There’s an amendment in the offing that would prohibit transfer sole control of the Joint Combat Aircraft program to the Air Force. Roxana Tiron of The Hill reports that Sen. Clair McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Sen. Mark (D-Ark.) plan to introduce such an amendment to the defense authorization bill, yet to be taken up by the full Senate. They apparently have swung the powerful National Guard Caucus to their point of view. The head of the National Guard Bureau, Army Lt. Gen. Steven Blum this month told The Hill that he feared shifting funding and control to the Air Force alone would slow the program. Also there’s the little matter of a protest over the contract award.
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.