Intelligence committee urged to explain if they withheld crucial NSA document

[Catherina]

9. Based on this 2007 announcement, it looks like Pelosi chooses the Dems for the House Select

and Boehner chooses his. The leadership of the House gets to choose who serves on the House Intelligence Committee (and gets to remove them too).

Pelosi Announces Members of the Intelligence Committee
January 17, 2007

Washington, D.C. - Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced this evening that she has selected the Democratic members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. 'These distinguished Members will give to our nation's intelligence programs and activities the aggressive oversight necessary to ensure that they are operating effectively and within the law,' Pelosi said. 'I am confident that the intelligence community will benefit from this type of oversight and that the American people will be made safer by it.'

The Democratic members of the Intelligence Committee for the 110th Congress are:

Congressman Silvestre Reyes of Texas, Chairman

Congressman Alcee Hastings of Florida

Congressman Leonard Boswell of Iowa

Congressman Bud Cramer of Alabama

Congresswoman Anna Eshoo of California

Congressman Rush Holt of New Jersey

Congressman C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger

Congressman John Tierney of Massachusetts

Congressman Mike Thompson of California

Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky of Illinois

Congressman Jim Langevin of Rhode Island

Congressman Patrick Murphy of Pennsylvania

http://www.democraticleader.gov/news/press/pelosi-announces-members-intelligence-committee

(I just used that as an example, here's the 2011 announcement but it doesn't specify that she selects them).

The Senate selections seem to work differently.

Membership and Leadership

The membership of the committees has been limited in time, staggered, and connected to the standing committee system and political party system in Congress. These features, moreover, differ between the two panels. Each select committee, for instance, reserves seats for members from the chamber’s committees on Appropriations, Armed Services, Foreign Affairs/Foreign Relations, and Judiciary. The specifics differ, however: the Senate requires two persons, a majority and minority Member, from each of these standing committees, while the House calls for only one Member from each standing committee with overlapping jurisdiction.

...

http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/RL32525_20120314.pdf

I never thought of it until you asked. Now I'm too pissed off to keep looking because this typical corruption came up in a search

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Verizon lobbyists host fundraisers for Intelligence Committee members
By Jake Harper Jun 06 2013 5:07 p.m.

Lobbyists for Verizon Communications, which is refusing comment on a now-confirmed report that the telecommunications giant turned millions of its customers' records over to the National Security Agency, have thrown fundraisers for members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, records compiled by the Sunlight Foundation show.

According to the Political Party Time database, which tracks candidate fundraising events, lobbyists for Verizon Communications have hosted at least five fundraising events for Sens. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., and Susan Collins, R-Maine. Louis Dupart, of the lobbying firm The Normandy Group, hosted at least three events, two for Mikulski and one for Collins, while Wayne Berman hosted two more for Collins, including a birthday reception in 2010. Both senators voted in 2008 in favor of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which shielded telecom companies, including Verizon, from lawsuits related to an earlier wiretapping controversy.

Lobbyists for Verizon have also hosted a fundraiser for Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., an ex officio member of the Senate committee, and Rep. Thomas Rooney, R-Fla., a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

(details)

...

http://reporting.sunlightfoundation.com/2013/verizon/