Military panel set for shake-up

Rep. Mac Thornberry is poised to become one of the leading Republican voices on national security as President Obama embarks on a prolonged military campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

First elected in the 1994 Republican revolution, Thornberry is the front-runner to replace Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) as the leader of the powerful House Armed Services Committee in the next Congress.

{mosads}The promotion would give him responsibility for crafting the House version of the Defense Department’s annual budget blueprint, along with a prominent role overseeing Obama’s use of the military.

“I believe the first job of the federal government is to defend the country. And if I’m going to spend money somewhere, I want it to be in Defense,” Thornberry told The Hill.

Thornberry is not well known outside of Capitol Hill, but has built a reputation as a staunch conservative. He hails from a West Texas region that is one of the reddest in the country, having given Obama the fewest votes of any district during the 2012 election.

Earlier this year, defense observers were expecting Thornberry to be challenged for the Armed Services gavel by Reps. Michael Turner (R-Ohio) and Randy Forbes (R-Va.). But Turner bowed out, announcing he would run instead for chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Forbes has yet to throw his hat in the ring.

“[The race is] Thornberry’s to lose. Period,” said Mackenzie Eaglen, a defense analyst at the American Enterprise Institute.

Forbes, however, has left the door open to a bid, repeatedly calling for new congressional “leadership” on defense and national security issues.

“When we talk about national defense and where we are you have too many people just kind of nodding, that you know, this is just where we are,” Forbes told The Hill. “We have to make a fundamental decision in our party, whether we will just be the manager of a decline toward mediocrity or whether we will have the leaders chart a new course.”

Though McKeon has not officially endorsed in the race for chairman, he is clearly behind Thornberry, who serves as his No. 2 and is leading an effort to revamp the Pentagon’s acquisition policies.

House Republican leaders have begun to give Thornberry a more visible role in recent months, tapping him to close out the House debate on a resolution that condemned Obama for not notifying lawmakers of the prisoner swap for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

Thornberry has also been vocal about the need to take on ISIS, arguing that “you have to have a ground presence” to defeat the group or any other al-Qaeda affiliates — though he said those troops could come from other countries, noting U.S. efforts to train military forces in Iraq, Afghanistan, Mali and Yemen.

The congressman has long advocated for a robust military presence around the world, rejecting the isolationist strain that has taken hold in some corners of the GOP.

“It doesn’t mean we have to do everything but if we’re not there there’s a vacuum and others rush in and the others who rush in are not so nice,” he said.

With several weeks left until he addresses the House Republican Steering Committee to seek the gavel, Thornberry says he is taking nothing for granted. He has given nearly $243,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee, according to federal records, a move that was surely noticed by GOP leaders, who expect their chairmen to be prolific fundraisers.

“You want to do your part to help the election count out the right way, from our standpoint,” Thornberry said, adding that “generally, if you do a good job, then that gets rewarded or recognized.”

Thornberry has received about $305,000 in donations from both corporate political action committees and individuals who list working at defense companies, making the sector his No. 1 contributor, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Senior officials from Lockheed Martin, which boasts a large presence in Texas, including an F-35 Joint Strike Fighter assembly line at a factory in Fort Worth, have given his campaign committee the most, at nearly $66,000. Another $10,000 in donations came from the company’s political action committee.

Thornberry dismissed concerns that he wouldn’t provide strong oversight of the defense industry, saying that Congress’s duties to help provide national security override “any particular company’s interests.”

Rep. Adam Smith (Wash.), the top Democrat on the Armed Services panel, said he is ambivalent who might lead the committee next.

“I don’t have a vote. It sounds like it’s going to be Mac, but I look forward to working with whoever it is,” he said.

— Megan Caldwell contributed