Testifying before a Senate subcommittee Frank Kendall, the Defense Department’s No. 2 acquisition official, said weapons systems and programs that go beyond their original projected budgets are an “intractable” problem for the department, according to an Armed Forces Press Service report. However, the only way to combat such programs and their bloated budgets is to [...]

ExecutiveGov’s round-up of news you need to read to stay up to speed on federal policy impacting the government-contracting community. Obama to Feds: Give Us Suggestions for Federal Reorg As the government takes on reforming the 12 federal agencies responsible for trade and export, President Barack Obama has released a video beseeching federal employees to [...]

In the event of major cyber attack, who should you call? The answer, it turns out, is less than clear. Ostensibly the government’s  first-responder unit for cybersecurity, CERT, the Computer Emergency Response Team, in fact, does not have investigative or regulatory powers, CERT Director Randy Vickers said at a security conference this week. “There’s been [...]

The Office of Personnel Management announced it has released a draft proposal that would create a new official title for agency IT program managers, a key step in creating a new federal career track for such officials. “The IT program manager coordinates, communicates and integrates IT projects and program activities,” the proposed definition states. “They [...]

Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn took home top honors among government cybersecurity leaders at a Washington, D.C., IT-award event this week. Lynn, who was recognized for his efforts to defend military and commercial IT infrastructure and his work shepherding through an information- and resource-sharing agreement between the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security, [...]

ExecutiveGov’s round-up of news you need to read to stay up to speed on federal policy impacting the government-contracting community. Gates, Clinton and Mullen to Brief Senate on Libya The top slate of Obama advisers on foreign affairs: Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff [...]

White House Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra sat down with Healthcare IT News to talk about his priorities as the president’s top tech adviser as well as leading electronic-health-records initiatives, such as the Veterans Affairs Department’s Blue Button program. Leveraging technology to improve healthcare quality and lower costs, while only one of Chopra’s duties, was [...]

The Defense Department’s top acquisition chief testified before the Commission on Wartime Contracting yesterday, saying the Pentagon needs to create a “fast lane” for contingency acquisitions — the rapid procuring of weapons during wartime. “We have to create a fast lane for contingency acquisitions,” Ashton Carter, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics said [...]

ExecutiveGov’s round-up of news you need to read to stay up to speed on federal policy impacting the government-contracting community. Carter Says ‘No’ to Automatic Suspension for Indicted Contractors Testifying before the Commission on Wartime Contracting, the Defense Department’s top acquisition chief said the Pentagon disagrees with the panel’s recommendation to  automatically suspend indicted contractors. [...]

Federal agencies have until March 31 to hold their first TechStat accountability sessions,  agency-level reviews of  IT projects. And according to an update on CIO.gov, of the 26 agencies that make up the Federal CIO Council, 15 had already done so by Friday. TechStat sessions are  “face-to-face, evidence-based review[s] of an IT investment triggered when [...]