Senate GOP leaders announced assignments to the powerful Armed Services Committee in the next Congress, filling the panel with five freshman senators, many with military service.
The GOP freshmen joining the panel include Sens.-elect Tom Cotton (Ark.), Joni Ernst (Iowa), Mike Rounds (S.D.), Dan Sullivan (Alaska) and Thom Tillis (N.C.).
Cotton, an Army veteran, served in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Ernst served in Iraq as a lieutenant colonel with the Iowa National Guard and will be the first female combat veteran in the upper chamber.
Sullivan is a Marine Corps veteran.
In a widely anticipated choice, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) will head the panel that oversees the Defense Department.
McCain, a Vietnam War veteran, will wield the gavel and oversee the Obama administration’s military campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Ashton Carter’s nomination for Pentagon chief.
Democrats on Friday announced that Sen. Jack Reed (R.I.) would become the committees ranking member and Sen. Martin Heinrich (N.M.) would join the panel.