From taking on credit card giants to sticking up for service members who have been scammed, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has gotten off to a busy start. But the sailing hasn’t been entirely smooth. The Bipartisan Policy Center has analyzed the agency’s first three years. Rick Fischer led the review.

Agencies have reacted to the shutdown with extreme caution. Smaller ones have a handful of staff left. Building doors are closed. Websites are offline. No one wants to run afoul of the Anti-Deficiency Act, a law created in the late 1800s to make sure the government did not spend money it didn’t have. John Mahoney is chairman of the labor and employment practice group at the law firm Tully Rinckey and a regular contributor to Legal Loop. He takes a closer look at the law, as it applies now.

Technology is at the center of the Affordable Care Act. But the first two days of the online health care insurance exchanges have been rocky. Visitors have been getting error messages and blank pages. Ryan McElrath, chief technology officer of Americaneagle.com, provided an analysis of the website HealthCare.gov. His company has designed thousands of large-scale web sties.

Beth Cobert doesn’t have the government credentials to be the deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget. But lawmakers believe the senior consultant from McKinsey and Company may just be the type of person the government needs anyways. Federal News Radio’s Jason Miller has details on why Senators praised Cobert’s experience to be DDM at Wednesday’s nomination hearing.

As the Army and Marine Corps reduce their presence in Afghanistan, hundreds of thousands of items of battle-worn equipment is gradually making its way back to the U.S. But both branches say sequestration has taken a major toll on their ability to get that gear back in shape and into the hands of warfighters. More from Federal News Radio’s Jared Serbu.