releases: https://www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2020/9/boozman-colleagues-urge-dod-to-reinstate-stars-and-stripes-funding
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
This data as json
| url | title | date | year | month | party | chamber | state | member_name | bioguide_id | domain | scraper | source | date_source | text | has_text | collected_at | updated_at |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| https://www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2020/9/boozman-colleagues-urge-dod-to-reinstate-stars-and-stripes-funding | Boozman, Colleagues Urge DoD to Reinstate Stars and Stripes Funding | 2020-09-02 | 2020 | 2020-09 | Republican | House | AR | John Boozman | B001236 | www.boozman.senate.gov | legacy | WASHINGTONU.S. Senator John Boozman (R-AR) joined Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and a bipartisan group of their colleagues in calling on the Department of Defense (DoD) to reinstate funding for the Stars and Stripes newspaper, an independent military publication. DoD currently plans to stoppublishing the newspaper at the end of the monthanddissolve the organization by January 31, 2021. StarsandStripesis an essential part of our nation's freedom of the press that serves the very population charged with defending that freedom,the senators wrote.Therefore, we respectfully request that you rescind your decision to discontinue support for Stars and Stripes and that you reinstate the funding necessary for it to continue operations. Boozman has been an advocate for continued funding for the newspaper. In July, he wrotethis columnabout the valuable role Stars and Stripes provides. The full text of the letter is availablehereand below. Dear Secretary Esper, We write to express our concern about your decision to discontinue support forStars andStripes. The $15.5 million currently allocated for the publication ofStarsandStripesis only a tiny fraction of your Department's annual budget,andcutting it would have a significantly negative impact on military familiesanda negligible impact on the Department's bottom line. StarsandStripesis a historically significant publication in our country. It originated during the Civil Warandhas been published continuously since World War II to provide independent, nonpartisan,andaward-winning journalism to more than 1.4 million readers among our active duty forces, veterans, civilians,andtheir families. It wasStarsandStripesthat revealed the Defense Department's use of public relations firms that profiled reportersandsteered them toward favorable coverage of the war in Afghanistan. Most recently, the paper brought to light the failure of schools on U.S. military installations to shut down during the pandemic, despite Japanese public schools doing so. These stories illustrate whyStarsandStripesis essential: they report on stories that no one else covers. We understandthat DoD plans to cease publication ofStarsandStripeson September 30, 2020andcompletely dissolve the organization by January 31, 2021 as a result of the proposed termination of funding in the fiscal year 2021 President's budget. We urge you to take steps to preserve the funding prerogatives of Congress before allowing any such disruption to take place, for the following reasons. First, the House-passed version of the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2021, contains additional funding not requested by the Administration to continue operatingStarsandStripes. Second, the Senate has not yet released a defense appropriations bill, nor had an opportunity to conference with the House position, leaving it as a real possibility that Congress may not agree with the proposal to eliminate this funding. Third, the standard text of a continuing resolution that funds are provided at a rate of operations for continuing projectsandactivities as provided for in the previous year's Department of Defense Appropriations Act places a legal obligation on the Department to not act on a termination of a program until a full-year appropriations bill is enacted. We seek your written assurance that the Department will comply with this obligationandavoid steps that would preempt the funding prerogatives of Congress. StarsandStripesis an essential part of our nation's freedom of the press that serves the very population charged with defending that freedom. Therefore, we respectfully request that you rescind your decision to discontinue support forStarsandStripesandthat you reinstate the funding necessary for it to continue operations. We appreciate your attention to this important matterandlook forward to your response. Sincerely, | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |