DOD now has to count the service of National Guard troops who were called to duty at Ground Zero during the immediate aftermath of 9/11. New York lawmakers Sen. Hillary Clinton (D), Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D), and Rep. Peter King (R) spearheaded a successful effort to add legislation to the final 2006 defense authorization bill to extend federal retirement credit to Guardsmen called to service at the epicenter of the terror attacks. Pentagon officials had opposed the idea because some of the Guardsmen guarding Ground Zero were not federalized.
Lawmakers on both sides of Capitol Hill are pressing the Pentagon to get serious about the threat cheap, small drones pose to U.S. forces at home and abroad—and to put them in the hands of American troops as quickly as possible.