The House Armed Services Committee announced its new subcommittee leadership, with just one new member– Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.)–and four subcommittees retaining their same chairmen.
Rep. Joe Wilson, who had chaired the personnel committee for four years, moved to the intelligence, emerging threats and capabilities subcommittee that Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) chaired. Thornberry will chair the full committee next year.
Rep. Joe Heck (R-Nev.), who has chaired the oversight and investigations subcommittee since January, moved over to the personnel committee. Heck, a brigadier general in the Army Reserves who has been called to active duty three times, will oversee next year’s deep dive into pay and benefits reform.
And Hartzler was brought into the leadership group to chair the oversight and investigations subcommittee.
Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) will continue chairing the seapower and projection forces subcommittee, Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.) will stay on the readiness subcommittee, Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) will stay on the tactical air and land forces subcommittee and Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) will stay on the strategic forces subcommittee.
Hartzler, who has only been in Congress for four years, catapulted into the leadership spot in part because so many of the higher-ranking Republicans already hold leadership positions in other committees. Hartzler sits in the third of four rows, seated by seniority, and will join Heck as third-row members chairing subcommittees. She will be the only Republican woman in a leadership position, whereas this year four of the seven subcommittees had women as ranking members on the Democratic side.
The committee also announced this week that six new Republicans would join the committee: Sam Graves (R-Mo.), Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.), Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), Steve Knight (R-Calif.) and Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.). McSally has not officially been declared the winner of her election but was 161 votes ahead of current HASC member Rep. Ron Barber (D-Ariz.) when a recount began last week.
Zinke is a 23-year Navy veteran and a former commander with SEAL Team Six. McSally is a 22-year veteran of the Air Force and was the first woman to fly a combat aircraft into enemy territory after a ban was lifted in 1991. Knight, who will succeed retiring HASC chairman Buck McKeon as California’s 25th district representative, joined the Army after graduating high school and served overseas in Germany.
“The Armed Services Committee has always taken its constitutional responsibilities to the country and to our men and women in uniform very seriously. With the world growing more dangerous and a shrinking military, we have an enormous task ahead of us,” Thornberry said in a statement announcing the new members. “I am very impressed with the qualifications of the new members of the committee and with their commitment to our national security. I look forward to working with them and all members of the committee on both sides of the aisle to meet the many challenges we face.”