The Association of Old Crows on Wednesday condemned legislation being pushed by the Obama Administration to sell off up to 500 megahertz of electromagnetic spectrum for commercial wireless purposes over the next 10 years. The electronic warfare advocacy organization is concerned about the impact these handovers would have on the US military, which relies heavily on the spectrum. “[I]t is careless and short-sighted to hastily auction any military spectrum until such measures are taken to ensure that spectrum relocation does not significantly and disproportionately affect the joint warfighters who rely on the EMS to train and fight,” wrote AOC President Christopher Glaze in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission. Indeed, AOC argues that two bills now before Congress—the Radio Spectrum Inventory Act and the Spectrum Relocation Improvement Act—”will negatively affect the military services.” (AOC release)
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.