I posted about this right after the State of the Union address and it looks like the press is starting to pick up on it was well. The Washington Times had an article today talking about the Civilian Reserve Corp that the President mentioned in his speech. Here are a couple of excerpts from the article.

“If the White House wants to make it not just a presidential throwaway line in a speech but into a reality that can actually be a useful tool they have to show a little bit of leadership on it,” said Mr. Pascual, who is now director of foreign-policy studies at the Brookings Institution.
Emily Lawrimore, a White House spokeswoman, said the president often hears from Americans who want to help out in some way. But she said it is just a proposed idea at this point. “He wants to talk to Congress about this idea and how they can work together on a positive, bipartisan opportunity that would demonstrate the great skill and generosity of the American people,” she said. Melanie Anderton, a spokeswoman at the State Department, said the reserve corps would complement a surge of U.S. government employees that the State Department is already building. Both the active-duty and civilian reserve concepts grew out of trying to meet the challenges of a post-September 11 world, in which failed states can become breeding grounds for dangers to the U.S.

Mr. Pascual said that during his time as director of the State Department’s reconstruction office, he envisioned the civil reserve as a cadre of several thousand police officers, police trainers, economists and civil administrators ready to deploy in short order to world hot spots. The corps would train together for several weeks a year, just like the military reserve does, so they would have common procedures. Mr. Bush’s proposal last week found a mixed audience among bloggers, with some saying the idea is overdue, but others saying the details will matter. One blogger said he “was reminded of Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol,” a comedy about bumbling police officers assigned to train a civilian force to fight crime.

The White House did request $25 million in the 2007 budget to get the program started, but Congress did not appropriate the funds. The concept has congressional supporters, including top Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee. The Senate last year passed by unanimous consent a bill that would have authorized the program, but it did not receive a vote in the House.

Now, having been a civilian contractor in Iraq for two years already myself, I resend the comment the blogger said about it reminding him of ‘Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol’. I guess that person doesn’t know that there are civilian contractor over there already doing exactly what the President was talking about. No, they are not part of a reserve, but they are doing the jobs that President Bush was talking about. Putting them in a reserve corp would just keep them on hand like we keep our Military reserve. Having them train together as suggested and ready to go when needed in the spur of the moment would make things easier on our troops. Course, I think they need to add truck drivers to that reserve. This would help stop things like what happened in the beginning of the War in Iraq and our troops having to go without for such a long time.

read the full article here