John McCain
-
Defending his department’s $52 billion budget increase for the first time on Capitol Hill this week, Defense Secretary James Mattis ran into heavy skepticism from the committee members who might normally be his most natural allies for a Pentagon plus-up.
June 14, 2017 -
The Defense Department is looking to conduct another round of Base Realignment and Closure in 2021, but as usual, lawmakers are jumpy about losing military bases in their districts.
June 08, 2017 -
The former Army secretary says there's too much bickering in Congress to actually grow the military, but readiness holes need to be plugged first anyways.
June 06, 2017 -
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, asked whether a new approach to the tactical and operational aspects of federal cybersecurity could be a powerful tool for addressing gaps that impede existing organizational structures.
June 05, 2017 -
The Army chief of staff wants a new assessment of the $6 billion WIN-T program, hopefully in time to influence the 2018 Defense authorization bill. He worries the system is too vulnerable in real-world battle conditions and is based on outdated technology.
May 29, 2017 -
Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says many feds are in shock over proposed changes in the federal retirement program and what it would do to all retirees.
May 26, 2017 -
The Defense Department is requesting $575 billion in its base budget, a $52 billion increase from last year to help increase readiness.
May 23, 2017 -
Lawmakers are pushing key Defense Department nominees to begin considering how to put a comprehensive cyber policy in place.
May 18, 2017 -
The House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee Chairwoman says her subcommittee is working toward President Donald Trump's requested budget.
May 18, 2017 -
The Joint Chiefs of Staff are rehashing some controversial personnel reform ideas from the Obama administration.
May 12, 2017 -
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) laid the weight of DoD's first audit squarely on the shoulders of David Norquist, President Trump's pick for DoD comptroller. The department hasn't been audited in 17 years, and has spent the past seven engaged in audit-readiness preparations.
May 10, 2017 -
Six Democrats sent Trump a letter urging him to fill vacancies in the Pentagon. Trump has been under fire from both sides of the aisle for dragging his feet on nominating people to fill Senate-confirmed positions.
April 28, 2017 -
Nagging questions remain in Congress on whether it really did anything useful to prevent another 2008-like financial meltdown. Now an unlikely pair of lawmakers — Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) — think it's time to have the government re-regulate banking in a way the Dodd-Frank bill did not. Roll Call Senior Editor David Hawkings tells Federal Drive with Tom Temin they're thinking back to Glass-Steagall.
April 18, 2017 -
Senators grilled President Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of the Air Force on Thursday over $450,000 in alleged improper payments her private consulting firm collected from Energy Department laboratories, but their questions and Heather Wilson’s answers did little to shed little additional light on the matter.
March 31, 2017 -
DoD's $52 billion budget boost is not carte blanche; it's going to have to prove that it’s spending that money wisely, not frittering it away on superficialities.
March 21, 2017