John M. McHugh was sworn in as the 21st Secretary of the Army on Sept. 21, 2009. Previously, he was a member of Congress representing Northern and Central New York. He served as the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee with responsibility to oversee the policies and programs for DoD and each of the armed forces. He also served as chairman of the Morale, Welfare and Recreation Panel and as chairman, later ranking member, of the House Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Military Personnel. He served as a senior member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and for six years he was the chairman of the Subcommittee on the Postal Service. From 1997–2004, he was a member of the House International Relations Committee, and from 2005–09, he served on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. He was also a 14-year member of the U.S. Military Academy Board of Visitors. Before becoming Secretary of the Army, McHugh was co-chair of the House Army Caucus, a bipartisan organization that works to educate fellow House of Representatives members and their staffs about Army issues and programs. He began his public service career in 1971 as an assistant to the city manager of Watertown, N.Y. In 1976, he joined the staff of New York state Sen. H. Douglas Barclay. He earned an MPA from the State University of New York’s Nelson A. Rockefeller Graduate School of Public Affairs in 1977. Succeeding Barclay in 1984, McHugh served four terms in the legislature’s upper house before his election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1992.