Tyler A. McNeil reports in the Daily Gazette that Republican Elise Stefanik was appointed this week to a new Congressional panel that her party says is to probe abuses of power within the federal government. Democrats say the Republicans are investigating the weaponization of government by weaponizing the government. Stefanik, who represents New York's 21st Congressional District including Rensselaer County, becomes one of 15 members on the U.S. House of Representative Judiciary Committee’s new Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. Stefanik said in a statement, that “There are serious questions about how government agencies have gotten away with this for so long, and we will get to the bottom of how these corrupt agencies are being weaponized against everyday Americans.” Democrats say the new group is analogous to the House Un-American Activities Committee of the 1950s. Paul Tonko, a Democrat who locally represents the 20th Congressional District, said about the new panel that it is, “Chaired by one of the most right-wing partisans in Congress who voted to throw out the 2020 election results, this committee’s explicit purpose is to sabotage the work of the Department of Justice and the January 6th Select Committee.” Read more about this story in the Daily Gazette.