In a letter to President Bush this week, Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, and five of his fellow Democrats, praised Bush on his quick formation of a commission to review the care afforded to veterans wounded in the war on terror, however they criticized the commission’s “particularly broad” mission. They wrote: “The mission encompasses a review of the very nature of military service and the transition back to civilian society. This alone would take more time than the commission is afforded.” The executive order creating the commission calls for a final report by June 30.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
