Defense Department
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Saturday marks the ten-year anniversary of the day Hurricane Katrina made landfall in southern Louisiana. The Pentagon says in the decade since then, it’s made several changes that are intended to get Defense Department resources to local disaster zones within hours instead of days. More from Federal News Radio’s DoD reporter, Jared Serbu.
August 27, 2015 -
The Department of Defense has been working on guidelines to help its contracting officers decide whether potential noncompetitive contracts are worth their advertised prices. The new guidelines address different ways agencies can tackle situations where they don't have information available to them.
August 26, 2015 -
The Defense Department asks Congress for permission to reprogram more than 100 million dollars to contribute to the governmentwide collection to pay for data breach services. DoD is by far the largest agency sending money to the Office of Personnel Management. Federal News Radio Executive Editor Jason Miller is here to tell us about DoD’s request and what other agencies should take from it.
August 25, 2015 -
The Defense Department is working on new training and guidance to help its contracting officers decide whether potential contracts are worth the price. The Government Accountability Office sampled 32 commercial contracts. DOD contracting officials asked for cost, pricing and other information to help them determine if contracts were reasonably priced for 12 of them. Bill Woods is director of acquisition and sourcing management issues at GAO. He said it's too early to say whether the Pentagon's training and guidance is working, but he tells In Depth with Francis Rose that contracting officers DO have some challenges.
August 24, 2015 -
As the Army prepares to graduate the first two female Rangers in its history in a ceremony tomorrow, officials are insisting they did not alter their training standards to accommodate the Army’s first round of female students. But it’s still unclear whether those two new Rangers will ever be allowed to serve in direct ground combat. More from Federal News Radio DoD Reporter Jared Serbu.
August 20, 2015 -
The Navy’s top officer says the Pentagon is fighting a congressional proposal that would dramatically reduce take-home pay for tens of thousands of servicemembers by reducing their housing allowances. The details from Federal News Radio DoD Reporter Jared Serbu.
August 19, 2015 -
The General Services Administration's Western Regions Conference scandal still leaves a bad taste in the mouths of some agencies. Spending on government conferences dropped $3 billion between 2013 and 2010. And the Office of Management and Budget told agencies to cut travel spending by 30 percent back in 2012. But federal employees gain some benefits from conferences that money can't buy. Bob Hale is a fellow at Booz Allen Hamilton, former undersecretary of defense comptroller and former executive director of the American Society of Military Comptrollers. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose why conferences are still valuable.
August 19, 2015 -
The Defense and Veterans Affairs departments are a long way from deploying new electronic health record systems that can communicate with each other. Both agencies didn't meet a deadline last year to make sure their data complies with national standards. Valerie Melvin is director of information management and technology resources issues at GAO. She tells In Depth with Francis Rose why defined goals would help both departments better measure their progress.
August 18, 2015 The Department of Defense launched its revamped anti -improvised explosive device agency with a new name and broader mission capacity. JIDA monitors new trends in IED development, weapons, tactics and techniques used by enemy combatants and stops them before they can do damage.
August 17, 2015-
The aircraft carrier Gerald R Ford will be the first ship of the Navy's new carrier design. The Defense Department will use the Ford for shock tests instead of waiting for the second ship in the series — the John F. Kennedy — to be complete in about five years. Bryan Clark is senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments and former Special Assistant to the Chief of Naval Operations. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose what the Pentagon's decision means for the ship and for the whole carrier fleet.
August 12, 2015 -
President Obama wants to build one of the fastest supercomputers ever in the next 15 years. The exascale computer would run about 30 times faster than today's fastest supercomputer. It's part of the National Strategic Computing Initiative in collaboration with the Energy Department, Pentagon, and National Science Foundation. Simon Szykman is the chief technology officer for Attain's federal services division and former chief information officer at the Commerce Department. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose that the project might not live up to all the hype.
August 04, 2015 Senior leaders from the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs have been increasingly vocal in recent weeks about the work they have been doing over the past two years to achieve interoperability in the absence of a common electronic health record, vowing that they can meet Congress’ goal of health data interoperability without actually using the same software.
August 02, 2015-
The departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs are about to undergo a quantum leap in their ability to exchange patient medical records between doctors in the two health systems – and it’s got nothing to do with the $9 billion electronic health record DoD announced it was buying this week. More from Federal News Radio’s DoD reporter Jared Serbu.
July 31, 2015 -
The Defense Department's nuclear forces arsenal is getting a close look for affordability. Think tanks like the Government Accountability Office and even the Pentagon itself are all looking at how much money the agency should spend on nuclear stock. Todd Harrison is senior fellow for defense budget studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose why he thinks it's important to look at nuclear forces in the context of the whole weapons inventory.
July 31, 2015 -
Leidos wins a $4.3 billion contract for a new electronic health record from the Pentagon. The acquisition process started two years ago after three draft RFPs, and three potential bidders dropped out or were eliminated. Dave Wennergren is vice president of technology at the Professional Services Council and former assistant deputy chief management officer at the Defense Department. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose that this project is a very big deal.
July 30, 2015