House lawmakers will begin to consider the 2013 defense authorization bill this week, including a provision in regard to federal contracting in Afghanistan, the Washington Business Journal reports. According to writer Jill Aitoro, the measure would prohibit the Pentagon from contracting private companies for security guard services at Afghanistan-based military facilities. Lawmakers are citing Pentagon [...]

The U.S. Capitol Police force is still awaiting upgraded radio and communication systems in order to address connectivity issues around the Capitol, The Hill newspaper reports. In 2007, the organization allocated $35 million in order to modernize its radio and communication assets across the department, according to reporter Debbie Siegelbaum. The project has since grown [...]

White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt is set to retire at the end of May after a two and a half year stint, the Washington Post reports. Schmidt told the Post he plans to retire in order to spend more time with his family and to pursue opportunities to teach in the cyber field. Nakashima [...]

In a unanimous vote Wednesday, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee unanimously approved President Obama’s nominee to head the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, GovExec reports. Joseph Jordan, currently an adviser in the Office of Management and Budget, was nominated in February to succeed Dan Gordon, who took up a teaching position at [...]

A draft version of the fiscal year 2013 defense authorization bill would tie funding for several Pentagon entities, according to a Deltek analysis. John Slye of GovWin evaluated the House Armed Services Committee’s progress in marking up their version of the bill. The proposed legislation would restrict 20 percent of funds on the offices of: [...]

The House Armed Services Committee wants to stop the Defense Department from spending more on alternate fuels than it would on traditional fossil fuels, Noah Shachtman from Wired Danger Room reports. According to the report, the lawmakers are including the proposed measure in the fiscal 2013 budget bill in order to reduce military spending. Such [...]

A recent job study found that the District of Columbia has a third of its residents working in the public sector, the Washington Business Journal’s G. Scott Thomas reports. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data compared non-farm job numbers with government jobs in each state. Local, state and federal government entities employ 22.2 million workers [...]

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz recently told attendees of the annual National Security Forum that the economic environment calls for a continued focus on public-private partnerships. Christopher Kratzer, who covered the event for the Air Force’s news service, writes that the forum aggregates executives, government and thought leaders to strategize on issues [...]

Defense Department officials have asked lawmakers to change an acquisition process that allows agencies to tweak and buy commercial products, Federal News Radio reports. The House Armed Services Committee included some of the Pentagon’s suggestions in the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill, it did not include changes to the commercial-of-a-type acquisition process. Shay Assad, the [...]

U.S. government technology officials plan to tie the federal mobility strategy with the website reform strategy, according to Nextgov. Federal Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel told lawmakers that the combined strategy will also focus heavily on telework, Joseph Marks reports. Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and Gerry Connolly (D.-Va.) organized the Fairfax, Va. event where VanRoekel spoke [...]