Joe Biden signs $768.2 billion defense spending bill into law
President Joe Biden signed the National Defense Authorization Act into law Monday, authorizing $768.2 billion in military spending, including a 2.7% pay raise for service members, for 2022. The NDAA authorizes a 5% increase in military spending and is the product of intense negotiations between Democrats and Republicans over issues ranging from reforms of the military justice system to COVID-19 vaccine requirements for soldiers. “The Act provides vital benefits and enhances access to justice for military personnel and their families, and includes critical authorities to support our country’s national defense,” Biden said in a statement. The $768.2 billion price tag marks $25 billion more than Biden initially requested from Congress, a prior proposal that was rejected by members of both parties out of concerns it would undermine U.S. efforts to keep pace militarily with China and Russia. The new bill passed earlier this month with bipartisan support, with Democrats and Republicans touting wins in the final package. Democrats applauded provisions in the bill overhauling how the military justice system handles sexual assault and other related crimes, effectively taking prosecutorial jurisdiction over such crimes out of the hands of military commanders. Republicans, meanwhile, touted success in blocking an effort to add women to the draft, as well as the inclusion of a provision that bars dishonorable discharges for service members who refuse the COVID-19 vaccine. The bill includes $7.1 billion for the Pacific Deterrence Initiative and a statement of congressional support for the defense of Taiwan, measures intended to counteract China’s influence in the region. It also includes $300 million for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, a show of support in the face of Russian aggression, as well as $4 billion for the European Defense Initiative. In his statement, the president also outlined a number of provisions his administration opposes over what he characterized as “constitutional concerns or questions of construction.” Those planks include provisions that restrict the use of funds to transfer or release individuals detained at the Guantanamo Bay detention center, which the Biden administration is moving to close. Biden’s statement said the provisions “unduly impair” the executive branch’s ability to decide when and where to prosecute detainees and where to send them when they’re released, and could constrain U.S. negotiations with foreign countries over the transfer of detainees in a way that could undermine national security. The law also has provisions barring goods produced by forced Uyghur labor in China from entering the U.S., and it begins to lay out plans for the new Global War on Terror Memorial, which would be the latest addition to the National Mall. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Nearly 25% of Navy warship crew has COVID-19
About two dozen sailors on a U.S. Navy warship — or roughly 25% of the crew — have now tested positive for COVID-19, keeping the ship sidelined in port at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in Cuba Monday, according to U.S. defense officials. The USS Milwaukee has a crew of a bit more than 100, and it was forced to pause its deployment late last week because of the coronavirus outbreak. The defense officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the outbreak, said the number of infected sailors is staying relatively constant at this point. The USS Milwaukee, a smaller, stealthier combat ship, is the first Navy ship this year to have to interrupt its deployment at sea. It began its deployment from Naval Station Mayport in Jacksonville, Florida, on December 14, and had stopped for a scheduled port visit. The ship was heading into the U.S. Southern Command region. Another warship, meanwhile, had to postpone its movement out to sea earlier this month due to a separate outbreak. Navy Cmdr. Sean Robertson, spokesman for 3rd Fleet, said the USS Halsey, a destroyer, delayed its homeport move from Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii, to San Diego because a significant number of the crew became infected with COVID-19. The ship was finally able to leave Hawaii on Sunday. The move is not a deployment, but a transfer to a new home station for the crew. A Navy official said roughly one-third of the Halsey crew tested positive for the virus and most had only mild symptoms or none at all. A destroyer has about 300 crew members. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details on the crew impact. Robertson said the crew was nearly 100% vaccinated and no one was taken to the hospital. Vaccine booster shots were made available for the crew. Robertson also said some of the samples have been tested and all were the omicron variant. The Navy said in a statement Friday that the USS Milwaukee’s crew was “100% immunized” and that all of those who tested positive for COVID-19 were being isolated on the ship away from other crew members. The U.S. officials said Monday that the Navy believes the total vaccination of the crew is the key factor in controlling the outbreak. According to the Navy’s statement, “a portion” of those infected are having mild symptoms, and the specific variant is not yet known. COVID-19 cases have surged across the country as a result of the highly contagious omicron variant. Other Navy ships were sidelined during the early months of the virus outbreak last year. The first major military outbreak of the virus happened early last year on a Navy warship, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, an aircraft carrier that was operating in the Pacific. The Roosevelt was sidelined in Guam for nearly two months, and more than 1,000 of the 4,800 crew members tested positive. One sailor died, and the entire crew went through weeks of quarantine in a rotation that kept enough sailors on the ship to keep it safe and running. According to the latest data released by the Navy, more than 98% of all active-duty sailors have been fully vaccinated. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Alabama seeing rise in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations
