Attorney General Merrick Garland testified on the proposed Department of Justice budget on Tuesday in a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing.
Watch the hearing in the player above.
Earlier this month, a Republican-led Judiciary subcommittee probed the federal government's treatment of parents protesting school board policies — sometimes violently — as unfair. This week, the new Republican committee on the "weaponization" of the federal government will delve into First Amendment free speech rights on social media.
WATCH: Attorney General Garland testifies in Senate Judiciary oversight hearing
McCarthy warned that the federal government is labeling parents as "domestic terrorists" for showing up at school board meetings, even though such prosecutions are extremely rare.
His was a reference to a 2021 Justice Department memo from Attorney General Merrick Garland responding to the National School Board Association's concerns about violent protesters at school board meetings. Garland had directed federal law enforcement to address what he called a "disturbing spike" in harassment of school officials.
Probing the matter, the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee released a report showing that in one federal investigation, the FBI interviewed a mom for allegedly telling a local school board "we are coming for you." In another, the FBI investigated a dad who opposed COVID mask mandates after a tipster to a federal hotline said he "fit the profile of an insurrectionist" because he "rails against the government" and "has a lot of guns and threatens to use them."