Ten years after the invasion of Iraq, things in that country are not the same. Crackdowns on fraud, waste, and abuse have improved, and the agencies responsible for implementing those changes are moving on. Stuart Bowen, Jr., is the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. He tells about SIGIR’s last report and the biggest lessons they’ve learned from Iraq.

Talk about throwing out the baby with the bathwater. A couple of VA medical executives had major screw-ups occur on their watches. Congress calls them out. Fair enough. But now some members want to ban all senior executive performance bonuses. That doesn’t sit well with Carol Bonosaro, president of the Senior Executives Association. She’s written a letter to the leaders of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, telling them so.

Twelve years after 9/11, the quest for better domestic security has gone deeply into cyberspace. Even today, federal agencies have a hard time keeping up with threats to their IT infrastructures. For one view of the state of federal cybersecurity, Tom and Emily talked to Mike Brown, the vice president and general manager for the public sector at RSA. Brown is a retired Navy rear admiral, and he started by describing his 9/11 experience.

House lawmakers will take another crack at improving federal data transparency laws in the next few months. Republican leaders are promising to get the DATA Act a vote on the House floor. Federal News Radio’s Executive Editor Jason Miller has details on why lawmakers think this time is different for the DATA Act.

This year, conflicts past, present and future are casting a shadow over the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. While President Barack Obama and other federal leaders hold remembrance ceremonies, others are examining how well the government is countering today’s biggest threats. Former Homeland Security Department Chief of Staff Chad Sweet now serves as CEO of The Chertoff Group. He offers his perspective on national security 12 years after the September 11th attacks.