Republicans penned a letter last week seeking to delay consideration of a House bill granting D.C. statehood, arguing that the body needs to fully understand Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans’ wrongdoing before marking the bill up.

GOP members of the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform wrote a letter to the committee’s chair, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., urging her to postpone consideration of H.R. 51, a bill granting D.C. statehood, The Washington Post reported Wednesday. The move comes after Evans declined an invitation from Republicans to testify before the committee about his wrongdoing.

“The Committee cannot mark up H.R. 51 until the Committee fully understands and assesses the nature and extent of D.C. Councilmember Evans’s misconduct,” Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, wrote in a letter to Maloney, according to The Post.

Evans – who is slated to be expelled from the D.C. Council next month for abusing his government seat to solicit private business – wrote a letter to Maloney Monday claiming Republicans’ stance comes from a place of bad faith, The Post reported. He said the move is a politically motivated excuse to halt the bill, according to The Post.

“Using my individual problems as a tool for opponents of D.C. statehood is a transparent tactic to avoid their real non-meritorious reasons to stand in the way of what should have been done decades ago,” Evans wrote in a letter to Maloney.

A spokesperson for Maloney told The Post that the letter will not affect the committee’s timeline for the statehood bill.

An ad hoc committee of the D.C. Council charged with reviewing the Council’s investigation into Evans’ conduct voted to recommend expelling Evans from office earlier this month. The Council is slated to vote on Evans’ expulsion by the end of next month.

Evans is still the subject of a federal investigation into his conduct but has not been charged with a crime.