Alabama is seeing a significant rise in COVID-19 cases as the extremely contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus continues to sweep the nation. Fifty-two of the state’s 67 counties are now showing high levels of community transmission, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health. During the last week, 18.2% of COVID-19 tests in the state have come back as positive. The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Alabama has nearly tripled over the past two weeks, rising from 540 new cases per day on December 11 to 1,586 new cases per day on Dec. 25, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University. There were 528 COVID-19 patients in state hospitals on Monday. That is up by nearly 200 over the last two weeks, but lower than during the previous two pandemic peaks, when there were as many as 3,000 COVID-19 patients in state hospitals, and the state was seeing more than 4,000 new cases reported each day. State health officials on December 16 said Alabama had confirmed its first case of the swift-moving omicron variant of the coronavirus. Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, director of infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, last week said places with low vaccination rates will be faced with “crushing demand on the health care system” as omicron spreads, even if it isn’t as deadly as earlier versions of the virus. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Revisions to Alabama history teaching standards delayed
With much of the nation debating what and how to teach about history, the state of Alabama has delayed a revision to its classroom standards for teaching history for years after they were both praised and criticized by an educational think tank. Officials this fall postponed an update to the state’s social studies course of study for five to six years, citing a positive review from the Fordham Institute, an ideologically conservative educational group that has become recognized for its audits of state history and civics standards, al.com reported. A notice about the delay came in November, a month after Alabama officials voted to ban so-called critical race theory in K-12 schools, a move that has left some students and teachers worried about how to discuss race and racism in the classroom. A review published by the Fordham Institute called Alabama’s standards for teaching civics and U.S. history “exemplary,” citing an emphasis on facts and a “rigorous and thorough overview” of the nation’s past. But the organization also noted some gaps in Alabama’s history instruction, saying that coverage of the Fourteenth Amendment is insufficient and that its standard for explaining Alabama’s secession from the Union “is unbalanced.” “There is a somewhat ambiguous reference to ‘states’ rights’ in the fifth-grade standard on the causes of the Civil War, which should either be removed or more clearly subordinated to ‘the issue of slavery’ to avoid misinterpretation,” the report stated. “And the decision to lump together the many changes that have occurred in the seven decades of U.S. History ‘since World War II’ is unfortunate.” A committee met once in February to discuss revisions to Alabama’s social studies course of study, which hasn’t changed since 2010. But in September, State Superintendent Eric Mackey told members that all future meetings had been “postponed until further notice.” “As you may know, our current standards have been recognized for excellence, including the most recent recognition by the Fordham Institute as one of only five states to be ranked as exemplary in both Civics and U.S. History,” Mackey wrote in a September memo. “As important as social studies is, with a number of important topics to cover in the next few years, we believe the next steps include updating and aligning our Career and Technical Education (CTE), arts, and sciences. We remain undeterred in our commitment to high-quality social studies in all grades.” A lead researcher at the Fordham Institute didn’t agree with the delay. “A lot could happen in two decades,” said David Griffith, a senior research and policy associate who led the institute’s recent review of social studies standards. “Per the report, Alabama’s history standards for the post-1970 era are already a little thin, so it’s concerning that the problem could get worse before it gets better.” The Alabama State Department of Education does not mandate the teaching of any particular curriculum. Rather, the agency adopts standards about things students are expected to know and be able to do by certain grades. Typically, those standards are updated every five to ten years, but the recent delay spells an even longer waiting period for social studies standards, which were up for review this year. Griffith, who led the Fordham review, said the institute generally recommends states revise their standards every ten years. Many states are behind schedule, he said, but to his knowledge, Alabama is the first to cite the strength of its current standards as a reason for delaying revisions. The decision that could dock them points in future reviews, said Griffith. “We definitely penalize states that haven’t addressed important historical developments in their standards, and the post-2010 era has definitely seen its fair share of history,” he said. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
