The fiscal 2014 White House budget request is making its way across Capitol Hill. Agency leaders have been testifying about their agencies’ request in a number of congressional hearings. In Depth features highlights of their testimony, including:

• Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, the former head of the White House Office of Management and Budget before the Senate Budget Committee on President Barack Obama’s fiscal 2014 budget for the entire federal government.
• Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on the DHS budget request
• Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on the DoD request
• Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey also joined Hagel to offer testimony on the DoD budget.

  Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the 2014 HHS budget.

Changes in DoD strategy and the end of two wars mean a reset for the Marine Corps. Deputy Commandant for Installations and Logistics Lt. Gen. William Faulkner spoke about that at a Potomac Institute for Policy Studies event last week. For more, we turn to David Reist, retired Marine Corps brigadier, who used to hold that title.

Equipment Reset: Getting the Marine Corps Down to Fighting Weight (related link)

A complex constellation of satellites flying above our heads is helping the Defense Department with military operations. But the network on the ground that keeps the satellites in orbit is a financial risk for waste and duplication, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office. Cristina Chaplain, director of Acquisition and Sourcing Management Issues at GAO, joins In Depth to discuss DoD’s satellite network.

A security breach of the System for Award Management database has contractors wondering if the system is even worth all the trouble in the first place. Candace Clokey, a contract analyst for Centre Consulting, joins In Depth to discuss contractors’ concerns with SAM.

The Distinguished Warfare Medal is gone at the Defense Department before the Pentagon ever awarded one. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says the agency will award a “new distinguishing device that can be affixed to existing medals” instead. Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. David Deptula, now a senior scholar at the Air Force Academy and president of the Deptula Group, joins In Depth to discuss the controversy over the Distinguished Warfare Medal.