Military

The U.S. Capitol. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

U.S. Senate in bipartisan vote repeals decades-old Iraq war authorizations

BY: - March 29, 2023

WASHINGTON — U.S. senators revoked their approval for the Gulf and Iraq wars on Wednesday, taking a broadly bipartisan vote to repeal the Authorizations for Use of Military Force that have stayed on the books years after the two wars ended.  The 66-30 vote sends the measure to the U.S. House, where Speaker Kevin McCarthy […]

U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama, speaks during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Sept. 28, 2021, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Alabama senator blocking military promotions over abortion policy says he’ll ‘work it out’

BY: - March 29, 2023

WASHINGTON — Sen. Tommy Tuberville insisted he will smooth things over with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin after the top Pentagon official said Tuesday that the Alabama senator’s continued hold on 160 defense nominees will affect U.S. military readiness. “We’re gonna work it out,” Tuberville told States Newsroom on his way to the Senate floor Tuesday […]

The U.S. Capitol building is seen on Oct. 22, 2021, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

U.S. Senate moves toward repealing authority for military force against Iraq

BY: - March 16, 2023

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate took a broadly bipartisan vote Thursday to advance legislation that would end the 32-year-old and the 20-year-old Authorizations for Use of Military Force against Iraq.  The 68-27 vote moves the measure past the chamber’s 60-vote legislative filibuster and towards a final passage vote as soon as next week. House Republican […]

Gov. Kristi Noem, surrounded by National Guard members on March 16, 2023, in Rapid City, signs a bill into law that will increase tuition coverage for members of the South Dakota National Guard to 100%. (Courtesy of the Governor's Office)

New law provides 100% tuition coverage for SD National Guard members

BY: - March 16, 2023

Gov. Kristi Noem signed a bill into law Thursday that will provide 100% tuition benefits for National Guard members at South Dakota technical colleges and public universities. The increase from 50% to 100% coverage will benefit the Guard by providing another incentive for recruitment and retention, Noem said. Noem, whose father served in the National […]

Contractors conduct groundwater sampling in March 2022 as part of an effort to provide alternative water supplies for areas affected by PFAS contamination near Ellsworth Air Force Base. (U.S. Air Force Civil Engineer Center)

Pentagon to halt use of firefighting foam that contains PFAS as cleanup costs mount

BY: and - March 16, 2023

WASHINGTON — Battered by years of criticism from U.S. lawmakers and environmental advocates, the Department of Defense will stop purchasing PFAS-containing firefighting foam later this year and phase it out entirely in 2024.  The replacement for Aqueous Film Forming Foam has yet to be determined, and advocates are frustrated it’s taken so long to halt […]

U.S. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Nebraska, outside the U.S. Capitol on May 19, 2021, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Military records for Iowa, Nebraska congressmen incorrectly released by Air Force

BY: - February 21, 2023

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force unintentionally released military personnel records of at least two members of Congress — Republican Reps. Don Bacon of Nebraska and Zach Nunn of Iowa — eliciting frustration and concerns for veterans’ privacy.  “The recent targeting of Members of Congress’s personnel military records, the breach of sensitive data, and the […]

Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testifies on the Department of Defense’s 2021 budget request during a hearing on Capitol Hill, March 4, 2020. (Lisa Ferdinando, DOD)

One missile fired at mystery flying object wound up in Lake Huron, officials say

BY: - February 14, 2023

WASHINGTON — The American public may know by week’s end the administration’s strategy on unidentified flying objects going forward, but some questions about three recent ones shot down by the U.S. military may not be answered for a long time, if ever. Debris from the three low-altitude objects downed by U.S. Air Force air-to-air missiles […]

Sailors assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 2 recover a high-altitude surveillance balloon on Feb. 5, 2023, off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. U.S. fighter aircraft operating under U.S. Northern Command authority engaged and destroyed a high-altitude surveillance balloon over U.S. territorial waters at the order of President Joe Biden and with the full support of the Canadian government. (Photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Tyler Thompson/U.S. Navy via Getty Images)

Midwestern, Western states in spotlight after mystery flying objects shot down by military

BY: and - February 13, 2023

WASHINGTON — Military posts in Midwestern and Western states played key roles in the unprecedented downings of multiple unmanned aerial objects over the North American continent this weekend. Members of Congress and governors from the states involved and from both parties have shared information about the downings on Twitter and in statements, in some cases […]

COMMENTARY
A sunrise silhouette of the entrance to the Wounded Knee Massacre memorial in South Dakota. (Getty Images)

Success brings Rounds an opportunity on Wounded Knee medals

BY: - January 13, 2023

Senator Mike Rounds deserves praise for his recent repeal of laws that discriminated against Native Americans. There’s a related issue he should consider next: the medals awarded for the Wounded Knee Massacre. Rounds, a Republican from South Dakota, has momentum on Native American legislation from the passage of his bill that wiped away 11 egregious […]

Lalain Reyeg administers a COVID-19 booster vaccine and an influenza vaccine to Army veteran Gary Nasakaitis at the Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital on Sept. 24, 2021, in Hines, Illinois. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Congress on track to scrap Pentagon’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate in defense bill

BY: - December 7, 2022

WASHINGTON — Members of the U.S. military would no longer be required to get the COVID-19 vaccine under a proposal Congress could pass as soon as this week.  The provision eliminating the vaccine mandate is tucked into the massive National Defense Authorization Act, the annual defense policy bill that Congress has passed each year for […]