W
ashington state’s Democratic Senatorial delegation—Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray—have put in play an amendment to the 2008 defense authorization bill to save the 36th Rescue Flight at Fairchild AFB, Wash. The amendment (S.A. 358) would restore some $4 million to the Administration’s budget—there was no money for the 36th—and would direct the Defense Secretary to “ensure that no action is taken to deactivate the 36th Rescue Flight or to reassign or reorganize any of the search and rescue capabilities of that unit.” In a joint statement, Cantwell commented that the unit’s UH-1 helicopters “train thousands of aircrews each year and provide critical search and rescue capabilities for Northwest communities and the nation.”
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.
