House Intelligence Committee returns to bipartisan roots after polarizing Schiff and Nunes years
Juliegrace Brufke
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The top two members on the House Intelligence Committee are steering the panel in a bipartisan direction after the divisive clashes of the Trump years.
While tensions between parties were evident under the leadership of former Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), Chairman Mike Turner (R-OH) and ranking member Jim Himes (D-CT) said they are committed to a fresh start in the new Congress, tackling issues both Republicans and Democrats feel are pressing for the country.
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Nunes resigned from Congress a year ago to become the CEO of Truth Social, former President Donald Trump’s social media platform, while House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) forced Schiff off the committee for advancing the Trump-Russia collusion narrative.
Yet out of Schiff’s unceremonious ouster, which Democrats decried as political retribution, has come new seeds of cooperation. Turner said he and Himes came to an agreement with leadership that the panel should return to its bipartisan roots and work together to address the adversarial threats facing the country.
“We began our organizational meeting with Speaker McCarthy and Minority Leader [Hakeem] Jeffries addressing the full committee, charging us to work in a professional and bipartisan manner — that helps tremendously to give everybody the confidence that this was going to be a space dedicated to national security and nests dedicated to finding solutions to keep our country safe,” he said in an interview.
“It was followed by Jim Himes and myself pledging to the committee that we were going to leave the committee in a bipartisan fashion. And we have done so. We just completed a worldwide threats hearing.”
Himes said he and Turner had a successful working relationship prior to their time leading the panel, with a trip to Ukraine providing an opportunity to strengthen their ability to find common ground.
“Mike and I sort of started building this relationship … even before I knew I was going to be ranking member because we traveled to Ukraine together in October — and spending 13 hours on a train together, you know, in dangerous territory is a pretty good, pretty good kickoff to a friendship. And since then, we’ve really built a very solid working relationship. You know, we’ve agreed that we’re going to, you know, put the past behind us,” Himes told the Washington Examiner.
“We’re not going to relitigate any of the old Ukraine investigation, you know. Issues are going to be forward-looking. We’re going to try to keep political issues that are outside of the jurisdiction of the committee out of the conversation. We’re going to disagree, but when we disagree, we’re going to do it in a way that is respectful of each other, and we’ve been navigating that. And, you know, Mike Turner is a very serious national security professional, so I think he’s really dedicated to making that happen.”
Both Turner and Himes said that reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, an important intelligence collection authority, is a top priority for the committee, and they have already taken strides to address it by creating a working group on the matter.
“I think all the members are receptive to this change, and both on the Democrat side and the Republican side, we’ve got people eager and willing to work together because we’ve got real issues that threaten the country,” Turner said. “We have important legislative items — you take FISA, for example. Ranking member Jim Himes and I just organized a working group that has three members from the minority, three members from the majority, equal numbers, looking to, you know, how can that working group help support overall the committee and its work to achieve reauthorization of FISA?”
Himes noted that renewing FISA likely won’t be an easy task but said both sides are committed to finding a solution.
“The biggest one without question, the headline for this Congress, is FISA 702 reauthorization, which is going to be a heavy lift and, frankly, probably a heavier lift on the Republican side than on the Democratic side,” he added. “We have one heck of a joint project to make sure that that is reauthorized with reforms that make our colleagues comfortable. That’s gonna be a lot of work, and we’re sort of dividing up the work,” he said.
In addition to FISA, both members said that members and their staff would work together to tackle areas including Chinese surveillance, security clearance reform, and addressing threats amid tensions abroad.
“Working together, Congressman Himes and I gave a charge to our staff that they are to work on a bipartisan basis. And so far, that has made a tremendous difference. I mean, our staff don’t start from a partisan perspective of the other side is the enemy — our enemy or adversary, adversary self-select, and our adversaries win when we’re divided. So, it’s absolutely crucial that our committee works as a team,” Turner said, adding that some of their biggest priorities were brought up during their recent hearing on worldwide threats.
“A number of issues were highlighted that are on the top on our agenda: China and its surveillance society and its penetration through technology of our social networks, our industry; Russia and its aggressiveness and the concern for protecting both our NATO allies and Ukraine; and of course North Korea and Iran that continue their march to being threats,” he said. “Cyber nuclear weapons space is an important new battleground that we want to make certain that the intelligence community is focused on.”
Himes added that while some of what’s on their agenda won’t make for fiery headlines, he feels the panel will constructively be able to address a number of problems facing the intelligence community.
“There’s other areas where I think we have a lot of mutual interest. Obviously China is one of them. I’ve talked with Mike about my own interest in making sure that the intelligence community is forward-leaning in terms of developing and buying new technology. We’re in a world where the Chinese and other of our foes are developing technologies and in some cases better than ours can be true,” Himes said.
“Mike is interested in working together on something that’s a little unsexy but critical, which is security clearance reform,” he added. “You know, sometimes a hugely valuable person, somebody who’s fluent in Mandarin, just to give you an example, can take years to get that person cleared. And at that point, they’ve gone off to do something where they’re going to make more money and get employed faster. So, it’s not sexy, but it’s really critical to the competence of the intelligence community to reform the security clearance process.”
Himes touted some of their bipartisan wins since the start of the new Congress but noted that it is still early.
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“The truth is that we’ve demonstrated some very solid bipartisanship. We negotiated a rules package. We passed out of the House of Representatives with a very strong vote, a piece of legislation, the coronavirus declassification bill, so I think we’re off to a really solid start, and that doesn’t mean that it couldn’t be derailed. But I think we’re off to a very strong start,” the Connecticut Democrat said.
Another Democratic member who sits on the panel echoed Himes’s sentiments, telling the Washington Examiner that “it’s early to tell but seems promising.”