After years of being defined by partisan battles, the House Intelligence Committee will be getting a makeover as the former Chairman of the Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff (R-CA.), has been booted from the assignment, and former ranking member Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA.) has stepped down.
Without these two polarizing figures, whose wars often surrounded former President Donald Trump and who ended the era when the Intel Committee was staked on bipartisan cooperation, the Committee could end its reputation as a tool for partisan warfare.
There is hope that a turnaround is on the horizon.
Last January, Nunes retired from Congress to lead the Trump Media & Technology Group. This January, Schiff was blocked from sitting on the panel by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA.), who claims the former Chairman lied to the public about former President Donald Trump’s involvement in Russia.
Schiff being booted from the Committee drew outrage from Democrats, who are convinced he did nothing wrong as the Committee’s leader.
Yet, amid the protests from Democrats, some within the party can admit that Nunes and Schiff were forced to be radioactive among the opposing party, which dragged down the Committee’s work.
Now that both men are out of the picture, Congressional hope the panel can turn things around.
A source familiar with the panel’s dynamics expressed hope that Nunes and Schiff’s absence will “be a reset, and we can get past all the infighting … and just focus on national security.”
One lawmaker articulating that this is a priority is Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), who expressed that the incoming leader of the Committee, Rep. Michael Turner, is attempting to “get back to that more bipartisan approach.”
