White House Ceremony Honors Military Spouses

[wackychick]

WASHINGTON (AFPS, May 6, 2008) - President Bush and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates paid tribute Tuesday to about 1,100 military spouses who gathered for a Military Spouse Day celebration at the White House, where Bush promised to continue pushing for more benefits for military families.

Following a tradition President Ronald Reagan established when he declared the first Military Spouses Day in 1984, Bush said he believes "we need to recognize military spouses every day."

"One way we can repay the service of our spouses is by making the burdens of military life a little easier," he told the group, who enjoyed breakfast at red-and-white-checkered tables dotting the White House's South Lawn.

Bush noted that he signed a change to the Family and Medical Leave Act into law this year, drawing applause from the group. The law allows a spouse, parent, child or next of kin to take up to 26 weeks of leave from work to care for a seriously injured or ill servicemember undergoing therapy or treatment.

Referring to last week's revelations of poor housing conditions at Fort Bragg, N.C., Bush promised to do better. "When we find substandard housing, we'll take care of it," he told the spouses.

Bush said he's hoping Congress moves quickly to p*** legislation he sent to Capitol Hill to ease some of the burdens military families face. These initiatives, announced during Bush's State of the Union address in January, would expand access to child care, create new authorities to appoint qualified spouses into civil service jobs, and provide educational opportunities and job training for our military spouses.

Great story - good cause - read it here.

[armywife1314]

thats great but Army May Have to Borrow to Meet Payroll
Aviation Week's DTI | Bettina H. Chavanne | May 07, 2008
This article first appeared in Aerospace Daily & Defense Report.

Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said Tuesday that if Congress
does not p*** the $1.8 billion Global War on Terror (GWOT)
supplemental, the U.S. Army will be unable to pay troops in mid-June
and may be forced to make a reprogramming request that would borrow
from Navy and Air Force payroll funds.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates wrote letters to members of
Congress Monday encouraging them to p*** the supplemental by
Memorial Day, or money to pay Army troops will run out by June 15.

According to Morrell, Gates asked that Congress be kept apprised of
Army contingency planning if the supplemental isn't p***ed in time.
Last November and December, similar urgency over p***ing the
supplemental focused on the Operations and Maintenance (O&M) budget,
which Morrell said is "more robust" than payroll this time
around, "but not by much.

Sound Off...What do you think? Join the discussion.

Copyright 2008 Aviation Week's DTI. All opinions expressed in this
article are the author's and do not necessarily reflect those of
Military.com.
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now that i have everyones attention what do you all think about
this,lets make this civil everyone