Pentagon to Ask for BRAC Again in FY16
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The Pentagon plans to bring BRAC back to the budget table when congressional budget discussions begin next month, reports DoD Buzz. Congress rejected a BRAC request in the FY15 budget, but Pentagon officials say they will request a BRAC again for FY16.
Gawker’s Adam Weinstein was quoted in the Washington Post downplaying the Cyber Caliphate, which claimed to be the group of hackers getting into Central Command social media accounts. Nothing of value was reached.
The hack was embarrassing, not compromising, but boosts the welcome to Brig. Gen. Robert Skinner, who steps up to chief of staff at the Defense Information Systems Agency, Thursday, and also takes on the deputy command of the newly created Department of Defense Information Networks,the military’s massive labyrinth of computer systems worldwide. The big reorganization is anticipated to streamline defense IT operations, taking operational tasks from US Cyber Command and leaving the military’s cyber arm to focus on strategic functions, reports C4ISR&Networks..
750 veterans took their lives in the five weeks since the House first passed veteran’s mental health legislation, according to bill sponsor Rep. Tim Walz, D-MN, reports Military Times. The sweeping mental health provisions are aimed at reducing high suicide rates. Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) prevented the legislation from passing the Senate when the House originally sent the legislation over. The House, again this week, passed the legislation unanimously and has sent it to the Senate.
Approaching the close of two years in office, Chuck Hagel will take his last lap as Secretary of Defense through US bases this month, reports The Buzz. Hearings for his nominated successor, Ashton Carter, are anticipated to begin early next month. DefSec Hagel will visit Whiteman Air Force Base, MO, Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, CA, and Fort Bliss, TX, where he graduated from Army basic training in 1967.
An incentive-based program designed to clear a backlog of VA benefit claims in Philadelphia is being criticized for using the same procedures that led to a VA backlog, a failure to provide adequate health care, and the current overhauling of the agency, reports the Washington Times.
Another chemical found in polycarbonate plastics — think drinking water bottles — is showing links with hyperactivity and disruptive brain cell growth, according to a Canadian study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reports the Washington Post. The compound studied (BPS) has been billed as a safe replacement for the BPA compound previously linked to adverse brain development and hyperactivity.
