Two experts in the world of the federal government choose and rank the three news stories from the current week that they think are most important to people who work for the federal government. On this week’s Federal News Countdown, Dan Mintz, president of the Advanced Mobility Academic Research Center, and Steve Bucci, director of Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation, join Francis Rose.

Federal government’s small business contracting goal is 23 percent, but agencies struggle to hit that number every year. Yet, hitting the numbers isn’t the guarantee for you to succeed in business anyway. Guy Timberlake, chief visionary officer of the American Small Business Coalition, says ethical stalking is a good start for contractors, and a combination of old and new techniques.

Training budgets are falling victim to sequestration across the government, but it’s what agencies need to build more successful work forces. Tim McManus, vice president for education and outreach at the Partnership for Public Service, joins In Depth.

There’s still no solution in sight for sequestration for fiscal 2014. And the outlook for the full ten years the Budget Control Act covers is bleak, according to Dov Zakheim. Zakheim a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and former Undersecretary of Defense Comptroller, and he’s published in Foreign Policy magazine under the title, “What Has the Sequester Wrought for Defense.”

NASA’s goal of bringing in a little of the Silicon Valley startup mentality is taking off. The IT Labs program is finding plenty of options for rapid, low-cost, low-risk projects to improve the space agency’s use of technology. Sasi Pillay, chief technology officer at NASA, tells Federal News Radio’s executive editor Jason Miller about how the IT Labs innovation program is initiating a new approach to software development.

Creating a cost culture is one of the goals of the new new Strategic Management Plan just released from the Pentagon. The Pentagon, however, is not known for being the easiest organization for culture change. Michele Flournoy, co-chair of the board of directors at the Center for a New American Security and former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, says one place to look is what motivates people.