Defense Department
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A memo obtained by Federal News Radio points to a split in thinking inside the Pentagon's efforts to achieve interoperability with VA's electronic health record system. An assessment by the Pentagon's office of operational test and evaluation, an internal acquisition watchdog, finds DoD's project to build a new electronic health record is "likely to be detrimental to the President's goals" for interoperable health IT.
April 22, 2013 -
Homeland Security, Defense and USDA are asking the Office of Management and Budget for the ability to reprogram agency funds to soften the blow of sequestration. DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano said the agency must cut $3 billion by Sept. 30 and every mission, contract and person will be impacted in some way. She said the Coast Guard already is feeling the impact of the cuts in mission areas.
April 19, 2013 -
Advocacy organizations are criticizing the Pentagon's proposed fee increase for TRICARE as unfair and discriminatory.
April 19, 2013 -
Defense agencies and services are pulling back hundreds of millions of dollars worth of grants and contracts. Impending furloughs will further impair DoD's ability to get money out the door.
April 18, 2013 -
It's been two years since the Plain Language Writing Act became law. While agencies are doing a better job, more work needs to be done. A federal expert on plain language is offering agencies the writing tips he employs on a daily basis. At the same time, a new bill in Congress would extend the plain language act to cover federal regulations.
April 17, 2013 -
The Pentagon delays its RFP for a new electronic health record system. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says a revised approach is coming soon.
April 17, 2013 -
The Defense Department's attitude toward the importance of auditability has undergone a marked change, but experts believe compliance with its next legal deadline will be a stretch.
April 12, 2013 -
Mark Easton, DoD's deputy chief financial officer, says the challenges toward a clean audit are significant but the Pentagon is still optimistic.
April 10, 2013 -
Former DoD Deputy CFO Al Tucker and Asif Khan from the Government Accountability Office join Francis Rose on this week's edition of Pentagon Solutions to discuss the challenges DoD has in reaching a clean audit by 2017.
April 10, 2013 -
The Defense Department's 2014 budget proposal reduces the size of the civilian workforce slightly, increases TRICARE premiums, and requests another round of base closures. It also calls for a slight raise for both civilian employees and uniformed servicemembers. The budget significantly exceeds the Defense spending caps in current law.
April 10, 2013 -
A new memo from Navy Chief Information Officer Terry Halvorsen tells the Navy and Marine Corps to move public-facing data to commercial cloud service providers.
April 08, 2013 -
Absent structural changes, the combination of 10-year budget caps Congress has already approved and rising growth in personnel costs mean DoD would be able to sign paychecks, administer healthcare benefits and not much more.
April 08, 2013 -
System aggregates data from various Army components to help commanders detect risk factors for suicide.
April 05, 2013 -
The size and cost of the Defense Department's portfolio of major weapons acquisition programs have fallen to their lowest levels in five years, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office. DoD's major weapons portfolio decreased by 10 programs in 2012 -- to 86 programs -- while the total cost of DoD's big-ticket procurements fell by $152 billion to $1.6 trillion.
April 02, 2013 -
DoD says it's committed to making sure civilians are not furloughed in fiscal 2014, which begins in October. But if sequestration remains in place, the alternative would almost certainly be involuntary reductions in force for both civilian workers and uniformed service members, officials say.
April 01, 2013