National & World Headlines
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The federal CIO said he\'s not concerned that the administration\'s cloud initiative will fall victim to the same types of roadblocks lawmakers set out for e-government seven years ago. VanRoekel said members of Congress need data on the value cloud computing brings. He also said vendor management organizations and mobile computing are among his short term priorities.
January 19, 2012 -
Belva Martin, the director of acquisition and sourcing management issues at GAO, joined In Depth with Francis Rose to discuss the agency\'s latest report on the use of the national-security exception in defense contracting. GAO concluded the Defense Department\'s rules for when its agencies must disclose the use of the exception are unclear.
January 19, 2012 -
Since Pakistan shut down U.S. supply lines in late 2011, the Pentagon has been spending more than six times what it normally does to get supplies to troops in Afghanistan. According to information obtained by the Associated Press, it now costs about $104 million per month to move the supplies through a longer northern route, $87 million more a month than when the cargo moved through Pakistan.
January 19, 2012 -
Randy Vanderhoof, the executive director of the Smart Card Alliance, joined In Depth with Francis Rose to talk about a potential cybersecurity vulnerability with the Defense Department\'s Common Access Card.
January 19, 2012 -
The Defense and State Departments have agreed on a new personnel-sharing agreement that State officials called the most \"significant formal exchange of personnel\" in the history of both departments. The new Memorandum of Understanding on the Non-Reimbursable Exchange of Personnel expands personnel-sharing between the two departments, which was capped at 50 positions. The MOU increases the number of DoD personnel working at State to 98.
January 19, 2012 -
Russel Rumbaugh, co-director of budgeting for foreign affairs and defense at the Stimson Center, sees the looming sequester as an empty threat. Meanwhile, DoD and the administration move forward with significant cuts in spending.
January 19, 2012 -
Defense officials from Canada, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the U.S. have signed an agreement to share the costs of, and the bandwidth from, a Wideband Global Satellite.
January 19, 2012 -
All health insurance options in federal health plans will soon allow members to download a digital version of their health records using a technology called Blue Button, the Office of Personnel Management announced. The adoption of the Blue Button technology, whose use was spearheaded by the Veterans Affairs Department, will make it easer to share digital records with family members and physicians.
January 18, 2012 -
The Pentagon is preparing a series of new initiatives to try to curb sexual assaults in the military. \"Sexual assault has no place in this department. It\'s is an affront to the basic American values we defend,\" said Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta as laid out the first in a series of proposal. According to Panetta, the steps include extending victim services to military spouses as well as Pentagon civilians and contractors working abroad and more money to prosecute perpetrators.
January 18, 2012 -
The Navy\'s Pacific Fleet is getting a new commander. Adm. Patrick Walsh will retire this Friday after 34 years of service to the Navy. Adm. Cecil Haney, the former deputy of the U.S. Strategic Command, will take over.
January 18, 2012 -
Thanks to the National Security Agency, there is now a security enhanced version of Android. This project is designed for agencies with strict access-control policies, such as the Defense Department.
January 18, 2012 -
Steve Krause, a principal at Catalyst Partners, joined In Depth with Francis Rose to discuss how steep defense cuts could actually play to smaller contractors\' strengths.
January 18, 2012 -
The Defense Department\'s long experiment in a pay-for-performance system was supposed to provide a model for the rest of government. Instead, after six years and protracted legal battles, the National Security Personnel System. was abolished by Congress. With more than 225,000 employees, who were once covered by the system, now converted back to the General Schedule, Federal News Radio examines the lessons learned and legacy of NSPS.
January 18, 2012 -
When the DISA cloud was hit with e-mail bringing in malware, cyber officials quickly squashed it.
January 18, 2012 -
A review of legally oriented mail to prisoners facing charges for war crimes at Guantanamo Bay prison has been ordered. Rear Adm. David Woods says it balances the need for defense attorneys to communicate with their clients with demands for security and safety on the base. Woods made the statement at a pre-trial hearing in a case against a Saudi man charged with orchestrating the deadly attack on the USS Cole in 2000. Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, is considered one of al-Qaida\'s most senior leaders.
January 18, 2012