MILITARY GETS $70 BILLION IN SUPPLEMENTAL BILL
On June 13, President George W. Bush signed the $94.5 billion fiscal 2006 emergency supplemental spending bill, hours after it cleared the Senate.

The measure provides $70.4 billion for military operations and includes $538.5 million for body armor and personal protection equipment; $94.1 million for servicemember and family support programs; $4.9 billion to train and equip Afghan and Iraqi security forces and to assist their governments in assuming greater responsibility for security; and $2 billion to fight improvised explosive devices.

The bill also includes $19.8 billion for the hurricane recovery effort, $2.3 billion for pandemic flu preparations and $1.9 billion for border security.

GAO SEEKS CLARITY FOR GUARD CSTS
The Government Accounting Office (GAO) reported on July 3 that the National Guard Bureau (NGB) needs to clarify which types of disasters its Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Civil Support Teams (CSTs) can respond to. The report explained that the lack of clarification “has caused confusion among state, local and NGB officials, potentially slowing coordination efforts.”

Although the CSTs were designed to respond to WMD, they have responded to non-WMD crises, such as the hurricanes in 2005 that struck the Gulf Coast states.

The GAO report warns that without guidance on what CSTs should respond to, state authorities and local emergency management officials could find their coordination hindered in their use of CSTs.

The GAO recommends that the Secretary of Defense work with the NGB, as well as the Secretaries of the Army and Air Force, to clarify the types of non-WMD missions CSTs should respond to.

GEN. SCHOOMAKER ADDRESSES HASC
The United States “must not mortgage the future readiness of the Army” by focusing only on today’s problems, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker told lawmakers of the House Armed Services Committee on June 27.

“Reset [the repairing of damaged equipment] is a cost of war,” Schoomaker told the representatives. “[It] must not be borne at the expense of our modernization efforts.” The projected cost for Army reset in 2007 is $17.1 billion, which includes $4.9 billion deferred from fiscal 2006.

Gen. Schoomaker expressed concern that with reduced funds for the Army, money allotted for the Army’s Future Combat System (FCS) will be put towards war repairs. He stated that the FCS will require fewer troops and thus save the government money because of reduced personnel costs. “We will not escape … rising manpower costs without modernization,” he said. The Army has not had a major modernization in four decades.

VA LAPTOP RETURNED
The stolen Department of Veterans Affairs laptop computer and hard drive containing the personal information of more than 26 million veterans were turned in to the FBI on June 29 by an unnamed individual in Baltimore, Md. A preliminary FBI determination found that data contained on the computer and hard drive had not been accessed.

R. James Nicholson, the VA Secretary, appeared before the House Veterans Affairs Committee to explain that there were no reports of identity theft or other criminal activity related to the stolen computer. He added that the VA would still honor its promise of free credit monitoring for a year.

The laptop and hard drive were stolen from the Montgomery County, Md., home of a VA employee on May 3. A few weeks after the burglary, Mr. Nicholson sent a letter to every veteran affected, explaining the incident and advising that suspicious activity should be reported to the VA at 1-800-333-4636.

PRESIDENT SPENDS THE FOURTH WITH THE TROOPS
President George W. Bush spent time with the troops at Fort Bragg, N.C., on Independence Day. Praising the soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division, the XVIII Airborne Corps and Army Special Operations Command as well as their families and civilian volunteers, the President reiterated his promise not to set an artificial timetable for a withdrawal from Iraq and pledged that the troops would have the resources they need to get the job done. “I’m not going to allow the sacrifice of 2,527 troops who have died in Iraq to be in vain by pulling out before the job is done,” he told them. “You are winning the war.”