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National & World Headlines
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The Pentagon says if Russian troops were really pulling back from the border with Ukraine, then "we would know," a spokesman told the Associated Press. He says that doesn't seem to be happening. Russian President Vladimir Putin says his troops have been moved away from the border region. Putin has also called on Ukraine's military to stop its operations against pro-Russia activists who have seized government buildings and police stations in at least a dozen towns in eastern Ukraine.
May 08, 2014 -
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The House Armed Services Committee is marking up the Pentagon's 2015 Defense Authorization bill today. Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) has a series of proposals that include some accounting finesse to appropriate more than $2 billion worth of unobligated funds into next year. He wants to balance that with some targeted spending cuts too. John Donnelly, editor of Congressional Quarterly's Defense Blog, tells In Depth with Francis Rose the balance in the 2015 Defense Authorization bill gets more precarious the longer the markup goes.
May 07, 2014 -
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The Navy is scrapping a plan to overhaul one of its 11 aircraft carriers. The Defense Department says doing that frees up money to spend on the Littoral Combat Ship program. Everett Pyatt is leader of the Project for Defense Management and Acquisition Leadership Program at the McCain Institute and a former assistant secretary of the Navy. He's writing in Real Clear Defense about the Navy's budget plans.
May 07, 2014 -
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The intelligence community, like the rest of government, is coping with a sudden budget decrease. But leaders say they're committed to not repeating the serious workforce mistakes policymakers made during the last budget cut two decades ago, when new hiring ground to a halt. Read the related story by Jared Serbu.
May 07, 2014 -
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Today is markup day for the National Defense Authorization Act in the House Armed Services Committee. Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) has already killed the idea of approving a round of Base Realignment and Closure this year. But the Defense Department sees the potential for some progress on another round of BRAC. John Conger, acting deputy undersecretary of Defense for installations and environment, talked to In Depth with Francis Rose about the effort the Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-Wash.) is making to push toward a BRAC round.
May 07, 2014 -
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John Hickey, the mobility program manager for the Defense Information Systems Agency, talks about the status of DoD's commercial mobile device programs, for both classified and unclassified communications. Greg Wenzel, a senior vice president at Booz Allen Hamilton, discusses the findings of a recent survey of government employees about DoD acquisition.
May 07, 2014 -
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Iran says it will target U.S. aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf if a war breaks out. An Iranian military official says the country could sink a U.S. aircraft carrier like the USS Nimitz and that the country is practicing on a replica. A spokesman from the Pentagon says they have no doubt Iran could sink the replica it has built, but Col. Steve Warren says sinking a U.S. aircraft carrier is another matter entirely and he has no confidence in Iran's capability to sink one.
May 07, 2014 -
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Dr. Harry Greenspun, senior advisor for Healthcare Transformation and Technoloy at Deloitte, discusses how technology is being used to reduce health care costs. May 6, 2014
May 06, 2014 -
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The American Legion says reports of veteran deaths resulting from VA hospital treatment delays mean it's time for Secretary Eric Shinkseki to step aside. But at the moment, they're the only major veterans' group to go that far. Most of the other large service organizations are waiting for the full results of an inspector general review of the alleged "secret waiting list" at the Phoenix VA hospital. Bob Wallace, executive director of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, told In Depth with Francis Rose it's premature to call for leadership changes.
May 06, 2014 -
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Tha nation's largest veterans' service organization created a stir yesterday when it called for the resignations of the VA's top three officials: Secretary Eric Shinseki, Undersecretary for Benefits Alison Hickey and Undersecretary for Health Robert Petzel. Daniel Dellinger, the national commander of the American Legion, told In Depth with Francis Rose he and most other veterans groups have long supported the current leadership team. But recent media reports about preventable deaths in the VA health care system were too much to take.
May 06, 2014 -
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The House Armed Services Committee releases a blueprint of the National Defense Authorization Act. The $601 billion measure hardly resembles the Pentagon's wish list. It rejects most of the department's ideas for saving money. Staff writer Martin Matishak has been following this closely for the Hill Newspaper. He provided insight for Federal Drive with Tom Temin and Emily Kopp.
May 06, 2014 -
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Howard "Buck" McKeon (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, has released a $601 billion spending plan that saves the Cold War era U-2 spy plane from the chopping block and also would force the Pentagon to keep the A-10 Warthog in storage. It's all a part of a plan resulting in smaller military budgets after 13 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ironically, though, the plan also denies the Pentagon's request for another round of military base closures to get rid of unnecessary facilities and save $1.4 billion.
May 06, 2014 -
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Congress is taking its first real action on whether or not to accept the cost-saving ideas DoD put forward in its 2015 budget proposal. And so far, it looks like Congress will shred those proposals. Federal News Radio's Jared Serbu writes about the annual National Defense Authorization Act in the latest edition of Inside the DoD Reporter's Notebook. He described some of the initial reactions from Congress so far.
May 05, 2014 -
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The organization says a series of whistleblowers and investigative reports show a "pattern of bureaucratic incompetence and failed leadership" among VA senior leaders. This is the first time in more than 30 years the American Legion has called for the removal of a public official.
May 05, 2014
