The Senate Armed Services Committee approved an amendment last week that would block federal procurement officials from asking contracting companies about political contributions. The amendment, which was introduced by Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio), was passed by SASC as part of the negotiations surrounding the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act. In April, [...]

The Department of Health and Human Services is set to roll out a new system next month aimed at rooting out waste, fraud and abuse at health agencies, using a new data-analytics approach known as predictive modeling. Predictive-modeling relies on risk-scoring tools to analyze claims as they come in, zeroing in on suspicious activity much [...]

Following the social disruptions and political upheaval of the Arab Spring, it should come as no surprise that monitoring social networks, such as Twitter, is quickly becoming an important intelligence-gathering technique. And recently, that analysis was given confirmation, according to a report on TMCNet.com. A NATO spokesman said recently the organization has a finger on [...]

Under a spending measure approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Defense Department’s funding for service contracts would be cut down to 2010 levels, in what Federal News Radio said amounted to a service-contractor hiring freeze. DoD’s service-contracting budget would take a $1.1 billion cut, according to a committee press release. The spending freeze [...]

After being drastically cut, the E-Government budget, which funds open-government websites, such as Data.gov and the IT Dashboard, may be getting a boost to its bottom line. On Friday, the House Appropriations Committee on Friday appeared to approve $13 million for the E-government fund for next fiscal year. That represents a $5 million increase from [...]

The Senate Armed Services Committee has given its go-ahead to cut $6 billion from the Defense Department’s 2012 budget, according to a report in Defense News. The chairman of the panel, Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), called the cut a “down payment” on the a plan the White House introduced in the spring to cut $400 [...]

Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III said the Defense Department needs the defense industry to take the long view as Pentagon budgets are expected to be cut. “Those of us in the department, like most of you in this room, are in this for the long haul,” he said at an Aerospace Industry Association [...]

The nation’s first chief information officer, Vivek Kundra, wasn’t the only White House geek (see this interview), but as he prepares to retire at the end of the end of the summer, many tech observers wonder what his departure means for his high-profile policy initiatives, such as the IT reform and cloud-computing guidelines. Kundra is [...]

A new Government Accountability Office review has found that the requirements oversight phase of the acquisition process is ill-timed, when put into practice, according to a Defense News report. The GAO report found that feedback from the Joint Requirements Oversight Council — known as JROC —  is included  either too early or too late to [...]

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates announced his recommendation of Navy Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert, who currently serves as vice chief of naval operations, to be the next chief of naval operations. Current CNO Navy Adm. Gary Roughead is retiring next fall. Gates’ recommendation is based on Greenert’s “solid portfolio” of work including major personnel programs [...]