Huelskamp (left) spoke at a briefing with Amash. | AP Photos Huelskamp, Amash rip GOP leaders

A day after learning he was yanked from from the Agriculture Committee, Kansas Rep. Tim Huelskamp lit into GOP leaders Tuesday, charging that conservative Republicans are punished for not toeing Speaker John Boehner’s line.

“No good deed goes unpunished,” Huelskamp said at a Heritage Foundation event. “We were not notified about what might occur but it confirms in my mind the deepest suspicions that most Americans have about Washington D.C: it’s petty, it’s vindictive, and if you have conservative principles you will be punished.”


Huelskamp spoke at the briefing with Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), who was booted from the Budget Committee as part of a series of committee moves by Republican leaders that drew criticism from the right. Amash said he still hadn’t been contacted by leadership about what happened, and neither man has been told which committees they’ll be appointed to in the next Congress.

Huelskamp said that when the Republican freshman class of 2010 came in, they were told they had to fundraise for the party and notify leadership how they would vote but could otherwise “vote their conscience and their district.”

His removal, the congressman said, was “not about principle, it was about obedience.”

“We’ve heard from multiple sources that someone walked in with a list of votes and said if you didn’t reach a particular scorecard of what was considered the right vote, which by the way was not the conservative position, then they were going to remove you from the committee,” Huelskamp added.

Reps. Walter Jones (R-N.C) and David Schweikert (R-Ariz.) were also stripped of plum committee assignments.

Amash, who considers himself a part of the Libertarian wing of the party, said leaders are sending a dangerous message to younger voters who want to be part of the GOP.

“For a party that’s trying to expand it’s base and reach out to young people I think it’s pretty outrageous,” he said. “It’s a slap in the face to all young people who are thinking about being Republicans, want to be a part of this party, and are being told, ‘Well, if you disagree with leadership just a couple times we’re going to send you home…you don’t get to participate.’”