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A bipartisan group of lawmakers is looking to expand on military justice reforms enacted last year and take sexual harassment prosecutions outside the chain of command. Last year's defense policy bill created independent prosecutors to handle sexual assault and some other related or serious crimes. But a "massive oversight" kept sexual harassment within the chain of command even as the defense bil... Read more »

Rep. Anthony Brown (D-MD) filed the Restoring Equity For Offenses Related to Marijuana (REFORM) Act last week. It would amend the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) to more closely align cannabis- and alcohol- related penalties. Read more »

FBI leaders have been vocal in recent years about their desire to keep the agency’s headquarters in the nation’s capital, where they have quick access to the Department of Justice and stand as a public-facing symbol of law and order. But lawmakers in Maryland and Virginia, riled when the Trump administration shelved longstanding efforts to move the headquarters to the suburbs, have put the old pla... Read more »

Debate is heating up on Capitol Hill on funding the military, and Democrats are facing a dilemma — back President Joe Biden’s historically high Pentagon budget or spend even more. It’s a major turnaround for a party that just two years ago was expected to restrain defense spending after budgets soared during the Trump years. Yet the new reality, spurred on by high inflation and a raging land war ... Read more »

The FBI will soon be leaving Washington. After talks fizzled years ago, the relocation of the FBI headquarters is once again on the front burner. President Joe Biden has unveiled his budget for the fiscal year 2023, which includes language to ensure the FBI will have a new suburban headquarters that will house 7,500 employees. The aging and deteriorating Edgar Hoover Building downtown are on its l... Read more »

The Biden administration is planning to move the FBI’s headquarters out of the District of Columbia and build a new campus in suburban Virginia or Maryland. The White House, in its fiscal 2023 budget request released Monday said the FBI’s current headquarters at the J. Edgar Hoover building in downtown D.C. “can no longer support the long-term mission of the FBI.” “The FBI has begun a multi-year p... Read more »

Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown joined other senators and representatives in urging the Supreme Court to protect the full civilian income of members of the military Reserves and National Guard. The politicians filed an amicus brief urging the the top court to consider Adams v. Department of Homeland Security, a case related to differential pay support for reservists. Recently, the U.S. Court of Appeals fo... Read more »

Madeleine Albright was considered to be a trailblazer and a leader, according to lawmakers. She was the first woman to be U.S. Secretary of State. On Wednesday, she died at the age of 84 years old, her family confirmed. Maryland leaders paid tribute to Albright, who was appointed secretary of state in 1997 by President Bill Clinton. “Madeleine was a trailblazer, a leader, a seasoned diplomat, and ... Read more »

Black people and women were more likely to be dismissed from the Maryland Army National Guard Officer Candidate School than their white and male counterparts over the last five years, according to data provided to Congress and obtained by Military.com. The data has prompted seven Democratic members of Maryland's congressional delegation to ask the National Guard's inspector general to investigate ... Read more »

“I’ve long maintained that traitorous men who fought to preserve the institution of slavery and defend white supremacy do not deserve to be honored by our military, and it is long past time their names were removed from places of reverence,” Brown said in a statement. Read more »