The Army and the private sector are working together to solve energy problems they are both facing at the same time. Katherine Hammack, assistant secretary of the Army, Installations, Energy and Environment, led a panel discussion at the AUSA Conference today called Creating Efficiencies and Synergies, Partnering to Succeed in Today’s Economy. She joined Francis Rose for Pentagon Solutions, where every Wednesday In Depth explores the top challenges facing the Defense Department as a whole.

Learning a lesson from the shutdown has been a tough process for Federal News Radio Senior Correspondent Mike Causey. He writes in his column today that he can’t find much to learn from the shutdown and the aftermath.

Some inventions are special because of their simplicity. Some inspire progress in multiple fields of research. One invention does both, with the help from the Office of Naval Research.

The Combined Federal Campaign is already under financial pressure from sequestration. The shutdown held it up too. But the Defense Department wants to prove that no matter what happens, its employees will keep doing their part for the CFC. Tony DeCristofaro is director of DoD’s Voluntary Campaign Management Office.

The Army has serious concerns about its ability to modernize its equipment and technology over the next few years, especially if sequestration stays in effect. But leaders say they can’t afford not to think about building for the “deep future” – something they’ve been distracted from for a decade now.

A rarity of sorts at the Office of Management and Budget: Circular A-127 is canceled. It no longer governs agency financial management systems. Instead, OMB rolled a small set of these old requirements into part of Circular A-123. Norman Dong is the acting controller at OMB. He tells executive editor Jason Miller how the decision to cancel A-127 is part of a broader effort to update and simplify agency financial management regulations.

The results of our Federal News Radio poll on morale show that a huge majority of people say morale is far worse at their agencies since the shutdown. Bob Tobias, director of Key Executive Programs at American University, says those results fit exactly with what the federal leaders in his program say about post-shutdown morale.