Ken Calvert holds the top Republican spot on the House Appropriations Committee’s Defense panel and is a point man for the party’s priorities in the Pentagon’s budget as well a conservative lawmaker adroit at handling spending cuts.
He has served in the House for roughly three decades and is the most senior Republican in the California delegation. One of his long-standing priorities has been to reduce the number of civilian employees working for the Pentagon.
“Like everything else in government, personnel is your biggest cost, and the civilian-to-uniform ratio is at an all-time high,” Calvert said in a February 2021 ...