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House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence still has no Republicans

Candidate Elise Stefanik (R) speaks at a debate held by Spectrum News at its studio in Albany in October 2018. (Photo — Jenn March, Special to the Post-Star)

U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, has returned to some of her committees after the election. In the House Armed Services Committee, for example, she will serve as ranking member on the Intelligence, Emerging Threats & Capabilities subcommittee.

But she has not resumed her role on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence because the Republican leadership has so far failed to name any Republican members to the select committee.

“(Minority Leader Kevin) McCarthy will be making the announcement for committee appointments when they are ready,” wrote Stefanik spokeswoman Madison Anderson.

Over the weekend, both Rachel Maddow of MSNBC and The Daily Beast reported that no Republican committee members had been appointed to the committee, which has been conducting a probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

According to this reporting, the committee cannot move forward with the probe or any of its other duties until Republicans are appointed to fill out the remaining seats.

A spokesperson for McCarthy forwarded his comments on the appointments from a “Meet the Press” interview on Sunday.

“I just met with every single individual that I’m going to appoint on Friday,” he said. “It will come out next week.”

Anderson did not reply to a series of questions from the Times about whether Stefanik, who has been vocal about addressing Russia as a threat, was concerned about the delay on the Select Committee on Intelligence. She also did not answer whether Stefanik supported the recommendation of Democratic Chairman Adam Schiff to provide Special Counsel Robert Mueller with transcripts of all the witnesses who had given the committee testimony on the Russia probe.

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