NY Rep. Maloney to take Cummings' spot on House Oversight as acting chair

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., will take the place of deceased former chairman Elijah Cummings on the powerful House Oversight Committee, according to reports on Thursday.

Multiple outlets and reporters cite a senior Democratic leadership aide who said that House rules dictate that Maloney will take over as acting chair due to her seniority on the committee and that the Democrats' choice of a permanent replacement will be announced at a to-be-determined date and time.

Maloney was first elected to Congress in 1992 and represents New York's 12th Congressional District, which covers part of Manhattan and Queens in New York city.

Cummings, a longtime Baltimore-area representative, passed away during the early hours of Thursday at Gilchrist Hospice Care, an affiliate of Johns Hopkins Hospital, due to “complications concerning longstanding health challenges" at the age of 68.

“He worked until his last breath because he believed our Democracy was the highest and best expression of our collective humanity,” a statement from Cummings’ widow says. “I loved him deeply and will miss him deeply.”

Oversight Committee chair is already a powerful and consequential position to begin with, and it is even more so now that the panel is one of the trio of House panels currently conducting the House's impeachment probe against president Donald Trump.

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