Stopgap Bill Starts Moving
The Senate passed a procedural vote Tuesday night 72-23, the first step in passing a short-term continuing resolution. The stopgap spending bill now appears likely to get through the Senate and the House in time for the President’s signature before the fiscal year...
Helping Military Spouses Save
Now is the time for employers, policymakers, communities and others “to do their part to lessen the financial costs of military spouse unemployment,” Eric Eversole and Mark Steffe wrote for Military Spouse. Eversole is president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce...
ADC Rolls Out Agenda for Installation Innovation
ADC released the schedule for the upcoming Installation Innovation Forum, taking place in Phoenix Oct. 31 through Nov. 2. The agenda features dozens of sessions on successful community projects, as well as keynote remarks, town halls with DOD leaders and networking...
In Our Communities
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin leaves today to visit Naval Base Point Loma and Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in California. Then he’ll go to Hawaii to visit the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, according to a press release. The...
Nineteen Communities Receive DCIP Awards
The DOD Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation announced 19 grants through the Defense Community Infrastructure Pilot Program (DCIP). “The Defense Community Infrastructure Pilot Program is critical in delivering public infrastructure and services that not only...
DOD Awards Defense Manufacturing Community Support Program to Six Communities
Six communities have received a total of $30 million in Defense Manufacturing Community Support Program (DMCSP) grants from DOD, the Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation said in a press release. The program “makes long-term investments in critical skills,...
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PAST STORIES
With No Time to Spare, Congress to Consider Stopgap Bill
The Senate is expected to take a procedural vote tonight to advance a stopgap spending bill. Democratic leaders hope the package can clear the Senate and House to get the President’s signature before the current fiscal year ends Friday night. House Majority Leader...
Commission’s Final Report Suggests Renaming 1100+ DOD Assets
The commission created by Congress to recommend renaming DOD assets named for Confederate leaders issued the third and final volume of its recommendations last week, with a list of more than 1,100 monuments, buildings, street names, Army vessels and other assets that...
Quality of Life Issues Cross Fence Line, Borron Tells AFA
The issues facing the military are the same ones facing families, businesses and communities near installations, ADC Executive Director Matt Borron said last week at the Air & Space Forces Association Air, Space & Cyber Conference. Those issues include the...
Congress Passes Bill to Boost Vets’ Cost of Living Increase
Veterans could see their biggest cost of living increase in 40 years, Military Times reported. Congress sent legislation to President Biden last week that would link veterans’ cost of living increase to Social Security increases. Biden is expected to sign it. Social...
Austin Announces Steps to Help Financially Struggling Service Members
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin offered a wide range of existing, new and forthcoming resources to help service members and military families trying to make ends meet. “We remain profoundly committed to doing right by our military families, just as our military...
Congressional Leaders Lay Out Timeline to Pass CR Next Week
Congressional appropriators and party leaders will spend the weekend negotiating the final language of a stopgap spending bill to keep the federal government open past next week. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) filed a motion Thursday to allow for floor...
SASC Advances Nominees, Including Cotton, Owens, Saltzman, Taylor-Kale
The Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday approved the nomination of Lt. Gen. Chance Saltzman to become the chief of space operations. If confirmed on the Senate floor, Saltzman would replace outgoing chief Gen. Jay Raymond. Other nominations the committee...
Snap of the Week
Navy petty officers first class, selected for promotion to chief petty officer, participate in a sail maintenance Wednesday during Chief Petty Officer Heritage Weeks. During the week, USS Constitution sailors teach the selectees a variety of time-honored maritime...
DOD May Offer One-Time Checks to Some Service Members as Economic Relief
Military families at the “lower end of the pay scale” may get some economic relief through a “potential one-time outlay of money to help support those families to really get them back on track,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. said Wednesday,...
SASC to Move Forward with Key Confirmation Votes
The Senate Armed Services Committee in the coming weeks is expected to advance the nominations of Brendan Owens as assistant secretary of defense for energy, installations and environment, and Laura Taylor-Kale as assistant secretary of defense for industrial base...
Panel to Study Defense Budget Reform Making ‘Significant Progress’
A select panel commissioned by Congress to study DOD’s budget process is making “significant progress,” its chair said, according to a Defense News report. The Commission on Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution Reform is chaired by former Pentagon...
Senate to Consider NDAA Before Election Recess
The Senate will consider its version of the fiscal year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act early next month before breaking for the midterm elections, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Tuesday. The timing would give House and Senate negotiators a chance...
DOD to Partner with Employers for Spouse Fellowship Program
DOD will begin working with national and local employers to offer paid fellowships to military spouses, with a focus on positions that spouses can continue in, even if they move for a new duty station. “We know COVID proved that there are opportunities much more than...
Negotiations Clear Way for SBIR Grant Program Renewal
Congress appears ready to reauthorize the Small Business Administration’s Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer grant programs for three more years, Defense News reported. The programs popular within DOD are set to expire at the end...
In Our Communities
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed a bill last week that will help LGBTQ veterans discharged under the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy understand how to update their records to access Veterans Affairs benefits, AP reported. When Congress repealed the policy during...
Wormuth Pledges More Money to Update Barracks
The Army has underinvested in on-base housing, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth told soldiers last week at Fort Benning, Georgia. “I want to make sure that our soldiers — that you all and that your families have quality housing to live in,” she said, according to a...
Air Force Scraps Plan to Cut Special Duty Pay
The Air Force is reversing a plan to cut the monthly Special Duty Assignment Pay incentives that hundreds of airmen receive to take on some of the service’s toughest jobs, Military.com reported. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall made the announcement Monday at Air...
RAND: ‘Logical’ to Assume Women Will Leave Military over Lack of Abortion Access
As some states enact legislation limiting abortion after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, about 40% of the women serving in the military will have restricted access to abortion services where they are stationed, making them more...
Lawmakers Scrambling to Keep DOD Innovation Grant Program Alive
Leaders of the House and Senate Small Business committees are working to negotiate a reauthorization of a small business innovation grant that helps smaller businesses get defense contracts, Defense News reported. The Small Business Administration Innovation Research...
New Top Enlisted Sailor: ‘Top Priority Will Be You and Your Families’
When James Honea became Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy last week, he had a message for his fellow sailors: “You can depend on us to fight for you,” according to Military.com, which noted Honea was including Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday, the top...
U.S. Sending Another $600 Million in Military Aid to Ukraine
The Biden administration on Friday announced its 21st drawdown of equipment from DOD inventories to send to Ukraine. The package is worth $600 million. “To meet Ukraine’s evolving battlefield requirements, the United States will continue to work with its allies and...
Defense-State Liaison Office Outlines 2023 Priorities
Military family quality of life improvements will continue to be a 2023 priority of the DOD office that works directly with state governments, according to materials shared with attendees of the Defense-State Liaison Office’s recent annual State of the States...
Commanders Join Installation Innovation Lineup; Early Bird Rates End Today
ADC announced Thursday that more military service leaders will join community, military and industry leaders for Installation Innovation, taking place in Phoenix Oct. 31 through Nov. 2. Newly confirmed presenters include: Lt Gen. Omar Jones IV, Commanding General,...
ADC Accepting Nominations to Join Board of Directors
ADC is now accepting nominations to join its board of directors, which includes a mix of public sector and private sector members. The nominations committee is looking for candidates to fill three-year terms that will start after elections at the association’s annual...
In Our Communities
The Springfield News-Sun is celebrating the Air Force’s 75th anniversary with a look at “how a band of Dayton citizens came together nearly a century ago to persuade the federal government to not move early military aviation functions from Dayton.” The area eventually...