Intelligence panel’s rising partisanship upsets member
WASHINGTON — Partisan sparring over the Russia investigation is causing chaos on the traditionally bipartisan House intelligence committee — with the panel now planning to build a wall to separate Republican and Democratic staff members who have long sat side by side.
A senior Republican on the committee, Florida Rep. Tom Rooney, said Thursday he thinks the committee is “poison” right now, characterizing partisan tensions as a total breakdown. Rooney is one of the leaders of the panel’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and whether the Trump campaign was involved.
“The level of trust is just gone,” Rooney said, adding that “certain things definitely suffer,” like how to fund and conduct oversight over intelligence agencies.
Rooney said he was discouraged that only three or four committee members attended a recent briefing on a “very sensitive issue abroad that that we have been following for years” as lawmakers debated a GOP memo that criticized methods the FBI used to obtain a surveillance warrant on a onetime Trump campaign associate.
The plan to divide the Republican and Democratic staff members comes as members of the two parties have publicly been at odds, first over the panel’s ongoing investigation into Russia and more recently over Republican investigations into the FBI and Justice Department. A committee official confirmed the plan for the wall.
Much of the tension has been between the Republican chairman of the panel, California Rep. Devin Nunes, and the committee’s top Democrat, California Rep. Adam Schiff, who have been chiding each other since launching the Russia investigation together last year.
Schiff said dividing the staff would be a “terrible” mistake.
“While we have more than our share of difficulties, the important oversight work of the committee continues with our staff working together, irrespective of party,” Schiff said. “This would be a very destructive decision.”
He disputed Rooney’s account that the committee’s other work is suffering, noting the panel has recently passed bipartisan bills to renew intelligence programs.
A spokesman for Nunes did not respond to a request for comment.
Rooney expressed frustration with Democrats and with the breakdown of bipartisanship in general. He said another likely result is that Republicans and Democrats will issue separate reports on the Russia investigation, and partisans will believe only one report.
“As far as who is to blame for that — everyone is so eager to blame Devin, but I can’t tell you that it’s Devin’s fault, that the atmosphere down there is what it is,” Rooney said. “You could easily say the same thing about Adam on our side. But that doesn’t help.”