Federal agencies will spend less in 2014 than last year on information technology. The idea of saving money and adding capability at the same time seems counterintuitive, bbut some agencies are doing it. The General Services Administration is far down the path of several different consolidation plans. One is a data center consolidation plan, another is an IT leader consolidation. As part of our special report, A New Era in Technology, General Services Administration Chief Information Officer Casey Coleman details where GSA’s data center consolidation strategy started and where they want to wind up.

Imaginary numbers are helping the Defense Department balance financial accounts with the Treasury Department. Reuters reports the Defense Finance and Accounting Service uses fake numbers when it’s on deadline to report financial information that’s missing, wrong or incomplete. The Defense Department says it conducts investigations before and after the deadline to make sure the information is accurate.

Jason Miller also joined Francis Rose to talk about your agency’s long term mission might take a hit from LPTA.

Severe long-term symptoms from the federal government shutdown are starting to appear. Some of the ripple effects are still hypothetical, but the potential long-term damage for federal employees is looking worse and worse.

College students looking for internships at the State Department don’t have to break the bank to make a difference. The Virtual Student Foreign Service helps young citizens break into the world of diplomacy and avoid expensive air travel to Washington, D.C., and other places around the world. Bridget Roddy is Program Manager of the VSF Service in the State Department’s Office of E-Diplomacy.

The awkward rollout of HealthCare.gov might inspire Congress and the White House to try to revamp the federal IT procurement process. But the contracting community is afraid it might be locked out of the effort. Larry Allen is president of Allen Federal Business Partners and author of the Week Ahead newsletter.

The Pentagon has fewer dollars to invest in technology, but it’s trying to make the best of a bad situation. As part of our special report this week, A New Era in Technology, Federal News Radio’s Jared Serbu reports on how DoD’s trying to innovate around the idea of controlling cost in new military systems.