sequestration

  • While sequestration took a bite out of nearly everything the Defense Department obligates funds toward, the areas of procurement and R&D took a disproportionate hit, as the department was forced to move money out of those accounts to protect current operations.

    November 21, 2013
  • In this week's edition of Agency of the Month, Dr. Reginald Wells, Deputy Commissioner at the Social Security Administration, discusses the human resources pressures caused by tightening budgets.

    November 21, 2013
  • The Air Force's acting top official says even if sequestration is repealed, the service has an imbalance between its personnel costs and the money it must spend to keep its force trained and ready. Unfortunately, the Air Force may not have any trouble getting airmen to leave the service voluntarily.

    November 15, 2013
  • Jack Midgley, a director in Deloitte's Global Defense Consulting practice will discuss the findings in the company's recent report on defense spending. November 12, 2013

    November 12, 2013
  • Reworked guidance is the first update to key Defense Department instruction since 2008. Internal attempt to streamline the system is leading department officials to seek legislative changes to make the military acquisition process less complex.

    November 11, 2013
  • Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee, took to the Senate floor this week calling on House-Senate budget negotiators to look at replacing the across-the-board sequestration cuts for at least two years.

    November 08, 2013
  • A coalition of more than two dozen federal-employee unions and advocacy groups is calling on budget negotiators to come up with a way to undo the across-the-board sequestration budget cuts that are poised to slash agency spending by billions more this year. But following three years of a pay freeze and the recent 16-day government shutdown, the groups are equally adamant that changes to federal employees' pay and benefits should be off the table.

    November 08, 2013
  • The heads of DoD's military services say they were able to somewhat blunt sequestration's impact during its first year by using several one-time tactics. But they say the consequences of sudden reductions will get worse in 2014 and beyond.

    November 08, 2013
  • In part two of our Agency of the Month interview with Peter Spencer, deputy commissioner for Budget, Finance, Quality and Management at the Social Security Administration, Spencer says lessons learned in 2013 will help the agency moving forward in 2014 and beyond.

    November 07, 2013
  • Former top staffers say current members of Congress no longer have a stake in any particular appropriation or authorization bill making its way through the legislative gauntlet — one reason why DoD and the rest of government continue to stumble from one continuing resolution to the next.

    November 07, 2013
  • Pentagon leaders have spent the past two years warning Congress that sequestration would severely hamper the ability to deploy military forces to contingencies around the world. With no apparent relief in sight from the cuts, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said it's time to start thinking about making the best of a bad situation.

    November 06, 2013
  • For the fourth month in a row, fewer federal employees than expected put in for retirement, allowing the Office of Personnel Management to continue cutting away at a longstanding backlog of claims. About 1,000 fewer employees than expected filed for retirement, according to new OPM data. The backlog fell by more than 3,500 cases.

    November 05, 2013
  • On this week's Agency of the Month show, Peter Spencer discusses how budget uncertainty is negatively impacting the agency.

    November 01, 2013
  • When House and Senate lawmakers kicked off formal budget negotiations this week for the first time since the government shutdown ended, both Republicans and Democrats said replacing sequestration, the blunt across-the-board budget cuts, with an alternative plan would be a top priority. The sticking point remains how to pay for it. Federal-employee unions and advocacy groups fear federal pay and benefits will once again be on the table.

    October 31, 2013