Democrats defy McCarthy with 2 selections for Intel panel

WASHINGTON Democrats are picking an early fight with the House Republican majority over committee seats, nominating two California lawmakers for the Intelligence Committee in open defiance of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's vow to block them.

Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, in a letter sent to McCarthy over the weekend, asked that Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell be reappointed to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, a prestigious panel with access to sensitive, classified information. There is no precedent or justification for rejecting them, Jeffries said.

The letter amounts to an early test for McCarthy as he settles into the speakership, with the Republican rank-and-file looking to the Californian to follow through on his public pronouncements. McCarthy has warned that Republicans in the majority could extract a measure of revenge against Democrats for stripping Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona from their committee assignments in the last Congress.