Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Wednesday announced the names of Republican members who will serve on the House Intelligence Committee, which will allow the panel to become constituted and be ready for business.
The new GOP addition to the committee is Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas), a former federal prosecutor who also serves on the House Judiciary Committee.
“My appointment to HPSCI will allow me to bring my background as a former U.S. Attorney and federal terrorism prosecutor to oversight that encompasses the broader intelligence community of our U.S. government and military,” Ratcliffe said in a statement, referring to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
{mosads}Rep. Devin Nunes (D-Calif.), who previously chaired the committee, will stay on as ranking member.
And GOP Reps. Mike Conaway (Texas), Brad Wenstrup (Ohio), Mike Turner (Ohio), Chris Stewart (Utah), Rick Crawford (Ark.), Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), and Will Hurd (Texas) will all also remain on the committee.
Conaway, who led the panel’s Russia probe after Nunes stepped aside, had to receive a waiver in order to continue serving on the committee after surpassing the panel’s time limit set for serving members.
Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) will no longer serve on the panel. He, too, would have required a waiver in order to remain on the panel.
The committee is expected to be ground zero for investigations into President Trump’s possible ties to Russia as well as the president’s business dealings.
The committee can now organize and become fully constituted ahead of the panel’s closed-door meeting next Friday with President Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen.
Democrats had named the new Democratic members to the high-profile panel nearly two weeks ago. They include Reps. Val Demings (Fla.), Raja Krishnamoorthi (Ill.), Sean Patrick Maloney (N.Y.), and Peter Welch (Vt.).
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the chairman of the high-profile panel, indicated that those two weeks without GOP members have made an impact.
“We had a briefing today on hot spots around the world, classified briefing and none of the Republican members were there. So they’re also cutting themselves off from good information,” Schiff told CNN and The Hill on Wednesday.
But before either side announced new members, lawmakers quietly grumbled that the shutdown had delayed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and McCarthy’s ability to suss out who would serve on which committee.
The first few weeks, according to a Democratic committee source, will be orientation.
The source told The Hill that the panel will prioritize Russia, authoritarianism, and “vigorous oversight” of the Trump administration, but noted that the roadmap of which investigatory actions to pursue, and in which order, is still being decided.
The source also said the subcommittees for intelligence will be different than under Nunes.
There will be four subcommittees that will oversee: technological problems like artificial intelligence; counter-intelligence, proliferation, and terrorism; intelligence management and reform, including security clearances; and then finally, defense and war fighter support.
Schiff, who has stated that the panel’s first order of business will be to vote to release transcripts from the panel’s witness interviews to special counsel Robert Mueller. He indicated that will be done once the committee is up and running.
“We will be adopting rules and doing some other things, so whether that will be the first meeting or the second meeting, I cannot say,” Schiff said.