Sanchez to become top Dem on Armed Services Airland subpanel

Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) plans to take the top Democratic spot on the Tactical Air and Land Forces subcommittee in the Armed Services Committee, a congressional source told The Hill.

Sanchez would move from her current position as ranking member on Strategic Forces to the Armed Services panel’s largest subcommittee, which deals with major weapons systems like the F-35 fighter.

A congressional source with knowledge of Sanchez’s thinking told The Hill that she has made the decision to move to the new panel after weighing the possibility for several weeks.

The ranking member on the Airland subcommittee was former Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas), who lost in a primary last year.

Sanchez has seniority on the committee after ranking member Adam Smith (D-Wash.), so she was given the first opportunity to move over to the new panel. But she considered staying at Strategic Forces, which deals with nuclear issues, where some of the biggest debates on the committee have taken place in the past couple of years.

Her Republican counterpart on Strategic Forces last year, Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), is also moving up with Sanchez and will be chairman of the Airland subcommittee in the 113th Congress.

He replaces former Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.), who lost reelection.

Smith has not yet named the Democratic subcommittee ranking members for the Armed Services panel this year.

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