By Carlo Munoz
The newly empowered Republican leadership on the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) are mulling changes to the jurisdictional structure of the panel’s subcommittees to make the group more responsive to national defense priorities, according to a senior House lawmaker.
Those changes, if enacted by the legislative body, would not only put the committee in a better position to assess the demands of the warfighter, but also exercise improved oversight on many big-ticket Pentagon procurement programs, Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) said during a Jan. 11 speech at the Surface Navy Association’s annual symposium in Arlington, Va.
Akin was recently named the new chairman of the panel’s Seapower and Expeditionary Forces subcommittee after the GOP took control of the lower chamber during last November’s congressional midterm elections.
On Akin’s panel specifically, oversight of the tactical-aircraft portfolio would be transitioned from Seapower to what is now the Air and Land Forces subcommittee. However, the Seapower subcommittee would gain oversight of strategic strike and airlift should the proposed changes take effect, he said.
Under the current HASC jurisdictional structure, the Defense Department and the services–the Navy in particular– “aren’t getting what it needs” in terms of funding and support from the congressional defense panels, according to Akin.
Furthermore, the HASC has been “forfeiting” their primary roles as legislative watchdogs over the defense budgeting process, due to the antiquated and inefficient way the committee does business. Without the changes proposed by GOP committee leaders, the Missouri lawmaker said he was “not sure if [defense] oversight is going to change much.”
Oversight of national defense priorities, he added, is “one thing [the] federal government must do, and must do well.”