The National Institutes of Health has launched what might be its biggest public-private research consortium ever. It brings 10 major drug companies together with NIH scientists to study Alzheimer’s, lupus, diabetes and other confounding diseases.

The agency asks the drug makers to put aside the competition over the next five years as they look at the biology behind the illnesses. NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins has more.

President Obama orders an across-the-board review of federal job training programs. He pledges to copy the most successful ones. The Labor, Commerce and Education departments have six months to develop an action plan. For insight, Tom and Emily turned to former deputy Labor Secretary Seth Harris.

A new rule in the Defense acquisition regulation puts contractors on notice. They’ve got to be able to certify that the parts they use to build equipment sold to the government are the real McCoy, not fakes. Otherwise, the consequences could be serious. Attorney Joe Petrillo of Petrillo & Powell has more.

Federal auditors recognize the government needs a better way to truly measure how agencies are protecting their computers and networks. The current approach varies too much across the government. It relies on special publications, a 10-year-old law and negotiations with agency chief information officers.

In part 2 of his special report, Federal News Radio’s executive editor, Jason Miller, explores some of the ideas to bring more consistency to the cyber auditing process and engender more confidence in its results.

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The new commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service tells Congress, he needs more people and money in every single mission area. Federal News Radio’s Jared Serbu has more on John Koskinen’s plea for more resources.

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