The State (South Carolina) reports that “Congressional Republicans are making rebuilding the U.S. military a focal point of the coming session, and South Carolina’s Rep. Joe Wilson on Wednesday was put into the heart of that effort.”

“Wilson, a member of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee since he arrived in Congress in 2002, was named the chairman of the subcommittee on military readiness.”

“U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said in an interview Wednesday that he’d made the appointment because U.S. forces were facing ‘a deepening readiness problem’ and Wilson understood what was needed.”