Giffords keeps slot on space panel

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Rep. Gabrielle Giffords will remain the top Democrat on the House Science subcommittee dealing with space as she recovers from a gunshot wound, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas), the top Democrat on the Science panel, announced Tuesday.

Giffords “has been a stalwart in working to sustain and enhance the nation’s civil space and aeronautics programs,” Johnson said of the Arizona Democrat, who was shot in the head during a rampage earlier this month in which six people died.

Rep. Jerry Costello (D-Ill.) will handle Giffords’s duties while she recovers in a Houston rehabilitation facility.