Today’s guests on the Federal News Countdown:
– Alan Chvotkin, executive vice president and counsel
– Trey Hodgkins, senior vice president for Global Public Sector Government Affairs at TechAmerica

Alan Chvotkin’s stories
#3 Furlough-caused financial problems could affect security clearances
From The Washington Post:

Federal employees holding security clearances who run into financial trouble due to sequestration-caused furloughs should bring that issue to their agency’s attention to help protect their cleared status, according to two military services.

#2 Cybersecurity Bubble Bursting for U.S. Contractors
From Defense News:

Conventional wisdom is that cybersecurity is one of the few growth opportunities for defense contractors. Nary an earnings call passes without key industry players repeatedly touting their future dominance of cyber, and the ability for the market to make up for other areas set to decline.

#1 Small defense contractors bearing brunt of cuts
From Politico:

Sequestration is here, and the defense industry is reeling – particularly the little guy. After months of worst-case scenario projections of what $46 billion in across-the-board spending cuts would look like, defense contractors must deal with the reality that cash flow is about to slow down and, in some cases, disappear entirely.

Trey Hodgkins’ stories
#3 If sequestration can rewrite U.S. strategy, it’s time to kill sacred cows in industrial policy
From Aviation Week & Space Technology:

Shortly after the Obama administration unveiled its so-called pivot to Asia- Pacific in early 2012, top Pentagon leaders began warning everyone that the new defense strategy could not survive further budget cuts. So sure were they that the 2011 Budget Control Act’s automatic, across-the-board spending cuts would not be allowed to occur that White House and Pentagon officials had no qualms with pegging the pivot’s foundations to the last five-year defense budget plan.

#2 GSA Will Stop Recruiting Cloud Security Testers Until the Fall
From Nextgov:

The government’s new program for certifying the safety of browser-based software will not be able to recruit additional testers until the fall, federal officials told Nextgov.

#1 White House Expects Agencies to Continue Cybersecurity Tasks, Despite Budget Cuts
From BNA:

The Commerce Department and other federal agencies should be able to move forward with implementing a recently issued executive order on cybersecurity despite budget cuts resulting from sequestration, a White House official told BNA March 6. Agencies will be able to cover implementation expenses for the current fiscal year with existing resources, and the administration will take such costs into consideration when preparing future budget requests, White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden told BNA

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