The House Armed Services Committee voted 32 to 25 to send to the full House its bill (H.R. 3159) to provide a minimum time period between deployments to Iraq for both active and reserve forces. Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) introduced the measure, which parallels an amendment tacked onto the now-deferred Senate version of the 2008 defense authorization bill. In a joint statement with Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), Tauscher said that the current strategy of “multiple back-to-back deployments has stretched our military and is breaking our all-volunteer force.”
It is critical that the Air Force move forward on the replacement for its E-4B “Doomsday” aircraft to keep the capability “viable” into the next decade and beyond, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. told lawmakers May 8.