Budget cuts could be an opportunity for the Defense Department to strike a new fiscal and military balance. Nora Bensahel is co-director of the Responsible Defense program at the Center for New American Security. She and her co-director, retired Army Lt. Gen. David Barno, are trying to help DoD find that balance in a new project called Responsible Defense.

The Army says the budget agreement will go some way toward easing the pain of sequestration. But even with that relief, it will be 2020 before the Army digs out of the military readiness problems sequestration caused.

Your Thrift Savings Plan account looks really good right now if you have most of your money in the stock funds. The C, S and I funds are all way up from a year ago after a very good year in 2013. What’s down though? Gold is way down and that got Federal News Radio Senior Correspondent Mike Causey thinking. He says not long ago some of your colleagues demanded a gold fund in the TSP.

The deadline to put finishing touches on the Congressional budget deal is next Wednesday. The potential for fiscal stability is a welcome change for some, but others are taking a “wait and see” approach on whether or not it can really help agencies run smoother. One of those cautiously optimistic folks is Ron Neumann, president of the American Academy of Diplomacy. He shares his top three stories for the coming year.

1. How budget impasses waste money and impede rational planning. while it is possible that the latest budget deal will quiet matters it is likely that we will face further continuing resolutions. Whatever the merits of the debate these CRs impede effective government. First, because the only continue existing programs they make no provision for new challenges. In the area of foreign affairs where the world does not standstill the CRs tie the hands of our diplomacy in reacting to new challenges. Second the absence of full year budgets make for holding back funds and losing efficiency through short term funding.
2. Afghanistan: This is a year of three transitions; military, economic and political. Clear US policies, whatever our direction are essential to maximizing our influence for influence leading to outcomes that merit 12 years of human sacrifice and fiscal investment. I don’t see that clarity coming out of our confusing deliberations.
3. The Arab Spring is going to continue to evolve. This is a marathon, not a sprint. We need to look to our interests, understand that there are tensions among them and that we are going to have to explain ourselves beyond bumper sticker slogans.

The industry trade association TechAmerica is reemerging from a rough end of 2013 when four key executives left suddenly to start a competing public sector organization. Mike Hettinger is TechAmerica’s new senior vice president of the public sector. He’s been charged with ensuring federal contractors that TechAmerica is committed to the public sector. Federal News Radio’s executive editor Jason Miller shared details about how Hettinger and TechAmerica plan on doing just that.