According to Florida news reports, Rep. Allen Boyd (D-Fla.) was successful in adding a provision to the 2010 defense spending bill that just passed the House that would delay the start of F-15 removal from Tyndall Air Force Base until April 1. The Air Force had wanted to start the process on Jan. 1. Boyd and members of the Bay Defense Alliance met with service leaders last month to discuss the base’s shift from F-15 training to F-22 training—and, in the process, loss of one squadron. Many lawmakers in both houses of Congress have chided the Air Force over its planned early retirement of some 250 legacy fighters and want a detailed report on how it intends to cover, in particular, the air sovereignty alert mission. (Also read News Herald report; TV 7 report)
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.