Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee dutifully turned back two attempts last week by Democrats to revoke the security clearance of First Son-in-Law Jared Kushner, despite knowing the debate over Kushner’s access to the nation’s secrets will only grow louder in the weeks to come. Grumbled one GOP committee member, “You can’t defend the indefensible.”

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s two amendments to a 2018 appropriations bill were “simply a political stunt,” said Rep. John Culberson of Texas, and it’s true, security clearances do not fall within the jurisdiction of the committee. Yet Wasserman Schultz's challenge -- that “protecting the American people from the threat of hostile foreign interference” isn’t something that should be considered “a controversial or political goal” -- is also true and not a responsibility Republicans should ignore.

Without the poison of partisanship, close family members serving as officials at the highest level in any White House -- what’s often called nepotism -- should be above reproach. Yet Kushner is everything but. Months ago he encouraged President Trump to fire former FBI Director James Comey, who was conducting an investigation into Russian election interference and potential collusion by Trump associates, including Kushner. And the White House senior adviser only recently disclosed his participation in the now infamous June 2016 meeting Donald Trump Jr. held with parties bearing information pitched by an intermediary as “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.” Kushner was privy to that pitch in advance when he received those words in an email Trump Jr. forwarded to him. Investigators are also probing whether the campaign’s digital operation, which Kushner directed, steered Russian efforts toward certain battleground states. Kushner, charged by his father-in-law with brokering a peace agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians, also has also just been forced to amend his financial discourse to include $250,000 in Israeli government bonds he sold this year and failed to include on his filing in March, according to the New York Times.

Kushner’s SF86 form, filed in January, listed no contacts with foreign officials or tourists. None. His lawyers promised he would amend it, and he now has done so three times, to add more than 100 foreign contacts. Omissions were characterized as inadvertent by Kushner’s legal team, who cited an “administrative error” made when a staffer hit the “send” button too soon. And that, if true, raises startling questions about whom Kushner might have empowered to handle something so serious.

The SF86 form states that “willful false statements” can be “punishable by fine or imprisonment or both.” The signature line on the form lies directly under this sentence: “I understand that intentionally withholding, misrepresenting, or falsifying information may have a negative effect on my security clearance, employment prospects, or job status, up to and including denial or revocation of my severity clearance, or my removal and debarment from Federal service.”

Kushner not only failed to reveal meetings with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak but with Sergey Gorkov, president of the VneshEconomBank operated by the Russian government and sanctioned after Russia invaded Crimea. The Washington Post reported in May that Kushner spoke with Kislyak in December to create a “secret and secure communications channel between Trump’s team and the Kremlin,” utilizing Russian Embassy and diplomatic outposts to avert detection by the U.S. government.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders last week refused to confirm whether Kushner’s current, interim clearance is still valid. And it’s hard to see the administration taking it away. Those in charge of doing so serve a commander-in-chief who is on record asking numerous high level intelligence officials to publicly deny any evidence of his collusion with Russia. Though they refused to do so, Kushner’s security clearance is not something Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats will want to rescind.

Yet it still cannot be defended.

Kushner doesn't need to know the nation’s secrets; he has a lot to do to fill his time at the White House. While his Mideast peace deal cools on the back burner, he can go back to tech summits, updating government systems through the Office of American Innovation, and being an envoy to Mexico and Canada.

Taking away Kushner’s security clearance would be better for him, President Trump, the Republican Party and -- most importantly -- for the country.