WASHINGTON \u2014 The Senate Armed Services Committee will take up Ash Carter’s nomination for defense secretary in January, after Republicans take control of the panel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Incoming SASC Chairman Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told reporters late Monday evening that panel members will want to have Carter’s confirmation hearing “as early as possible.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We’ll grill him and we’ll put his feet in the fire on a lot of issues,” McCain said. “But you need to have a secretary of defense who isn’t lame duck.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asked if he intends to finish the confirmation process next month, McCain replied: “Yeah, January. Absolutely.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
President Barack Obama announced Carter’s nomination on Friday morning. The Senate will adjourn for the final time later this week as the 113th Congress completes its work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lawmakers return in early January when Republicans will have a larger House majority and control of the Senate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But so far, GOP senators are predicting a smooth ride for the former deputy defense secretary’s nomination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I think his confirmation will sail through,” SASC member Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., the new National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman, told CongressWatch last week. “What we [the GOP caucus] have discussed as a group is that of all the choices, Carter was the best and the most likely to sail through on a bipartisan basis.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Incoming SASC Chairman Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told reporters late Monday evening that panel members will want to have Carter’s confirmation hearing “as early as possible.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":89165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":68,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[12,68],"tags":[],"coauthors":[990],"class_list":["post-52853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-pentagon-congress"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"JTZCEBJZFBHADDRK4F6K5L3V3I","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2014\/12\/10\/mccain-senate-finishing-carter-confirmation-in-jan\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n