“It seems almost counterproductive on his part,” Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Speaker of the House of Representatives Intelligence Chamber, told POLITICO when asked about non-Republicans. “It looks pretty childish, but I hope they reconsider.”
The committee, with 13 Democratic and eight Republican members, has held at least seven bipartisan hearings and round tables, both open and closed, since the pandemic closed much of Washington in March and April. The sessions, all unclassified, included a virtual audience in mid-June where representatives from Facebook, Twitter and Google answered questions about foreign efforts to subvert the 2020 presidential election.
The only session to have a republican presence was a round table on April 28, attended by the then representative. John Ratcliffe of Texas, a week before the Senate hearing on his nomination to be Trump’s director of national intelligence.
Committee representative Eric Swalwell (Democrat for California) noted that Republicans have expressed concern about the alleged political biases of those same big tech platforms. “How do you explain to your constituents that you have representatives from those three companies and simply choose not to appear?” I ask.
Republicans rejected the idea that they are formally rejecting the committee’s work. The real problem, they say, is that Democrats insist on discussing confidential information in virtual online sessions rather than meeting in person.
“These things are hacked. Why are we putting ourselves at that risk? asked representative Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), a member of the committee. “You limit yourself with classified information and maybe even spill it sometimes. It just isn’t the way to do business. And there is no reason for it. “
“It may be inconvenient for Adam Schiff to come back here from California,” added Wenstrup. “It just is not appropriate within the intelligence community and does not conform to protocol.”
Representative Chris Stewart (Republican of Utah) said: “I really don’t think it’s a boycott. It is not an organized effort at all. I would just say that we are concerned about the format. ”
“They were here. Why don’t we do it like we used to? Asked Stewart, who also serves on the House Appropriations Committee, which is slated to perform live marks where members can remotely join.” I think we can get together and do it safely. “
The committee’s top Republican, California Rep. Devin Nunes, repeatedly declined to comment when asked about the matter.
Democrats say Republicans have not provided a good explanation for why they pulled out or indicated what could bring them back to the table. But Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) Attributed the Republicans’ absences to factors such as Schiff’s leading role in the President’s impeachment, and, before that, the years of acrimony caused by the Russia-led investigation. by the Republican Party panel.
“They have their complaints, right?” Himes said. “This is all absurd, but they haven’t even really negotiated.”
Even before the pandemic closed, House Intelligence Republicans had boycotted a February hearing in the Himes subcommittee on emerging technology and national security, accusing Democrats of organizing “publicity events” rather than investigating issues such as alleged FBI abuses in domestic surveillance. That hearing happened weeks after the end of Trump’s impeachment.
The intelligence committee typically meets in a secure room on Capitol Hill, one that a specialized CIA cleaning team had to scrub in March after Daniel Goldman, the panel’s former impeachment attorney, tested positive for the coronavirus. .
Since the beginning of March, the intelligence committee has held two open virtual hearings using Cisco Webex, the same video conferencing platform that other congressional panels have used.
The panel also convened a series of closed but unclassified roundtables with previous government officials focused on aspects of the coronavirus, such as Chinese disinformation around the pandemic, biological threats, and the management of Covid-19 by the intelligence community. . Attendees included former Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte, former Acting CIA Director Michael Morell and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
The roundtables, including some that have been strictly only by Democrats by design, are held through Microsoft Teams, which has end-to-end encryption to prevent eavesdropping.
A senior committee official dismissed the Republicans’ cybersecurity objections as “not troubling,” and said that committee staff “had consulted our security and House security” on the risks of rape. “Actually, there was less risk of that happening during a Microsoft Teams or WebEx session that you had logged into your home email or Gmail account from your home computer, “the official said.
The impasse threatens to derail a series of products that the panel seeks to issue in the coming weeks and months.
The committee plans to meet in person, or at least partially, to mark its annual intelligence clearance bill by the end of July. But due to the social distancing requirements of the pandemic era, the panel will carry out what is called a “straw man,” where members of the majority are in a safe room, the minority in another, with budget managers and attorneys in another who then guide members through the complete Bill over the phone.
The committee is also wrapping up its so-called “deep dive” in China, investigating the various threats to national security posed by the use of Beijing technology for surveillance, influence and political control at the national and international levels. The panel has been coming and going with the intelligence community on the draft of its full report, and undergoing a classification review of the executive summary, which Schiff will make public when the review is finished, according to the committee’s senior official.
Additionally, the Democratic-controlled panel is reviewing the Covid-19 pandemic and the role of the intelligence community in it. In particular, it is examining how the clandestine apparatus is postulated to collect, analyze and disseminate information on global health issues, including pandemics and cross-border epidemics.
Of the various political efforts, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle believe the intelligence bill has the best chance of closing the last gap.
“The IAA has historically been bipartisan,” Swalwell said. “We have to point out to Congress that we are aligned, as Republicans and Democrats, and that is what helps us get through that” by broad, bipartisan majorities. “
Wenstrup noted that the bill passed in previous years, even during the height of Russia’s investigation.
“The committee has been able to work things out before,” he told POLITICO.
Wenstrup and Stewart insisted that if the panel began to meet in person, the Republican Party would appear.
“If it was in person, I think we’d be there,” Stewart said.
