Appropriators Leave Thursday Meeting with Plans to Talk Again
The top four appropriators on Capitol Hill met Thursday for the first time since November, restarting talks about spending levels for the fiscal year that started Oct. 1. House Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) told CQ that her focus is to pass an...
Army Reprimands Thousands for Vaccine Refusal
The Army has written almost 3,000 reprimands for soldiers who have refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine, it announced this week in a press release. About 97% of active duty soldiers are vaccinated, and the service is still processing thousands of religious and medical...
In Our Communities
Hunt Companies reached a deal with the U.S. Department of Justice to pay $500,000 to resolve fraud allegations involving its military housing operations at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, Air Force Times reported…. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said this week that people...
Long-Term CR Would Impact Service Members, DOD Leaders Tell Lawmakers
Congressional appropriators are scrambling to reach a deal on an omnibus spending package to fund the government for the current fiscal year. The current continuing resolution expires Feb. 18. The tight deadline raises the possibility that they will be forced to pass...
Army Boosts Recruitment Bonus Cap
The Army will now pay up to $50,000 in signing bonuses to new recruits – up from the previous $40,000 cap – as it tries to recover from recruitment losses in recent years. “We are still living the implications of 2020 and the onset of COVID, when the school systems...
House Passes Measure Expanding GI Bill Benefits for Guardsmen, Reservists
The House passed a bill Tuesday that would give National Guard members and reservists more opportunities to receive GI Bill benefits. The measure gives them eligibility toward tuition benefits any day they are paid and in uniform on federal orders, including for...
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PAST STORIES
Federal Court Sides with Anti-Vax Sailors
A federal judge in Texas on Monday sided with a group of sailors – including SEALs – who say the Pentagon’s COVID-19 vaccination requirement violates their religious freedom, The Hill reported. The judge said the Navy’s policy for reviewing religious exemption...
Appropriators Appear Ready to Increase Military Budget
House Appropriations Committee leaders seems likely to approve a $740 billion topline spending number for defense, according to Politico’s National Security Daily. That is about $25 billion more than the administration first requested. The higher number is more in...
Hawaii Hearing Officer Upholds State’s Order that Navy Shut Down Fuel Facility
Saying Monday that the Navy’s Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage facility is a “ticking time bomb” likely to leak even more fuel into local water sources, a Hawaii official agreed with a state order that the Navy shut the facility down, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported....
Pentagon Updates Procedures for Approving DC Guard Activity
DOD is appointing a single point of contact for requests to activate the D.C. National Guard to support local law enforcement, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin wrote in a memo dated Dec. 30. The Guard’s activation was delayed on Jan. 6, and Austin ordered a review of...
In Our Communities
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) is deploying 1,250 Guard members to help with overburdened hospitals facing COVID-19 surges, but almost half of the state’s Guard is ineligible to go because they are not yet vaccinated, the Statehouse News Bureau reported. The report said...
Austin Tests Positive for COVID
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced Sunday night that he has tested positive for COVID-19. Austin is fully vaccinated and had a booster shot. His doctor told him his case would be more severe if he hadn’t had all three shots, Austin said in a statement. “The...
DOD Urging Boosters for Military
DOD is recommending that vaccinated uniformed personnel get a COVID-19 booster shot amid a surge in cases from the omicron variant’s global spread. The guidance came in a series of memos over the holidays. “Because all studies are converging on the need for a vaccine...
What’s Coming Up
Here are some of the key dates and issues we’re watching over the next few weeks. 3: The Senate reconvenes. 6: President Biden speaks at the Capitol on the anniversary of the 2021 insurrection. 10: The House reconvenes. 25: The President delivers the State of the...
New Year Brings Another Appropriations Rush
As Congress starts its 2022 work, it has just a few weeks until its next big deadline: The current stopgap spending bill expires Feb. 18, and Congress has not yet finalized any of the 12 annual appropriations bills for the fiscal year that started in October....
Silicon Valley May Be Losing Patience with DOD, News Report Says
Tech startups and venture capital firms are signaling to the Pentagon that the clock is ticking if defense leaders want their help on new innovations, Breaking Defense reported from this month’s Reagan National Defense Forum. “We have, at most, two years before...
