In Depth Show Blog – September 5, 2013

Acquisition efficiency will save your agency big money in the coming years. Navigating the complexity of the acquisition process is one of the big holdups. Trevor Brown is an associate professor and the interim director at the John Glenn School of Public Affairs at the Ohio State University.

A ruling from the Federal Court of Appeals says federal employees working in what an agency terms a “sensitive” position can’t appeal disciplinary measures to the Merit Systems Protections Board. Hundreds of thousands of federal employees won’t get civil-service protection from the MSPB. Angela Canterbury is director of public policy at Project On Government Oversight.

The Navy is facing a wide range of challenges from sequestration to physical threats around the world. Adm. Jonathan Greenert, Chief of Naval Operations, spoke at the American Enterprise Institute about future military strategies during sequestration. Greenert says the Navy will need many years to recover from just the first year of sequestration.

Nearly $50 billion sits in government accounts, ready to go out before the end of the month. Even with sequestration and all the budget uncertainty, that’s a lot of money for agencies to spend fast. Jen Sakole, principal analyst on the Federal Information Services team at Deltek, is looking at where the money may go.