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National & World Headlines
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The Office of Management and Budget requires federal agencies include more data in its 2016 budget requests for this fall. OMB wants benchmarks and timelines of financial investments so it can organize its cross-agency priority goals. Beth McGrath is director of Deloitte's Federal Practice. She's also former deputy chief management officer at the Defense Department. In a Federal News Radio op-ed and on In Depth with Francis Rose, McGrath said agencies should be making even more business decisions based on data.
July 22, 2014 -
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The military is shrinking, but the Pentagon's personnel costs keep growing. In fact, it pays about $125,000 per active-duty service member, including both salary and benefits. Two Washington think tanks are raising alarms. They say the Pentagon needs to do something now so it doesn't have to cut other critical parts of its budget later on. Steve Bell is senior director of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center. He joined Tom Temin and Emily Kopp on the Federal Drive to discuss why the personnel cost has become expensive.
July 22, 2014 -
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"The President of Russia now has a view of history since 1945 that is completely at odds with how the rest of the world looks at history," says Former National Security Advisor James Jones. The real issue, which many view as a festering problem, is Putin's alleged grudge about the way the Cold War turned out. "He believes and he has said that worst thing that has happened in the last century is the dissolution of the Soviet Empire," says Jones.
July 22, 2014 -
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Now is not the time to play 'small ball.' As budgets shrink, agencies should be bold as they look to improve mission effectiveness and modernize operations, says Beth McGrath, former deputy chief management officer at the Pentagon.
July 22, 2014 -
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The goal to get a spending bill done for your agency looks less and less likely by the time the fiscal year ends September 30th. And the other work Congress thought it could get done -- reform at the Department of Veterans Affairs -- seems to be hitting a wall too. David Hawkings is Senior Editor at Roll Call, and he shared the progress for both of these major pieces of work on In Depth with Francis Rose.
July 21, 2014 -
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The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee will consider the nomination of Robert McDonald as the next VA Secretary tomorrow. If the Senate confirms him, he'll inherit a Veterans Health Administration that hasn't had a major review of its healthcare system since the mid-1980s, according to the Military Officers Association of America. Vice Admiral Norb Ryan is president of MOAA. On In Depth with Francis Rose, he said Congress and the White House should build a commission focused on reforming the VHA.
July 21, 2014 -
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To maintain readiness under current budget pressure, the Defense Department needs to have a long-term mindset and rethink their force structure, according to Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Va.), chairman of the House Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee.
July 18, 2014 -
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Top Pentagon officials have been railing against the consequences of sequestration ever since the Budget Control Act was passed in 2011. And in their planning documents, they've also decided not to acknowledge the likelihood that the cuts are here to stay. For the last three years, officials have submitted budget requests that exceed the caps in current law, and they've indicated they plan to continue doing so in future years. Even if the Pentagon isn't building its military plans around sequestration, some outside analysts are taking a look at what various scenarios would look like under lower funding levels. One of them is Rob Levinson. He's a senior defense analyst for Bloomberg Government, and shared some financial predictions on In Depth with guest host Jared Serbu.
July 18, 2014 -
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Cyber criminals are adjusting so quickly that it's become an 'arms race' between them and agency technology officers trying to guard against threats. During a recent Federal News Radio panel discussion, officials shared expertise and tactics for protection.
July 18, 2014 -
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It's hard to tell how many agencies are actually checking all the boxes on the Obama administration's plan for detecting disgruntled or rogue employees. Agencies were supposed to have taken initial steps to set up insider threat programs by June 30, according to an update posted on Performance.gov. But it's impossible to know the number of agencies who met the initial criteria so far. The progress update says that information is classified.
July 18, 2014 -
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Congress has been urging the Pentagon to speed up finding and identifying remains of service members dating back to World War II. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has promised to fix deficiencies in the recovery process. As part of that effort, the Pentagon is consolidating two agencies that had roughly equal responsibilities. Michael Lumpkin is the assistant secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict. He joined Tom Temin and Emily Kopp on the Federal Drive to discuss the objective of the new command.
July 18, 2014 -
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A day after the U.S. hit several Russian arms companies with sanctions over the Ukraine conflict, a top U.S. general is warning that congressional efforts to cut off dealings with Moscow's main weapons exporter could be "catastrophic" for U.S. forces. Marine General Joseph Dunford, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said 88 Russian helicopters the Pentagon is buying for Afghan security forces were critical for protecting U.S.troops that remain in the country after the end of this year.
July 18, 2014 -
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The United States has imposed new sanctions on lucrative Russian energy and defense entities, as well as major banks. The Obama administration is trying disable an insurgency in eastern Ukraine widely believed to be backed by Moscow. Prior U.S. sanctions hit Russian individuals and companies. The new sanctions stop short of fully cutting off key Russian economic sectors.
July 17, 2014 -
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The Defense Department's overseas contingency budget might survive the end of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Wednesday, two of the Pentagon's top civilian and uniformed leaders asked the House Armed Services Committee to keep authorizing an OCO budget even after the U.S. finishes the draw-downs in the region. DoD's latest OCO request came late in the year, and it's less than Congress anticipated. The House set aside $79 billion for OCO funding when it passed DoD's baseline budget for fiscal 2015, but now the Pentagon is only asking for about $59 billion. Todd Harrison is senior fellow for the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. He explained how the budget deliberations on Capitol Hill might unfold on In Depth with guest host Jared Serbu.
July 17, 2014
