Tea party caucus created in Congress

— A group of two dozen House Republicans, led by Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., officially began the congressional Tea Party Caucus on Wednesday, defending the grass-roots conservative movement as a positive force in American politics and repeatedly insisting it does not have racist motives.

Many congressional Republicans have long associated themselves with the tea party activists who emerged during last year’s stimulus and health care debates and sharply oppose President Obama’s agenda, but Bachmann’s move to create this caucus formalizes their relationship with the GOP.

Bachmann and her allies say the caucus will invite activists to Capitol Hill, solicit their ideas and perhaps turn them into policies.

The members did not specify what impact the new caucus might have. Most Republicans members of Congress already oppose most legislation that the tea party dislikes, reducing the need for a caucus to push the GOP to the right. And House Republicans already have a group of its more conservative members called the Republican Study Committee.

“We decided to form a Tea Party Caucus for one very important reason, to listen to the concerns of the tea party,” said Bachmann. “What we are not, we are not the mouthpiece of the tea party, we are not taking the tea party and controlling it from Washington, D.C. I am not the head of the tea party, nor are any of these members of Congress. The people are head of the tea party.”

The meeting was closed to reporters, as are most congressional caucuses. At the news conference afterward, members of Congress aggressively tried to show the diversity of the movement, at a time when it is battling accusations of racism. After Bachmann spoke, the next four speakers were all activists who had come to Capitol Hill for the event. None was white.

Upcoming Events