(CNSNews.com) - Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, says hearings into alleged Biden family influence-peddling will begin next week.
"And I think that we can play a huge role in investigating this administration," he said during an appearance at the National Press Club on Monday.
Comer said the committee wants to hear from "anyone that was in business with the Bidens," or who were partners in Hunter Biden's LLC.
"I think they need to tell everyone exactly what the business was," Comer said:
"And I think we need to determine, you know, what was that money for and who supplied that money? And that's the basis of the investigation.
"This is a problem. And it's a problem that continues to get worse. If you listen to the liberals -- Democrats -- complain, partisan Democrats, they say, well, what about Jared Kushner and all that? I think there was a problem in the last administration with influence-peddling. If we don't do something about influence-peddling, it's probably, it's only going to get worse.
"You saw on TV this weekend that high-ranking military officials are concerned that we could be at war with China. [Rep.] Michael McCaul confirmed that.
"I don't know if we're going to be at war with China or not, but if we've got family members of this administration that have been receiving millions and millions of dollars from China, then I think it is worth investigating to see why they were paying that money -- what they were getting in return for that investment.
"So, that's the basis of that investigation."
Comer noted that money from China, at least, was flowing to Hunter and Jim Biden for consulting work: "We'd like to know what that consulting was," he said.
"I feel like China or anyone pays you millions of dollars, they expect to get a return on that investment. I do not know what that return was, and we want to find out."
But instead of explaining that Hunter was doing "legitimate work," the Biden administration just "roll their eyes at the audacity of Republicans to ask these questions.”
‘Disclosure’
Comer said he hopes for a bipartisan legislative fix for the influence-peddling problem:
“The odds are high that in the future, there are going to be more presidents in business, that have immediate family members that have international businesses, because most businesses are international now.
"There needs to be more disclosure laws," Comer said. "If a family member gets a loan, we need to determine if that's legal or not, and at the very least, the media should know what the terms of that loan are."
Comer also sees a legislative fix for the problem of mishandled classified documents:
"So there is a problem there. No one is accusing anyone of intentionally taking the documents home," he said, adding that perhaps someone from the National Archives should be appointed to oversee what's going into the boxes of presidents and vice presidents before they leave the White House.
"This is something I think will be a bipartisan legislative fix," Comer said.
The National Archives falls under the jurisdiction of the Oversight Committee.