John McCain
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Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) sent a letter to the Defense Secretary Panetta and Secretary of State Clinton asking them to consider further actions against contractor Pratt & Whitney Canada. P&WC pleaded guilty in June to illegally exporting military software to China.
August 13, 2012 -
Legislation forcing the White House to explain how the across-the-board budget cuts known as sequestration will affect individual agencies is now waiting for President Barack Obama's signature. The Senate unanimously approved the Sequestration Transparency Act of 2012 Wednesday, which requires the administration to detail within 30 days how the $1.2 trillion over 10 years in automatic cuts will be applied. The House passed its version of the bill last week in a 414-2 vote.
July 26, 2012 -
Letter, sent to 15 large vendors, asks for estimated impacts of sequestration on defense contractors.
July 06, 2012 -
New security measures, including a new polygraph question, will help avoid leaks from intelligence employees, announced James Clapper, director of National Intelligence. Lawyer John Mahoney analyzes the legal responsibilities between agencies and federal employees.
June 28, 2012 -
The pressing need for cybersecurity legislation has led to widely divergent paths in the House and Senate. The House has opted for a more incremental approach, while the Senate has crafted comprehensive legislation
June 27, 2012 -
Legislation requiring Defense Department to disclose budget-cutting contingency plans would be attached to 'every bill that walks'
June 27, 2012 -
The top Republican on the Armed Services committee signaled Thursday that there's room for compromise toward a deal to avoid automatic budget cuts at the end of this year. But not everyone's sure the negative effects of sequestration can be avoided, or even that Congress would reach a deal.
June 22, 2012 -
The Homeland Security Department showed lawmakers and staff how easy it is to create a spear phishing attack against a federal employee using free, open-source tools. The agency also said the Einstein 3 program is under development and will rely on vendors to provide intrusion prevention services. Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said he expects the cyber bill to go to the Senate floor for debate no later than July.
June 14, 2012 -
Retired Maj. Gen. Arnold Punaro, a member of the Defense Business Board, said the decimation of contracting officers, program managers and others have put the military at a disadvantage in spending hundreds of billions of dollars. He said the answer to their problem is simple but hard to implement: a comprehensive plan to improve the acquisition workforce.
June 12, 2012 -
Senate panel rejects Air Force's proposed decreases to National Guard aircraft and personnel, orders cutbacks in DoD civilian and contractor personnel and imposes contractor salary caps.
May 25, 2012 -
The Arizona senator sent the third in a series of letters to Gen. Keith Alexander trying to explain why DoD, not DHS, should be in charge of defending critical infrastructure from cyber attacks. He said the administration's approach would create another layer of bureaucracy and slow down responses to threats.
May 10, 2012 -
Gen. Keith Alexander said a recent cyber exercise is the first time the military showed it can do offensive and defensive capabilities at the same time, by the same team. This was part of Alexander's answers to questions from Sen. John McCain.
May 04, 2012 -
Congress crafted a partial measure to fund some agencies through fiscal year 2012 and extend a continuing resolution for others. Erik Wasson of The Hill acknowledges that the current budget process has been the most complicated he\'s seen.
November 16, 2011 -
Two senior senators will introduce an amendment to the DoD authorization bill to increase the oversight over the IT supply chain. A preliminary report from GAO finds counterfeit technology parts easily making their way into weapons systems.
November 09, 2011 -
he leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee say counterfeit electronic parts, mostly from China, are flooding the supply chain for the Pentagon.
November 07, 2011