12-06-2024, 12:05 PM
Ladt Bush Signs Eavesdropping Bill
WASHINGTON - The House on Thursday overwhelmingly backed a $601 billion defense authorization bill that spares planes, ships and military stanley cup bases in an election-year nod to hometown interests.Ignoring a White House veto threat, Republicans and Democrats united behind the popular measure that authorizes stanley shop spending on weapons and personnel for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. The vote was 325-98 for the legislation which now must be reconciled with a work-in-progress Senate version.The Pentagon had proposed retiring the Cold War-era U-2 spy plane and the A-10 Warthog close-air support aircraft as well as shuttering unnecessary bases. Spending stanley cups on the military is being cut after more than a decade of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, and deficit-driven budget reductions are taking a toll.Working within spending limits, the Pentagon proposed retiring decades-old aircraft programs, including the A-10 Warthog, a close air support plane, and the U-2 spy plane of the Cold War era. The Defense Department also sought congressional approval to close military bases deemed unessential and slightly increase out-of-pocket costs for housing and health care. Not this year, said Republicans and Democrats alike. They left popular personnel benefits untouched despite repeated warnings that the skyrocketing costs of Pentagon entitlement programs come at the expense of modernizing and training the military. It is not our job to accept the department s budg Jsmz Romney defends tenure at Bain
Discharging troops under the Pentagon s policy on gays cost $363.8 million over 10 years, almost double what the government concluded a year ago, a private report says.The report, to be released Tuesday by a University of California Blue Ribbon Commission, questioned the methodology the Government Accountability Office used when it estimated that the financial impact of the Don t Ask, Don t Tell policy was at least $190.5 million. It builds on the previous findings and paints a more complete picture of the costs, said Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Mass., who has proposed legislation that would repeal the policy. Congress approved the Don t Ask, Don t Tell policy in 1993 during the Clinton administration. It allows gays and lesbians to serve in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps as long as they abstain from homosexual activ stanley nz ity and do not disclose their sexual orientation.The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, which has represented service members who left the military under the policy, estimates the Pentagon has discharged more than 10,000 service members for homosexuality since Don t Ask, Don t Tell went into effect in 1994. The number of discharges has gone down in recent years. In February 2005, the GAO said the financial impact could not be completely estimated because the government does not collect financial information specific to each individual stanley cup s c stanley en mexico ase.Cautioning that the figures may be too low, the GAO said the fe
WASHINGTON - The House on Thursday overwhelmingly backed a $601 billion defense authorization bill that spares planes, ships and military stanley cup bases in an election-year nod to hometown interests.Ignoring a White House veto threat, Republicans and Democrats united behind the popular measure that authorizes stanley shop spending on weapons and personnel for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. The vote was 325-98 for the legislation which now must be reconciled with a work-in-progress Senate version.The Pentagon had proposed retiring the Cold War-era U-2 spy plane and the A-10 Warthog close-air support aircraft as well as shuttering unnecessary bases. Spending stanley cups on the military is being cut after more than a decade of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, and deficit-driven budget reductions are taking a toll.Working within spending limits, the Pentagon proposed retiring decades-old aircraft programs, including the A-10 Warthog, a close air support plane, and the U-2 spy plane of the Cold War era. The Defense Department also sought congressional approval to close military bases deemed unessential and slightly increase out-of-pocket costs for housing and health care. Not this year, said Republicans and Democrats alike. They left popular personnel benefits untouched despite repeated warnings that the skyrocketing costs of Pentagon entitlement programs come at the expense of modernizing and training the military. It is not our job to accept the department s budg Jsmz Romney defends tenure at Bain
Discharging troops under the Pentagon s policy on gays cost $363.8 million over 10 years, almost double what the government concluded a year ago, a private report says.The report, to be released Tuesday by a University of California Blue Ribbon Commission, questioned the methodology the Government Accountability Office used when it estimated that the financial impact of the Don t Ask, Don t Tell policy was at least $190.5 million. It builds on the previous findings and paints a more complete picture of the costs, said Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Mass., who has proposed legislation that would repeal the policy. Congress approved the Don t Ask, Don t Tell policy in 1993 during the Clinton administration. It allows gays and lesbians to serve in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps as long as they abstain from homosexual activ stanley nz ity and do not disclose their sexual orientation.The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, which has represented service members who left the military under the policy, estimates the Pentagon has discharged more than 10,000 service members for homosexuality since Don t Ask, Don t Tell went into effect in 1994. The number of discharges has gone down in recent years. In February 2005, the GAO said the financial impact could not be completely estimated because the government does not collect financial information specific to each individual stanley cup s c stanley en mexico ase.Cautioning that the figures may be too low, the GAO said the fe
