When federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra laid out the government’s plans for federal IT management reform last week, industry leaders took note. And many have reacted with optimism about the plans, which aim to give federal IT a boost and close the gaps between it and the private sector. The biggest hurdle will likely [...]

If the cooling (or downright frigid) temperatures are any indication, the holidays are approaching, which for many mean impending vacations from work or school. But, before you close the books just yet, ExecutiveGov takes you back to school on three key pieces of legislation dealing with the business of government contracting over the past 25 [...]

The National Reconnaissance Office, the agency responsible for designing, building and operating the nation’s reconnaissance satellites celebrates its 50th birthday this year. And, in addition to its renewed sense of mission for the 21st century, the agency also has a milestone under its belt — the launch of the largest spy satellite in reconnaissance history. [...]

With all the attention and outrage over the Department of Homeland Security’s full-body scanners now in place at airports around the country, another technology seems to have slipped under the radar. Biometrics describes systems that collect data – fingerprints, for example – and then match them to an information bank of stored data. Fingerprint biometrics [...]

Last week, the Defense Department announced U.S. Cyber Command, tasked with defending DoD’s military networks against cyber assaults, is now fully operational. In other words, Cybercom, if necessary, is ready for cyber war. It all started with a worm-infested flash drive left in the parking lot of a Defense Department base in the Middle East. [...]

Earlier this year, six cosmonauts began a 500-day isolation test to see whether humans can endure the rigors of a trip to Mars and back. Last week, NASA announced it is planning something much longer-term: a 100-year Starship that would take a crew to Mars… and leave them there. NASA is partnering with DARPA and [...]

Over the past year, while major weapons systems have been canceled left and right as defense budgets have shrunk, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles have remained a bright spot in the market. In fact, some industry analysts predict the global market for UAVs will top $11.5 billion annually by 2020. However, while U.S. firms have managed to [...]

Here’s a riddle for you: How can you make stock trades based on information that hasn’t been made public yet AND avoid jail time? Run for Congress. That’s right, even though Congress has an unprecedented stake in America’s economy, being a majority shareholder in GM, exerting unprecedented control over the healthcare and energy industries, there [...]

In March, the Government Accountability Office released a report updating long-term fiscal projections and predicting an “unsustainable” growth in the federal deficit – reaching World War II highs as early as 2020. To trim the budget, Robert M. Gates has cut $340 billion in life-cycle costs from the Pentagon’s long-term outlook, but will rising fiscal [...]

The recent showdown over Senate approval of defense appropriations highlights the reliance on continuing resolutions to keep government agencies, as well as the companies they do business with afloat. But it’s often a bumpy ride, experts say. A continuing resolution is the legal authority approved by Congress if an appropriations bill has failed to pass [...]