In Our Communities
The Army and the state of Hawaii need to reach a new agreement if tenants such as Pacific Skydiving and Skydive Hawaii will be able to continue operating at Dillingham Airfield near Honolulu past June 30, the Star-Advertiser reported. Tourist businesses have been...
Biden Nominates Karlin to Lead DOD Strategy
Mara Karlin, who worked in the Pentagon during the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, has been nominated to become assistant secretary of defense for strategy, plans and capabilities, as Defense News reported. Karlin is currently the acting assistant secretary...
Space Force Plans to Work More with Businesses of All Sizes
Col. Russell Teehan, portfolio architect at the Space and Missile Systems Center, said the Space Force plans to incorporate more small businesses instead of leaning on a handful of large prime vendors. The commercial sector will play a role in every mission area, he...
Lawmakers Looking into Food Insecurity Among Military Families
The coronavirus pandemic helped spotlight a troubling issue for many military families: food insecurity. Many military families are ineligible for SNAP benefits because their housing allowances count as income. “Our bipartisan Military Hunger Prevention Act would make...
VA Chief Makes Case for 8.5% Budget Increase
Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough told lawmakers Thursday that the agency needs more money in the next fiscal year to help address homelessness, suicide, aging facilities and community care, including payments to private doctors providing care to veterans....
Bipartisan Bill Would Address PFAS Nationally
Reps. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) and Fred Upton (R-Mich.) have reintroduced a bill that would designate PFAS as hazardous substances and force government cleanup of PFAS-contaminated sites. The bill is identical to language the House has passed before, but its backers...
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PAST STORIES
In Our Communities
A U.S. Department of Labor grant is helping the Georgia Cyber Center in Augusta train veterans and military spouses for careers in IT, WFXG-TV reported…. The state of North Carolina is in the process of transferring a former National Guard armory in Morehead City to...
Army Exploring Facial Recognition Systems for Base Access
The Army is soliciting bids to upgrade technology at base entry points, including the use of biometric data such as facial recognition. One RFP notes that physical access cards are “subject to compromise and in a pandemic environment [result] in a significant risk to...
First Lady Revives Joining Forces Initiative
First Lady Dr. Jill Biden is reviving and revamping the White House initiative to fight military spouse unemployment and underemployment, strengthen military children’s education and increase access to mental health services, Military.com reported. “Just 1% of our...
ADC Live Thursday: Budget, DCIP, DOD Nominees and More
ADC goes Live again Thursday at 3 p.m. Eastern time with discussion of the top defense topics in D.C. and across the country. Among the guests are U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.) and Jennifer Miller, acting assistant secretary of the Air Force for installations,...
Budget Season to Kick Off Friday with Release of Biden Spending Outline
President Joe Biden is expected to release an outline of his fiscal year 2022 budget request Friday, kicking off the annual budget and appropriations season, officials said. The budget will likely be light on details, while the administration finishes its more...
In Our Communities
Thirty-six states have expanded vaccine eligibility to include all residents over the age of 16, according to the latest Stateside Associates tracker. President Joe Biden announced Tuesday he wants all Americans over 16 to be eligible by April 19, moving up his...
Suicide among Reservists Spiked at End of 2020
Suicide among active-duty service members surged last summer, at the initial peak of the COVID-19 pandemic but evened off in the final quarter of 2020, Military Times reported, based on the Pentagon’s latest preliminary data. Among active-duty personnel, there were...
Privatized Housing Outscores Government-Owned Housing among Air Force Tenants
Air Force housing tenants gave privatized housing a 77% rating in the service’s official 2020 satisfaction survey, down slightly from 2019 but above the Air Force’s target metric of 75.Tenants of federally owned Air Force housing projects rated their satisfaction at...
DOD Workers More Productive as Teleworkers, IG Study Says
The majority of the DOD workforce feels as productive – or more productive – working remotely, a recent Pentagon inspector general’s report said, according to Federal News Network. The IG study surveyed more than 55,000 employees about their experiences teleworking...
Inhofe Postures to Fight Defense Spending Shifts
When it comes to defense spending, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee, is on a mission to hold onto “a lot of the stuff that we gained during the Trump administration,” he said in a new Politico interview. As the Biden...
