President-elect Joe Biden will nominate retired Army Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III to be his Defense Secretary, the transition team announced Dec. 8. Austin, who left the military in 2016 as the four-star head of U.S. Central Command, would be the first-ever Black man to ...
As the final days of 2020 count down, House and Senate negotiators have agreed on sweeping defense policy legislation that offers nearly $732 billion to the armed forces in fiscal 2021. “The FY21 NDAA focuses on maintaining the strength of our defense enterprise as our ...
The drama of the twin Georgia Senate runoff elections looming in January could seep into negotiations over the 2021 defense policy bill, a key GOP lawmaker warned Nov. 17. Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), who is retiring this term as ranking member of the House Armed ...
The Senate Armed Services Committee appears likely to maintain its status quo, as the prospect of Democratic control of the Senate has dimmed after Election Day. SASC Chairman Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Ranking Member Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) won reelection by wide margins on ...
Leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees are tentatively scheduling a “Big Four” meeting for Oct. 26 to begin hashing out an agreement on the 2021 defense policy bill, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) told reporters. The Big Four ...
Democratic senators on Aug. 4 indicated they could hold up the confirmation of Shon J. Manasco as Air Force undersecretary as recourse for the Trump administration’s decision to install a controversial official into a key Pentagon policy post without Senate approval. That standoff loomed over ...
The House Armed Services Committee argued its way through its version of the fiscal 2021 defense policy bill on July 1, ultimately approving the annual legislation 56-0. The unanimous vote is a stark departure from the committee’s 33-24 vote last year, which largely fell along ...
Military troops on June 2 continued to respond to nationwide protests over George Floyd’s death, as some lawmakers raised concerns about the prospect of sending in Active-duty service members. The death of Floyd, a black man who died in police custody May 25 after asphyxiation ...
A Senate Armed Services Committee hearing brought an interagency dispute over the future of spectrum management further into public view on May 6. SASC and the Defense Department are sparring with the Federal Communications Commission over its April approval of a Ligado Networks plan to ...
Military officials are exploring their options for how the Air Force’s GPS constellation could coexist with a new network that Ligado Networks says will enable fifth-generation, or 5G, wireless connectivity and the burgeoning Internet of Things. On April 20, the Federal Communications Commission unanimously voted ...
Starting this week, the Senate Armed Services Committee will hold hearings using only written questions and answers, while the new coronavirus keeps the panel from convening as usual. In a delayed process dubbed “paper hearings,” SASC will post the opening statements from Chairman Sen. Jim ...
Lawmakers are beginning to weigh how the fiscal 2021 defense policy bill could help solve the KC-46 tanker program’s woes and speed its introduction into regular operations. Congress could dictate the terms of how Boeing should fix the tanker’s faulty remote vision system and how ...