VA Secretary James Nicholson assured lawmakers that his agency has done its homework this year—there will be no shortfall as there was with the 2006 budget request. Questioned as to his level of confidence in the 2007 budget projections, Nicholson told the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee last week, “We’re very confident.” He explained that the agency had gone “back to the model” it had used for years, but it also had “applied some Kentucky windage to it” because it doesn’t cover all VA activities. (Check here for background on the shortfall.)
Just days after a Defense Intelligence Agency report predicted new ballistic missile testing by North Korea, the Pyongyang regime fired a a submarine-launched ballistic missile which landed in the Sea of Japan. While U.S. Indo-Pacific Command downplayed the test as representing no new threat to the U.S. or regional allies,…