The shutdown deal provides certainty for the Defense Department until Jan. 15. But sequester cuts are still scheduled for that date. The continuing resolution doesn’t address what happens to sequester cuts. It just gets the government open again.

Budget experts look at the CR and what it says — and doesn’t say — about the budget future at DoD. Gordon Adams is a professor at American University and a distinguished fellow at the Stimson Center.

Three things must happen for a deal to end the shutdown to be really complete — the House must pass the legislation, the Senate must pass it and President Obama must sign it. Jim McTague, the Washington editor of Barron’s, was at the White House briefing today.

Bundling and consolidation are supposed to cut down your agency’s acquisition prices and protect small business opportunities.But the rules in place for small businesses might be hurting them instead. Robert Burton is partner at the Venable law firm and former deputy administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy.

As the shutdown ends and financial managers at agencies review the deal and see how it affects them, they’ll apply risk management techniques to set strategy. Linda Springer, executive director of Government and Public Sector of Ernst and Young, is also former director of the Office of Personnel Management and former controller at the Office of Managment and Budget.

Lessons learned from a dozen years of speeding up the acquisition process apply now more than ever. The Rapid Equipping Force found a way to speed up the cumbersome acquisition process so it could offer quick answers to battlefield problems in Afghanistan. Col. Steve Sliwa, the director of the REF, tells Federal News Radio’s Jared Serbu there’s plenty of work for his organization to do after 2014.

Agencies will spend less on information technology over the next decade. And that downward slope will slow down your ability to meet the ever-growing needs of citizens and businesses. The TechAmerica Foundation’s latest survey and analysis of federal IT spending shows many agency chief information officers expect a grim decade. Federal News Radio’s Jason Miller offers details and analysis of TechAmerica Foundation’s 49th annual IT forecast.