'Everyone's trying to row in the same direction': Spy balloon saga tests bipartisan China committee

(CNN)After House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries announced his Democratic appointments to a select committee on the threat posed by China, the top Republican chairing the panel, GOP Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, gave Jeffries some surprising feedback: his stamp of approval.

Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens of Michigan, who often commutes with Gallagher from the Midwest to Washington, DC, and suggested they share notes on the airplane, framed the select committee's work in the context of the political climate of this Congress.

"You've got a new Republican majority with a Democratic administration. We know that we're heading into a presidential election year. Certainly, you've had a lot of the Republican conference that has not served in the majority and are eager to pack some punches," Stevens, who said she wants to bring her focus on the industrial Midwest to her work on this panel, told CNN.

"But I have found that during my time in Congress when you're talking about tech innovation, technology competitiveness, and this idea of how we reclaim our manufacturing agenda, that is what brings people together and that's what you're going to see take place in many respects on this committee," she added.