Questions about the work force at the Transportation Security Administration are cropping up. The Government Accountability Office reports the effectiveness of TSA’s behavioral screening program is shaky. And the security work force is trying to get back to normal after a funeral. Jeff Neal is senior vice president at ICF International and host of the Chief HRO blog.

Related Story: Federal probe questions TSA behavior profiling (Federal News Radio)

$1 billion a day is the price tag on the Defense Department, according to some estimates. Shay Assad, DoD’s director of defense pricing, says he’s intent on getting the biggest bang for the Pentagon’s buck. Assad joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin and Emily Kopp this morning from the National Contract Management Association conference to explain why he isn’t pushing lowest price technically acceptable with Pentagon vendors.

Congress could save big money by cutting pay and benefits for Federal employees, according to research from the Congressional Budget Office. The total from the latest CBO report is more than $300 billion. Federal News Radio Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says the proposals the CBO writes about aren’t new.

Getting a clean audit opinion at the Homeland Security Department is only step one for the agency’s financial modernization effort. The Government Accountability Office looks at the agency’s progress for the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Oversight and Management Efficiency.

Big money will be the focus of a huge debate on Capitol Hill starting this week. The Senate will debate the National Defense Authorization Act. The budget request from the White House, the one Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.) supports, is for $526 billion. But if that top-line number becomes law, the Pentagon is looking at another round of sequestration.