NDAA

• Obama signs NDAA deal with pay raise, higher co-pays for troops

  President Barack Obama signed the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act deal Friday. The House and Senate Armed Services Committees arrived at a compromise over troop benefits in the fiscal year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act that will give soldiers a 1 percent pay raise, as well as a $3 increase in most prescription co-pays. House Armed Services Committee chairman Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) released a summary of the ups and downs of this fiscal year's $585 billion NDAA, expected to be finalized before Congress leaves for the holidays.

  Budget

  December 22, 2014
• Levin, Coburn leave legacy of bipartisanship, oversight

  Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) says "bipartisanship is not extinct" in his farewell speech to Congress. Wastebook author Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) says oversight is a duty that many senators continue to ignore.

  Congress

  December 15, 2014
• Larry Korb, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress

  Congress is capping the pensions of top military officials in 2015. As part of National Defense Authorization Act, pensions for generals and admirals will be trimmed to ensure they make no more in retirement than they did on active duty. That reverses a 2007 law designed to help retain officers during wartime. What effects, if any, will this have on the military's ability to retain its senior officers? Larry Korb is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and former assistant secretary of Defense for manpower and reserve affairs. He joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive with a look at this measure.

  Federal Drive

  December 15, 2014
• Senate OKs defense policy bill

  By DONNA CASSATA Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress on Friday sent President Barack Obama a massive defense policy bill that endorses his stepped-up military campaign of air strikes and training of Iraqis and moderate…

  Budget

  December 13, 2014
• Trey Hodgkins, Information Technology Alliance for Public Sector

  The Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act is still attached to the 2015 Defense authorization bill the House passed and the Senate will debate this week. The latest version of FITARA looks a bit different than the original. Still, the new bill would hand civilian agency CIOs more authority, prioritize hiring of specialty IT experts and maximize use of data centers. Trey Hodgkins is Senior Vice President of Public Sector at the Information Technology Alliance for Public Sector, a division of the Information Technology Industry Council. He joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive to discuss what we can expect from the compromise version of FITARA.

  Federal Drive

  December 08, 2014
• Todd Harrison, Senior Fellow, Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments

  The big national defense authorization bill is moving through Congress. It passed the House yesterday, and the Senate is expected to take it up next week. In purely military spending terms, the bill is a mixed bag. Some programs and platforms get plus-ups, others get cuts. Todd Harrison is a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. He's been studying the bill, and joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive to analyze the bill's winners and losers.

  Federal Drive

  December 05, 2014
• IT reform bill overcomes toughest hurdle on path to become law

  The House and Senate Armed Services committee members agreed to keep a pared down version of the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act in the final National Defense Authorization Act.

  Congress

  December 03, 2014
• AP sources: Lawmakers agree on $585B defense bill

  By DONNA CASSATA Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — House and Senate negotiators have reached agreement on a $585 billion defense policy bill that provides funds to expand the U.S. mission in Iraq to counter Islamic…

  Budget

  December 02, 2014
• Government funding tops list for lame-duck Congress

  While there's much speculation about how Republicans will run Capitol Hill in the next Congress, the lame-duck one that returns to Washington today must tackle big challenges of its own. With a continuing resolution set to expire in mid-December, agency budgets hang in the balance.

  Congress

  November 12, 2014
• IT acquisition reform bill gets consensus, inches closer to passage

  House Oversight and Government Reform and Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committees agree on trimmed down version of the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA). Now it's up to the armed services committees to keep FITARA in the Defense Authorization bill.

  Congress

  November 05, 2014
• What’s the latest from Capitol Hill?

  Jon Etherton, president of Etherton and Associates, Inc., will give us an update on the procurement issues being discussed on Capitol Hill. August 12, 2014

  Off the Shelf

  August 12, 2014
• Contract performance reporting improves, but not good enough

  Although agency compliance with evaluating and reporting on contractor performance has improved 17 percent overall in the past year, the majority of agencies have not met the targets set by the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, according to a new audit by the Government Accountability Office.

  Congress

  August 11, 2014
• SBA delays in implementing rule changes costs small contractors millions

  Lawmakers and small business contractors are wondering why the Small Business Administration has not implemented the procurement reforms that President Obama signed into law 18 months ago.

  Congress

  July 16, 2014
• What’s the latest from Capitol Hill?

  Jon Etherton, president of Etherton and Associates, Inc., will give us an update on the procurement issues being discussed on Capitol Hill. July 15, 2014

  Off the Shelf

  July 15, 2014