{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://barrett.house.gov/media/press-releases/barrett-joins-army-secretary-michigan-officials-northern-strike-military", "Barrett Joins Army Secretary, Michigan Officials for Northern Strike Military Training at Camp Grayling", "2026-08-07", "2026", "2026-08", "Republican", "House", "MI", "Tom Barrett", "B001321", "barrett.house.gov", "barrett", "https://barrett.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "Grayling, Mich. \u2014 Congressman Tom Barrett (MI-07) today joined U.S. Secretary of the Army Daniel P. Driscoll, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Congressman Jack Bergman (MI-01), and other officials at Camp Grayling for Exercise Northern Strike, the annual military training coordinated by the Michigan National Guard.\n\nDuring the exercise, Driscoll announced a new Army initiative to expand testing range access for private industry partners at Camp Grayling and four other bases. The initiative is designed to expedite testing for new weapons, drone systems, and other technologies that have practical applications for combat, reconnaissance, and other military purposes.\n\n\u201cExercise Northern Strike enables our military to take advantage of the best Michigan has to offer \u2014 from our lakes, terrain, and airspace to our advanced engineering and manufacturing base,\u201d Barrett said. \u201cI experienced that firsthand during my years participating in Northern Strike in the Army, and I enjoyed seeing our troops in action alongside Secretary Driscoll and bipartisan leadership from across our state. I\u2019m confident Michigan will continue to lead the way in training our armed forces in the tactics and skills they need to keep our nation secure.\u201d\n\nExercise Northern Strike takes place throughout the National All-Domain Warfighting Center, which encompasses the state of Michigan, including Camp Grayling and other sites. Driscoll's announcement comes after Barrett and his colleagues secured a decision by the Army and the National Guard Bureau to designate NADWC as a national drone testing site.\n\nThis year\u2019s Exercise Northern Strike brought together more than 9,000 participants from 36 states and territories and five international allies. From August 3 to 14, the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, reserves, National Guard, and foreign partners are conducting combat training operations in the land, sea, air, space, and cyber domains.\n\nBarrett participated in a roundtable with Driscoll, Whitmer, and other officials about the secretary's announcement. He then took an aerial tour of the camp in a Chinook helicopter, met with defense industry stakeholders, witnessed a firefighting exercise, a doorway clearing detonation, and more.", 1, "2026-08-10T06:13:07Z", "2026-08-10T06:14:46Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://barrett.house.gov/media/press-releases/barrett-joins-army-secretary-michigan-officials-northern-strike-military"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.3879812322556973, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}