In Our Communities
Service members from Huntsville, Alabama, Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Florida; Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii; Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Washington; and Fort Meade, Maryland are among the winners of the Army & Air Force Exchange Service’s 2021...
Biden to Deploy 1,000 Troops to Help with COVID Response
President Biden has ordered the Pentagon to prepare 1,000 military medical personnel to deploy to hospitals across the country as the omicron variant spreads rapidly. They will mobilize in January and February, the White House said. Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby...
Air Force Chief of Staff’s Wife Publishes Quality of Life Guide
Sharene Brown, spouse of Air Force Chief of Staff Charles “CQ” Brown Jr., announced a “Five and Thrive” initiative to address what she sees as the top five quality of life issues facing airmen’s and Guardians’ families. She developed the plan with her Thrive Team, a...
Biden Will Deploy Military to Help with Winter COVID Surge
President Biden is expected to announce today that he will send medically trained military personnel to hospitals to help with an expected surge in COVID-19 cases in the coming weeks and months as the coronavirus’s omicron variant takes hold across the country. That...
DOD Working Group Defines ‘Extremism,’ Updates Rules
DOD issued new guidelines Monday to define and fight extremist activity among service members, along with a long-awaited report from the department’s Countering Extremist Activity Working Group. “Extremist activity within the Department of Defense is rare, but even...
GOP Lawmakers Back Navy SEALs’ Vaccine Lawsuit
A group of 47 congressional Republicans filed a legal brief Monday supporting a group of Navy SEALs suing the federal government over its COVID-19 vaccine mandate, as Politico reported. “Plaintiffs’ religious liberty and the government’s asserted interest in...
In Our Communities
The commander of the Space Force’s Space Launch Delta 30 is working to make Vandenberg Space Force Base, California a “national spaceport,” Air Force Magazine reported. Only “a few locations in the world… offer what we can provide here,” Col. Robert Long said. “No. 1...
VA Considers Shifting Resources as Veterans Move to the South and West
The Department of Veterans Affairs is watching as more veterans move to Southern and Western states to see how it should allocate its resources to best serve them, VA Secretary Denis McDonough said last week on a national tour of VA facilities. Data show that veterans...
Grady Confirmed as Joint Chiefs Vice Chair
The Senate late last week confirmed Navy Adm. Christopher Grady as the new vice chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, filling a spot Air Force Gen. John Hyten retired from last month. Grady previously led Fleet Forces Command and Naval Forces Northern Command. Navy...
Services Continue Taking Action on Vaccine Refusals
The military services are starting to make good on threats to remove service members who refuse to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Here’s the latest. The Marine Corps has assigned a “vaccine refusal” discharge code to 103 members it discharged for refusing to get the...
Leahy Sees ‘Path Forward’ to Reach Appropriations Deal
Senate Democratic and Republican appropriations leaders expressed optimism Thursday that they can reach a deal on the 12 annual appropriations bills for the fiscal year that started in October. “I think we’ve got a path forward,” Senate Appropriations Committee Chair...
In Our Communities
Addressing the fuel leakage into water on and around Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii will be a DOD-wide focus, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said this week after visiting the area. “We recognize the need to continue to care for all affected personnel...
Senate Sends NDAA to Biden for Signature
The Senate overwhelmingly passed the National Defense Authorization Wednesday, sending the legislation to President Biden, who is expected to sign it. The bill faced political and procedural hurdles along the way, but in the end, Congress maintained its streak by...
Navy to Start Removing Sailors Who Refuse Vaccine
The Navy is still working with sailors who step up to get the COVID-19 vaccine after the Nov. 15 deadline, but those who continue to refuse will begin to be released from service, the Navy said this week, as Stars and Stripes reported. “There are sailors who, in spite...
GOP Governors Push Back on Guard Vaccine Mandate
Five Republican governors are saying DOD is overstepping its “constitutional and statutory authority” by requiring that National Guard members be separated from service if they refuse to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Govs. Mark Gordon (Wyo.), Mike Dunleavy (Alaska), Kim...