If the military personnel panel of the House Armed Services Committee has its way with the 2008 defense authorization bill, Congress, once again, would bar the Pentagon from raising Tricare enrollment fees. Rep. Vic Snyder (D-Ark.), panel chair, noted that the Pentagon’s own task force on the future of military health care and the Government Accountability Office will not have their reports ready until late this year. Without those “careful, comprehensive, unbiased” reviews, Snyder said the Defense Department’s “premature proposals” would unduly burden military retirees and “not really address systematic cost drivers within the system.”
Trainees in Basic Military Training and technical school no longer have the option to try alternate PT drills if they fail an initial assessment, according to a policy change the Air Force made in April. The move is part of a larger shift out of the classroom and into hands-on,…