WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Rep. Blake Moore has been named to serve on the House Armed Services Committee, key, he maintains, in defending Hill Air Force Base, a major Northern Utah installation.

He also received a recommendation to get a slot of the House Committee on Natural Resources.

A place on the Armed Services Committee was one of the assignments the freshman lawmaker had sought, and Moore follows in the footsteps of his predecessors, Reps. Rob Bishop and Jim Hansen, former 1st District representatives who also served on the committee. Moore was elected to the House seat last November and took office earlier this month.

“The 1st District’s representation on the committee is key to ensuring that the tens of thousands of constituents who work at Hill Air Force Base and its several assets have the necessary resources to make vital contributions to our national defense,” Moore said in a statement. He plans to prioritize “pressing issues such as readiness, funding allocations and modernization efforts.”

Devin Wiser, executive director of government relations for Weber State University and former chief of staff for Bishop, said Moore’s naming to the body is good for Northern Utah given the committee’s central role in defense issues. The body helps put together the National Defense Authorization Act each year, which outlines defense policies, and serving on it will give Moore say in how defense issues are addressed as they pertain to Hill AFB and the country as a whole.

Having Utah’s 1st District U.S. representative on the body is “a tradition and it’s an important tradition,” said Wiser, who also serves as executive director of Weber State’s Olene Walker Institute of Politics and Public Service. Hill Air Force Base, located inside the 1st District in Davis County, is a key outpost for F-35 fighter jet and the intercontinental ballistic missile programs.

“He’ll have a say in all sorts of polices related to national defense,” said Wiser. Moore, a Republican, won’t have the seniority of Bishop, who decided not to run for the 1st District seat after nine terms, Wiser added. But the new congressman can make up for that, he went on, with his “hustle.”

Moore cited the vast tracts of federally owned land in Utah in underscoring the import of serving on the Committee on Natural Resources. Bishop had also served on that body, leading it for a time.

Prior to winning the U.S. House seat, Moore served in the U.S. foreign service in Asia and, more recently, as a management consultant in Salt Lake City.

The Armed Services Committee has jurisdiction over defense policy, military operations, the Department of Defense and portions of the Department of Energy. The Committee on Natural Resources oversees legislation related to public lands, Native American tribes, and development and conservation of natural resources.