.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Watkins has sponsored several bills related to veterans issues, including one considered by the committee this week dealing with veterans burial benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Friday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said he still supports Watkins but accepted his decision to step down from his committees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The departure temporarily leaves the veterans committee with only 11 Republicans, compared to the 16 Democratic members. Watkins also stepped down from the foreign affairs and education\/labor House committees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rep. Steve Watkins, R-Kansas, will depart the House Veterans&#8217; Affairs Committee while he fights the charges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":95981,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":19,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,12,25,67,19],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3226],"class_list":["post-52895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-news","category-newsletters","category-pentagon-congress","category-veterans"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"KQUN7L67UFCPPAS5TYJA42SNTQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2020\/07\/17\/army-vet-steps-down-from-congressional-committees-amid-voter-fraud-charges\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Army vet steps down from congressional committees amid voter fraud charges - Marine Corps Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rep. 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