Floyd Spence - Congressional Career

Congressional Career

For his first eleven terms, Spence represented a relatively compact district in the central portion of the state. However, the 1990s round of redistricting shifted nearly all of his African-American constituents to the majority-black 6th District. To compensate for this loss in population, Spence's district was pushed well to the south and west, as far south as the resort city of Hilton Head Island and as far west as the fringes of the Augusta suburbs.

In 1993, Spence became ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, having been a member of the panel since his first term. The 2nd District includes Fort Jackson. He became the committee's chairman in 1995 after the Republicans under Newt Gingrich of Georgia gained their first majority in the House in forty years. Spence renamed the House Armed Services Committee the "Committee on National Security" when he took over as chairman. He focused on military readiness, calling it "the best insurance we have both for peace and freedom." Spence was also a strong advocate of missile defense. He stepped down as chairman after the 106th Congress because of caucus-imposed term limits. He later served as chairman of the House subcommittee on military procurement.