McCain, Flake to see clout grow in new GOP-run Senate

The influence of Arizona's two Republican U.S. senators — John McCain and Jeff Flake — is going up in the incoming GOP-controlled Senate.

McCain, the state's senior senator who won his first term in 1986, is set to become chairman of the high-profile U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Pentagon, the U.S. military and weapons research and development. It's possible that he also could ascend to the chairmanship of the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs' Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

Flake, the junior senator who was elected to the chamber in 2012, likely will become the new chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on African Affairs. Depending on how membership details settle after the transition, he also may replace U.S. Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., as chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law. Flake currently is the ranking Republican on both subcommittees.

As chairmen, McCain and Flake would be able to set their panels' agendas and hold hearings on issues they consider priorities.

McCain on Friday told The Arizona Republic that he will use his perch as Armed Services chairman to push to repeal the across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration, which he says has hurt U.S. defense readiness. He also wants to examine strategies "to stem this deterioration of our national security, literally, throughout the world."

"The other priority is to address, with great dedication, these serious problems of cost overruns of our purchases of our weapons and systems for the military," McCain said. "It's still a disgraceful situation."

Another focus will be cyber-security, McCain said. "It's a growing threat to our national security. We basically have been unable to do anything legislatively to help combat the threats that cyber-war presents."

McCain stressed that he doesn't intend to play parochial politics as Armed Services chairman, but made it clear that he would look out for Arizona military interests that he deems essential to national security. He has been working to save the A-10 Thunderbolt II, or "Warthog," that the Air Force wants to retire. The A-10 pilots train at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in southern Arizona.

"I'm not a home-towner, OK, but when I see, for example, a misguided proposal by the Air Force to take the most viable close air support weapon out of the inventory with nothing to replace it, I'm going to fight that," McCain said. "And it's not going to happen, by the way. It's not going to happen."

Other times, McCain said, he may not fight "some aspect of national defense that needs to be reduced" that could have a negative economic impact on Arizona.

Meanwhile, Flake said he was looking forward to his likely new responsibilities with the African Affairs subcommittee. He told The Republic that the Ebola outbreak remains a top concern and that he intends to travel to Liberia in west Africa "before too long." He said he had a brief telephone conversation about the issue Wednesday with Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

"We are making some progress there," Flake said. "There is some good news to talk about."

Flake has personal ties to Africa. He served his Mormon mission in South Africa. He also worked as a lobbyist in 1990 and 1991 for a uranium mine in Namibia that was partly owned by Iran. Flake said he didn't know Iran had an interest in the mine at the time, but it became an issue in his 2012 Senate race.

The Judiciary subcommittee that Flake possibly could lead has oversight on private-sector privacy concerns involving telecommunications and the Internet.

Republicans clinched Senate control for the first time in eight years by netting at least seven seats in Tuesday's elections, a number that could grow depending on how races in Alaska and Louisiana turn out. U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is expected to replace U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., as Senate majority leader.

Nowicki is The Republic's national political reporter. Follow him on Twitter at @dannowicki and on his official Facebook page.