National & World Headlines
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With the new telework bill signed into law, federal employees will soon have more opportunities to telework, and agencies have more incentive to invest in or increase their telepresence options. After the Senate passed the bill in September, the House followed suit in November. It was signed into law last week, and encourages federal employees to telework. Currently, about 5 percent of federal employees participate in some sort of telework plan, and agencies will have to improve their existing technology capabilities and options to meet the increase in participating employees. \"We\'re talking about bringing the government into the 21st century from a technology point of view and every other point of view,\" said bill sponsor Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) in an interview with Federal News Radio last month. \"The technology is moving so aggressively there\'s no reason not to have a good telework policy,\" Wolf said. Video teleconferencing is already a component of telework programs at many agencies, and has in some cases enabled greater allowance for teleworking. At the Defense Information Systems Agency, the desktop- and laptop- based telepresence has \"enabled our telework program to thrive, allowing DISA employees to fully participate in meetings, no matter where they are located,\" Colonel Brian Hermann, chief of the Net-Centric Enterprise Services branch. \"It allows off-site employees to \"participate fully in small-group meetings, including the use of whiteboarding and sharing presentations,\" Hermann said. Will other agencies follow suit? Stay tuned. Navy adding telepresence at National Naval Medical Center The National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda is looking to install a video teleconferencing room which will serve as the Admiral\'s Conference room. The conference room will be used for executive-level video teleconference and Board of Directors meetings, among others according to a solicitation posted to FedBizzOpps.gov.
December 14, 2010 -
WASHINGTON (AP) – House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer says the House will vote on a stand-alone bill that would repeal the policy of forbidding gays from serving openly in the military. Rep. Patrick Murphy of…
December 14, 2010 -
The Navy has delayed awarding a contract to build 20 Littoral Combat ships.
December 14, 2010 -
The has Senate approved a long-delayed package of improvements in the Post-9/11 GI Bill
December 14, 2010 -
The nation\'s No. 2 military officer strongly endorsed the warfighting value of information-sharing.
December 13, 2010 -
DISA\'s Tony Montemorano explains the delay in the request for proposal for the Global Information Grid.
December 13, 2010 -
The New York Times and the Economist report on the U.S. government\'s ability to keep a secret after the WikiLeaks dumps of classified information.
December 13, 2010 -
ACU is out, MultiCam is in for troops headed to Afghanistan.
December 13, 2010 -
GWU professor Steve Schooner says the top story of 2010 were the efficiency initiatives at DoD.
December 10, 2010 -
ManTech, a defense contractor, is looking to fill more than 400 jobs, many being moved as a result of BRAC.
December 10, 2010 -
The military\'s use of personal identifiable information places service members at a higher risk of identity theft than the population at large.
December 10, 2010 -
Effort to repeal \"Don\'t Ask, Don\'t Tell\" doesn\'t make it past a vote for debate in the Senate, and with it stalls billions of dollars in spending.
December 10, 2010 -
The administration detailed a 25-point plan to improve the way agencies buy and manage technology. Current and former government officials say OMB is using lessons learned from the past to set the agencies up for success.
December 10, 2010 -
Lingering concerns about Iran\'s nuclear ambitions and al-Qaida-linked terrorists plotting attacks against the West in Yemen are at the top of the list of concerns for Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. He expressed those concerns during remarks at the U.S. embassy in Kabul. He said that the U.S. must be willing to do more financially, diplomatically and economically for countries that have problems before they erupt and trigger military action.
December 09, 2010 -
More than 40,000 servicemembers have been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Department of Veterans Affairs and the Defense Department are facing a backlog in disability claims. Both agencies have been conducting a pilot to…
December 09, 2010