Longtime committee staff director to retire

The House Armed Services Committee’s longtime minority staff director, Jim Schweiter, is retiring after  15 years as a professional staff member.

Schweiter, who has been praised by both the Democrats and the Republicans on the committee, will be retiring at the end of August. Schweiter’s retirement follows the departure in June of the majority staff director, Robert Rangel, who now is Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s chief of staff.

Roxana Tiron