Armed Services Committee

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Then-Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. James McConville, left, gestures to a student in the new Army prep course at Fort Jackson, S.C., Friday, Aug. 26, 2022, as McConville visited to see the new course, an effort to better prepare recruits for the demands of basic training. The Army and Air Force say they are on track to meet their recruiting goals in 2024, reversing previous shortfalls using a swath of new programs and policy changes. But the Navy, while improving, expects once again to fall short. (AP Photo/Sean Rayford, File)

House leads the charge to boost pay, housing, quality of life for armed service members

By Lindsey McPherson - The Washington Times

An F-35 fighter jet arrives at the Vermont Air National Guard base in South Burlington, Vt., Sept. 19, 2019. Lockheed Martin made its quota of F-35 fighter jets for 2021 and even managed to roll a few more off the assembly line, even as COVID-19 and supply chain challenges bedeviled the defense industry. (AP Photo/Wilson Ring, File)

A national security mandate for the new Republican Congress

By Richard Schulze

In this photo released by the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur (DDG 54) conducts routine operations in the Taiwan Strait, May 18, 2021. China on Thursday, May 20, 2021, issued its second protest in as many days over United States naval activity in the region, drawing an unusually sharp response from the U.S. 7th Fleet, which accused Beijing of attempting to assert illegitimate maritime rights at the expense of its neighbors. (Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Zenaida Roth, U.S. Navy via AP) **FILE**

‘Awful message’: Biden’s slimmed-down Navy budget scorned as China threat looms

By Joseph Clark - The Washington Times

In this Dec. 9, 2020, file photo President-elect Joe Biden's nominee for Secretary of Defense Retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin speaks during an event at The Queen theater in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File) **FILE**

Biden transition team in push to get national security team in place

By Lauren Toms - The Washington Times

FILE - In this April 11, 2019, file photo, U.S. Strategic Command Commander Gen. John Hyten testifies before a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. A senior military officer has accused, Hyten, the Air Force general tapped to be the next vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, of sexual misconduct, potentially jeopardizing the nomination as members of Congress raised questions about the allegations and an investigation that found insufficient evidence to charge him. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

Senators weigh sexual misconduct allegations against general

By LISA MASCARO - Associated Press

Secretary of Defense James Mattis walks into Michie Stadium to give the commencement address, Saturday, May 27, 2017, in West Point, N.Y. Nine Hundred and thirty six cadets received their diplomas, most of whom will be commissioned as second lieutenants in the army. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson) **FILE**

House Armed Services Committee to address role of transgender recruits in military

By Rowan Scarborough - The Washington Times

Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster listens as President Donald Trump makes the announcement at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., that McMaster will be the new national security adviser, in this Feb. 20, 2017, file photo. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

H.R. McMaster, top Donald Trump security adviser, faces questions in rare hearing

By Richard Lardner - Associated Press

Ashton Carter, President Barack Obama's choice to be defense secretary, testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2015, before the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on his nomination to replace Chuck Hagel as Pentagon chief. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) ** FILE **

Senate confirms Ashton Carter as next Defense Department secretary

By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times

In this Oct. 7, 2014, photo, Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., makes a comment during a live televised debate with North Carolina Republican Senate candidate Thom Tillis at UNC-TV studios in Research Triangle Park, N.C. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome, Pool)

Tillis blasts Hagan for missing committee meetings, briefing on Islamic State

By David Sherfinski - The Washington Times

During a commencement address to West Point cadets last month, Mr. Obama called on Congress to fund a new $5 billion counterterrorism plan to "train, build capacity and facilitate partner countries on the front lines" of the war on terror. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)

Congress in dark on counterterror plan before Obama speech at West Point

By Kelly Riddell - The Washington Times

FILE - In this April 1, 2014, file photo, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. President Barack Obama scored a rare win in his 5-year-old campaign to close the federal prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as a Senate panel approved giving him the authority to transfer terror suspects to the United States if Congress signs off on a comprehensive plan to shutter the facility. Levin hailed the defense bill provision as a significant change in the long standoff between the Obama administration and bipartisan congressional opponents over the post-Sept. 11 prison for terror suspects. (AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke, File)

Obama win on Guantanamo prison may be short-lived

By DONNA CASSATA - Associated Press

House panel OKs $601 billion defense bill

By DONNA CASSATA - Associated Press

House GOP budget spares weapons, military benefits

By DONNA CASSATA - Associated Press

US Army flight medic SPC. Daniel Miller, right, stands guard as United States Marines place a colleague wounded in an IED strike into a waiting medevac helicopter from the US Army's Task Force Lift "Dust Off", Charlie Company 1-214 Aviation Regiment at a "hot" landing zone in Sangin, in the volatile Helmand Province of southern Afghanistan, Friday, May 13, 2011. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer)

Military benefits survive defense cuts: ‘America has an obligation’ to service members

By Donna Cassata - Associated Press

FILE - This Sept. 12, 2012 file photo shows a man walking through a room in the gutted U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, after an attack that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif. is doggedly pursuing the question of whether military personnel were told to “stand down” during the 2012 deadly assault on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, despite the insistence of military leaders and other Republicans that it never happened. (AP Photo/Ibrahim Alaguri, File)

House GOP pursues Benghazi ‘stand down’ probe

By DONNA CASSATA - Associated Press

FILE - This Sept, 14, 2012 file photo shows a Libyan military guard standing in front of one of the U.S. Consulate's burnt out buildings during the visit of President Mohammed el-Megarif, to the U.S. Consulate to express sympathy for the death of the American ambassador, Chris Stevens and his colleagues in the deadly attack on the Consulate. The Pentagon says Congress’ multiple investigations of the deadly 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, have cost the department millions of dollars and thousands of hours of personnel time. (AP Photo/Mohammad Hannon, File)

Pentagon says Benghazi probes cost millions

By DONNA CASSATA - Associated Press

In this Jan. 21, 2014, photo, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., chair of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel , is interviewed by The Associated Press about her proposal to let military prosecutors rather than commanders make decisions on whether to prosecute sexual assaults in the military, in her Capitol Hill office in Washington. The Senate is heading for a showdown over contentious legislation to curb sexual assaults in the military by taking away the authority of senior commanders to prosecute rapes and other serious offenses. A highly anticipated vote on the bill sponsored by Gillibrand, could come as early as Thursday, March 6, 2014. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Senate blocks change to military sex assault cases

By Donna Cassata and Richard Lardner - The Washington Times

"We haven't debated the [National Security Agency]. We haven't debated this issue of sexual assault, the [Iran] sanctions, the detainee issue," Arizona Sen. John McCain said of a defense policy bill. But the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee said he would vote for the bill. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Senators work late on ‘take it or leave it’ defense bill that ignores big issues

By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times

** FILE ** Former Sen. Chuck Hagel stumbled through his Senate confirmation hearing last week, but Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said “the political knives were out for” him. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

Republicans vow to hold out for data before vote on Hagel

By Tom Howell Jr. - The Washington Times