The Senate Armed Services Committee announced its subcommittee rosters on Tuesday, to include two first-time chairs in new Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) leading the Emerging Threats and Capabilities panel and Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) chairing the Airland subcommittee.
Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) will also serve as the new leader of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee, succeeding Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), who left to serve on the Senate Appropriations Committee. King served as the Airland Subcommittee chairman in the last Congress.
Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) will serve as the new top Republican on the Seapower Subcommittee, replacing ousted Georgia Sen. David Perdue.
The Seapower panel, which oversees Navy and Marine Corps planning and operations policy, is the only one of the seven SASC subcommittees to have a new lead GOP member.
On the Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee, Kelly succeeds Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), who is now chairing the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
Kelly, a former NASA astronaut who defeated former SASC member Republican Martha McSally for the Arizona seat, has cited an importance to develop “advanced weapons systems needed to outpace China and Russia.”
The full list of chairs and ranking members for the seven subcommittees is as follows: Duckworth and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) for Airland, Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Mike Rounds (R-N.D.) for Cybersecurity, Kelly and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) for Emerging Threats, Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) for Personnel, Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) for Readiness, Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Cramer for Seapower and King and Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) for Strategic Forces.