The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee is allowing the Air Force to move around funds to cover shortfalls in personnel costs, but other efforts to shuffle Defense Department funding remain caught up in an increasingly contentious fight over whether Space Command will be headquartered in the lawmaker’s home state.
After Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala., told Military.com last week he was holding up military reprogramming requests over the Air Force’s much delayed decision on where to base U.S. Space Command, a committee spokesperson said Wednesday that the lawmaker has now allowed requests related to personnel funding to go through.
The spokesperson, Justine Sanders, added that the committee “continues to review additional reprogramming requests from the Department of Defense.”
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The Air Force previously said that, because of higher-than-expected personnel costs and the delay in congressional approval to reprogram funds, it was pausing some duty assignments and reenlistment and retention bonuses. Department of the Air Force spokeswoman Rose Riley told Military.com late Wednesday evening that the service is “aware and checking into what this means” but did not detail a plan for reenacting bonuses or permanent change-of-station moves.
“We continue to work through the details as quickly as possible,” Riley added…
