WASHINGTON \u2014 Jon Kyl, the former senator sworn in to fill the late John McCain\u2019s Senate seat, will also join the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senate sources confirmed Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the Senate\u2019s Republican whip, Kyl, 76, was a longtime Pentagon and defense-sector ally, then known as the Senate\u2019s biggest advocate for missile defense spending and its strongest opponent to nuclear weapons reduction. More broadly, Kyl \u2014 who retired in 2013 \u2014 represents a more conservative perspective than McCain, known as a maverick who sometimes voted against his party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On national defense, Kyl and McCain were \u201cinseperable,\u201d said Sen. Lindsey Graham, a SASC member and McCain ally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou should expect from him what you got from him in the years he was here: Solid conservative point of view toward national security,\u201d said Graham, R-S.C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kyl\u2019s voice and experience, Graham said, would be helpful in finding compromise on border security and avoiding a government shutdown. President Donald Trump said Wednesday he would be willing to shut down the government if Congress does not provide enough funding for a border wall\u2014panicking Congressional Republican leaders ahead of midterm elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe\u2019s from Arizona, so border security is very important to him, but he\u2019s a very practical guy,\u201d Graham said of Kyl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The committee in 2017 named Kyl, who had been working as a lobbyist at the law firm Covington & Burling, to Congress\u2019s Commission on the National Defense Strategy for the United States, alongside two former four-stars, three Obama-era Pentagon officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
McCain died on Aug. 25 after being diagnosed with brain cancer last year. He was buried Sunday after tributes in Arizona and Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kyl was appointed on Tuesday by Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey to temporarily fill McCain\u2019s seat. Kyl has said he would not run in a special election in 2020 to finish McCain\u2019s term, which ends in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jon Kyl, the former senator sworn in to fill the late John McCain\u2019s Senate seat, will also join the Senate Armed Services Committee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":77945,"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":62,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,12,26,62],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3216,3222],"class_list":["post-42656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-news","category-newsletters","category-pentagon-congress"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"5ASGVFKY7ZFRFI3ZJBZGAAD4NY","arc_canonical_url":"\/congress\/2018\/09\/06\/kyl-a-dod-and-defense-sector-ally-to-join-senate-armed-services\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n