By today, Pentagon officials intent on raising health care fees and co-payments for military retirees should realize they are in for a major and probably unwinnable fight. Reps. Chet Edwards (D-Tex.), House Appropriations Committee, and Walter B. Jones Jr. (R-N.C.), House Armed Services Committee, who on March 15 unveiled legislation to block the increases, also are out to strip DOD of any power to tamper with the program. Jones had a warning for the Bush administration: “They had better get on our side or they are going to get embarrassed.”
House lawmakers are encouraging the Air Force and U.S. Special Operations Command to work together as each pursues long-range, long-endurance reconnaissance drones. Both entities are investing in unmanned assets that can slip into highly defended areas, loiter over a particularly valuable target for days at a time, and traverse multiple…