With three seats set to come open on the House Intelligence Committee, Speaker Mike Johnson has some decisions to make about who to appoint to the secretive panel.
Several members across the GOP conference are eager to join the committee, including multiple lawmakers previously considered for a slot.
Johnson will have to replace Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and Mike Waltz (R-Fla.), who are leaving for the incoming Trump administration, as well as Rep. Mike Garcia (R-Calif.), who lost his reelection bid.
Reps. Laurel Lee (R-Fla.) and Stephanie Bice (R-Okla.) are eyeing spots on the committee again. Bice has been making calls to several members to make the case for why she should get a seat.
Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) also didn’t rule out a chance to be on the committee, saying he would be a “positive addition,” given his decades-long Air Force career.
And the House Freedom Caucus is seeking to add more of its own members to the committee, as part of an effort to expand the ultraconservative group’s representation in top congressional panels. One HFC member told us the openings give them “a good opportunity” to lobby Johnson to recruit more hardliners to the committee.
Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) is said to be vying for a spot. Clyde didn’t directly tell us that he is interested in the committee, but he said the panel would be better served with more conservatives.
“We need more solid conservatives who are going to move forward the America First Agenda,” Clyde said.
Candidate quality: Johnson will be under scrutiny about who he taps after he faced pushback from some members for appointing two hardliners — Reps. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) and Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) — to the panel earlier this year. Perry and Jackson replaced former Reps. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) and Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.).
Several members told us they expressed frustration with the speaker over those appointments.
Jackson was criticized over allegations that he drank on duty while serving as the lead White House physician, charges he denied. Members raised concerns about Perry being a target of the Justice Department’s sweeping investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. The FBI seized the Pennsylvania Republican’s cellphone as part of its probe in 2022.
We also reported that Intelligence Committee Chair Mike Turner (R-Ohio) wasn’t given a heads-up before Johnson made the Jackson and Perry appointments.
But one committee member who initially had concerns with the two picks told us there haven’t been any issues with Perry and Jackson since they joined. However, there are still broad concerns about who else may get on.
“The key to this committee is having people who can work together and are not loud,” the member said. “We need people who take it seriously.”
