Sens. Angus King (I-Maine) and Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) will continue as the chair and ranking member of the Senate Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee in the 118th Congress, the committee said Tuesday.
Among the subcommittee rank-and-file, there were only two changes. Democrats effectively expanded their Senate majority by one after November’s midterm elections, so the subcommittee now has five Democrats and four Republicans, compared with five of each in the 117th Congress that wrapped its two-year session in early January.
But along with the Republican who dropped off of strategic forces, there was one Democratic substitution.
Subcommittee Democrats in the 118th Congress are: Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.); Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.); Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.); Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.); and Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.). Gillibrand is new to the subcommittee but not to the full committee. She swapped a seat on the personnel committee last session for a seat on strategic forces this session.
Subcommittee Republicans this session are: Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.); Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.); Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.); and Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.). Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) left the subcommittee. He remains a member of the full committee and remains on the personnel, seapower and readiness and management support subcommittees. He is the ranking member on the readiness and management support subcommittee.
On the full Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) replaced Republican Jim Inhofe (Okla.) as the ranking member. Inhofe retired after the 117th Congress ended, four years before the end of the term he won in 2020.
The strategic forces subcommittee has oversight of nuclear weapons programs at the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy, which includes the semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration that designs, builds and maintains all U.S. nuclear weapons.