Thursday, November 20, 2014

HASC Chair-elect Thornberry Envisions Two-Year Focus for New Agenda | Defense News | defensenews.com

HASC Chair-elect Thornberry Envisions Two-Year Focus for New Agenda | Defense News | defensenews.com: The incoming US House Armed Services Committee chairman says he will set the panel’s new agenda with a two-year focus, work that will ramp up in January.
HASC Chairman-elect Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, spoke with reporters Wednesday morning after emerging from a House Republican caucus meeting where his colleagues approved his ascension from vice chairman.
“I don’t think you have top priorities for January. I think you have areas of emphasis for the next two years,” Thornberry said. “Our job is not to manage the day-to-day tactical use of the military. It’s to help provide the capability that the military needs to deal with the huge array of threats in the picture.”
Asked if there are specific Pentagon programs on which he intends to focus, the incoming chairman replied: “You’d like to say all of them.”
“Of course there have to be areas of emphasis,” he said. “But, right now, you got to worry about getting organized and basic kinds of stuff. Probably in January we’ll talk more about moving forward.”