McCord Tapped to Return as DOD Comptroller
President Joe Biden has nominated Mike McCord to serve as DOD comptroller, a role he held from 2014 to 2017. Since that time, he has overseen civil-military programs at the Stennis Center for Public Service and served on the board of trustees for the Aerospace Corp.,...
In Our Communities
The Biden administration took steps over the weekend to potentially start housing unaccompanied minor migrants at Camp Roberts, Calif., AP reported. The Pentagon on Friday approved a request from the Department of Health and Human Services to review the Army National...
Senators from Four States Press for Answers on Space Command Move
Democratic senators from four states are pressing federal investigators on whether politics played into the Trump administration’s 11th-hour decision to move U.S. Space Command headquarters from Colorado Springs, Colorado to Huntsville, Alabama. There were several...
Army Cyber Institute Tool Will Help Communities Fight Off Cyberattacks
The Army wants to help every municipality prepare to respond to a possible cyberattack, “regardless of their city budget,” Lt. Col. Erica Mitchell of the Army Cyber Institute told C4ISRNET last week. Mitchell was demonstrating a new tool to understand how cyberattacks...
In Our Communities
The Department of Health and Human Services has requested to begin housing unaccompanied minor migrants at Camp Roberts, Calif. A Pentagon spokesperson said Thursday the request is under review, Military.com reported…. The Flint Hills Regional Council is soliciting...
Mich. Gov. Invokes Past NDAA Language to Force DOD’s Hand on PFAS Cleanup
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) is asking the Department of Defense to revise its cooperative agreement with the state to reflect the state’s stricter standards for PFAS cleanup, Michigan Live reported. The state’s regulations allow for a lower level of...
Biden Planning 2.7% Federal Pay Raise
Federal agencies have been told to budget for a 2.7% pay increase for federal civilian workers, according to Federal News Network. Civilians received a 1% pay raise in the current fiscal year and a 3.1% bump the year before. It’s not clear whether the pay raises will...
More Vets Getting Vaccines than Expected
Only about 3% of veterans are turning down COVID-19 vaccines, a figure lower than Veterans Affairs officials expected, Stars and Stripes reported. The figure is higher in some rural areas. “We were worried we’d see more vaccine hesitancy and disparities across...
In Our Communities
Almost all midshipmen at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., who wanted a COVID-19 vaccine have had their first shot, allowing the campus to reopen some of its facilities, the Capital Gazette reported…. DOD officials say proposed water restrictions near Fort McNair...
Tactical Forces Chair: Supply Chain Fixes Important for American Workers
Addressing issues in the defense supply chain will help build up the U.S. workforce, Rep. Donald Norcross (D-N.J.) told Defense News in a wide-ranging interview. Norcross chairs the House Armed Services subcommittee on tactical air and land forces and is a member of a...
Biden’s Infrastructure Plan: Some Provisions to Watch
President Joe Biden laid out his long-anticipated infrastructure plan Wednesday. Here are some of the key spending provisions that could impact defense communities, based on information in a White House fact sheet: $621 billion investment in more resilient...
Biden Rolls Out $2T Infrastructure, Workforce Initiative
President Joe Biden said Wednesday that his massive new infrastructure plan is a “once-in-a-generation investment in America,” the largest initiative of its kind since construction of the interstate highway system and development of the space program. He said it will...
Administration Won’t Say How Many Migrant Children Will Be Housed on Bases; Third Installation Eyed for Extra Beds
The Pentagon is not saying how many unaccompanied children crossing into the country from Mexico will be housed at military bases, according to a report in the Washington Examiner. “I’m not going to speak to the numbers,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said. “We are...
Blue Star Families Study: Military Families Paying Hundreds Out of Pocket above Housing Allowance
Many military families who live off-base are paying hundreds of dollars each month in housing expenses that are beyond their basic housing allowance (BAH), Military Times reported. It is one of the findings of the Military Family Lifestyle Survey released this week by...
Five Regions Named Great American Defense Communities
ADC announced the newest class of communities in its Great American Defense Communities program Tuesday. The 2021 class includes Altus, Okla., Coastal Georgia, Everett, Wash., Great Falls, Mont., and the NAS Pensacola and NAS Whiting Field Community. “These five...