Senate Armed Services Committee Staff Biographies

Les Brownlee
Staff Director

Brownlee is "the best manager I ever worked for," a former staffer said. Brownlee's current colleagues are also admirers, hailing his experience both in the legislative process and on military issues. A retired Army colonel who served two tours in Vietnam, Brownlee joined Warner's personal staff in 1984, became the Airland Forces Subcommittee's ground force procurement expert in 1987, and rose to the position of committee staff director in March 1996. Brownlee still retains, from his subcommittee days, a mastery of and a focus on the details, staffers said. "He reads every page of every [briefing] book that every staffer writes" on the details of the annual markup, said one, then hands it back with suggestions and comments, "like homework." Yet subordinates say he does not cramp their style. "He gives us a lot of autonomy," said one. But Brownlee is "not really a policy person," a former staffer said, and that's a potential weakness given Warner's fondness for Big Ideas. In recent years, Brownlee has been part of a troika of retired Army officers-the other two are former Deputy Staff Director George Lauffer and military personnel expert Charlie Abell-who have led the staff and focused on weapons and budgets. Now that picture has changed with the arrival of longtime Warner aide and policy thinker Judy Ansley. Brownlee, 59, entered the Army from the University of Wyoming's ROTC program and holds an MBA from the University of Alabama.

Judith Ansley
Deputy Staff Director

Ansley has always focused on foreign policy, not military hardware. Her expertise contrasts with and complements that of procurement and process expert Brownlee. Warner brought Ansley on board primarily to rebuild the full committee's policy staff. While she is, strictly speaking, a new hire, she worked closely with the staff for four years as Warner's military affairs aide, and spent her first decade on the Hill as an Armed Services staffer, before Warner tapped her as GOP staff director on one of his other committees, Intelligence. "She didn't have to learn," said an approving staffer. Even so, Ansley-admired for her expertise and energy, and closely tied to Warner-cannot help but shake things up a little. A native of Somerville, Mass., Ansley, 41, has degrees from Tufts University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and spent three years at the Congressional Research Service before joining Armed Services for the first time, in 1983.

Charles S. Abell
Professional Staff Member

Charlie Abell (never Charles) is another career soldier and Vietnam veteran-turned-career-staffer. He is also a pillar of the committee staff: "We just depend on him implicitly," said a colleague. His steady-handed management of often-tangled and emotional personnel issues has won him the respect of service members' advocacy groups. The groups appreciate his honesty even when he disagrees with them-and they give him considerable credit for the landmark package of pay and retirement benefits that was Warner's first big bill as chairman. Even a House Democratic staffer said, "I've really enjoyed working with Charlie Abell." Beyond personnel, Abell has shepherded all nominations through Armed Services for seven years: "I don't recall one being rejected on the floor," he said. Abell, 52, grew up in the Winston-Salem area of North Carolina and graduated from the University of Tampa before joining the Army, where he rose from private to colonel before retiring and joining the committee in 1993.

George Lauffer
Professional Staff Member

Lauffer, a colleague said, "is a prince." Said another: "Probably the best example of Christian patience I've ever seen. . . . I don't know of anybody who doesn't like George Lauffer." This laudable reputation is all the more remarkable considering that Lauffer spent four years as deputy staff director, a role often regarded as the shock absorber between staff and staff director or as the "bad cop" whipping staffers into shape. A specialist on military construction issues, Lauffer originally joined the committee as Strom Thurmond's personal liaison. He still works South Carolina issues, is "fiercely loyal to Sen. Thurmond . . . and will probably be here as long as Sen. Thurmond is here," said a staffer. Born in Czechoslovakia in 1944, Lauffer was a World War II refugee adopted by a GI, and he grew up on Army bases around the world. After graduating from Oklahoma State University, he joined the Army himself and rose to lieutenant colonel, serving as a Pentagon legislative liaison officer before Thurmond tapped him for the committee, in 1989.

Lawrence J. Lanzillotta
Professional Staff Member

Lanzillotta is "one of our unsung heroes," said a colleague. Low-profile but highly respected, Lanzillotta is the committee's best kept secret that everybody knows. With no specific program portfolio, Lanzillotta instead sits at the hub of the wheel as the committee's chief military budget analyst. It is a job made unusually complex by the fact that Armed Services breaks its subcommittees down not by budget title, but by mission area (Airland Forces, Strategic Forces, Seapower, and so on), each of which has some research dollars and some procurement dollars. "The whole bill only comes together at the full-committee level," explained a former staffer, and it is Lanzillotta who adds up all the numbers-or discovers they don't add up. Also a retired Army officer, Lanzillotta joined the committee in 1995, after rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel as a top Pentagon budgeteer. Lanzillotta, 57, grew up in Galion, Ohio, and holds degrees in finance and business administration from Bowling Green State University and Virginia's Marymount University.

David S. Lyles
Minority Staff Director

A longtime Hill veteran who returned to the committee from the private sector to take this job, the scarily smart Lyles goes about his work with green eyeshades and a knife. "A very talented, savvy guy," said a former staffer, but "not necessarily a warm and fuzzy kind of guy." Lyles learned cost cutting in the four years he spent as a Defense Appropriations Subcommittee staffer (his first Hill job), after which he spent 13 years on Armed Services, rising to the position of deputy staff director. He left in 1994 to swing an ax full time as staff director for the Base Closure and Realignment Commission, then went to work at ITT Defense & Electronics. In December 1996, ranking Democrat Carl Levin of Michigan got Lyles to bring his extensive experience back to the committee. Lyles, 48, grew up in Spartanburg, S.C., and holds degrees from Oberlin College and the University of Wisconsin. Lyles never served in uniform but has held civilian jobs in the Pentagon.

Peter K. Levine
Minority Counsel

Levine is Levin's lawyer. A graduate of Harvard Law School, he has worked for Sen. Levin for 12 years-on the Govern-mental Affairs Committee, on the Senator's personal staff, and since 1995, on this committee. Over the years, he has earned a formidable reputation as a determinedly cautious reformer of federal acquisition rules, carefully balancing the traditional Democratic desire for strict oversight with industry's argument that fewer rules means lower costs for taxpayers. His legal expertise carries into many other areas as well. Said one admiring former Republican staffer: Levine "wears about 15 hats," from mastering the details of environmental policy to helping manage the new Emerging Threats Subcommittee to shepherding nominations to the floor. Yet Levine defies stereotypes of Washington lawyers, said a former colleague: "When he gives you his word, that's it, you can trust him." Levine, 41, grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from Harvard University.