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Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates is campaigning to keep federal funds flowing as the United States begins to withdraw military forces from Iraq and eventually, Afghanistan.

Gates is concerned that, like in other times in U.S. history, wars ending will lead to a “peace dividend.”

Addressing the American Legion in a speech last week, Gates said: “As a country, historically, we have a troubling, predictable pattern of coming to the end of a conflict, concluding that the nature of man and the world has changed for the better, and turning inward – unilaterally disarming and dismantling institutions important to our national security.”

As already pledged by President Barack Obama, DoD will grow by between 1 and 2 percent per year. Gates says such amount will not be enough to sustain the capabilities the military has to defend the country.

DoD is already working to reduce overhead, aiming to save $100 billion during the next five years. Some cost-saving measures have already been implemented, including eliminating the Joint Forces Command and reducing contractors by at least 10 percent.

Gates said, “To make the case for this growth at a time of economic and fiscal duress requires the Defense Department to make every dollar count – to fundamentally change the way we do business.”

He added, “It means shifting resources from bureaucracies and overhead to the combat capabilities needed today and in the future.”

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President Barack Obama announced plans this week to loosen export regulations and consolidate the agencies governing them.

The move supports the president’s effort to double U.S. exports, and is a win for technology manufacturers, many of whom expect the new rules could produce billions of dollars in new sales.

Three agencies oversee U.S. export controls and cover tens of thousands of products and services, many of which conflict with one another.

Current regulations cover military products whose export is restricted for security reasons – things the United States has a vested interest in protecting. Some of the technologies on the ban list, however, are not directly critical to national security.

“Decisions were delayed, sometimes for years, and industries lost their edge or moved abroad,” Obama said.

Under the new rules, over a third of the products will be less restricted. Companies producing defense materials, aerospace, or other technologies stand to benefit the most from the looser restrictions.

Initial revision proposals and consolidation of the lists to a single database will begin by the end of the year. There are also plans to launch an Export Enforcement Coordination Center to begin enforcing the new rules.

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The U.S. market for ambulatory electronic health records will double from $1.3 billion in 2009 to an estimated $2.6 billion in 2012, according to a study published this month by Frost & Sullivan.

The report said the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and the Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive programs encourage healthcare providers to invest in EHR. Efficiency concerns, outdated practice management systems, and safety improvements are also leading to interest in the systems. In addition, as more private practices align with hospitals for cost reasons, they will begin to adapt the hospital’s electronic health systems as well.

“I think the No. 1 driver is the change in reimbursement, the fact that it is becoming so complicated to document the process of care to get paid by the government as well as commercial payers,” said Nancy Fabozzi, a senior industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan and author of the report. “Everybody thinks that fee-for-service is doomed and we have to have a new system of reimbursing physicians for the quality of care instead of the quantity of care because costs are exploding.”

She added that although the market for EHR has been slow over the past few years, interest is picking up due in large part to federal funding.

“If you’re pumping $40 billion into a marketplace, it’s going to have some impact,” Fabozzi said.

The report predicted that profits will reach a peak by 2013 at $3 billion, after which the market will become saturated.

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Vice President Joe Biden spoke yesterday in Baghdad, emphasizing the importance of Operation New Dawn in the light of ending the combat operations in Iraq.

His message to an audience of troops at Camp Victory’s ad Faw Palace was that the U.S. military and diplomatic efforts are still very much a national priority.

“Operation Iraqi Freedom is over, but American engagement with Iraq will continue with the mission that begins today,” Biden said. “We are ramping up our civilian and diplomatic efforts to strengthen Iraqi sovereignty, stability and self-reliance at the very same time we are drawing down combat forces.”

He added:

“Our remaining troops — I might add, as combat ready, if need be, as any in our military — will advise and assist Iraqi forces, support partnered counterterrorism operations and protect our military and civilian personnel as well as our infrastructure.”

Fewer than 50,000 U.S. troops will remain in Iraq until the mission officially ends by Dec. 31, 2011. They will advise Iraqi security forces, while diplomats will assist Iraq’s government to develop ties with its neighbors and its economy.

Biden also recognized the more than 1.5 million U.S. troops who have served in Iraq.

“Our fighting men and women were given a mission in Iraq that was as complicated as any in our history,” the vice president said. “The high-speed invasion that toppled a tyrant became a grinding struggle against violent extremists.”

Biden also lauded Iraqi security forces, crediting their efforts throughout the past year in reducing violence in Iraq to its lowest levels since 2003.

Iraqi security forces are “increasingly ready to defend their citizens,” he said.

“Because of their competence, we have … been able to transfer thousands of square miles of territory and hundreds of bases to Iraqi control,” Biden noted.

The vice president also recognized the many Iraqis who have sacrificed their lives in the conflict, adding that Iraq and its citizens are now on a path to a secure and prosperous future.

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In line with an executive order from President Barack Obama, military leaders in the Chesapeake Bay area are looking to do their part to help save the environment.

Last week, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, Gov. Martin O’Malley and other local leaders met to discuss ways to keep the bay clean. Topics tackled include adoption of hybrid vehicles to reduce dependence on foreign oil, reducing polluted runoff from military parking lots, and constructing more environmentally friendly buildings.

Rain gardens that trap storm water and pavement that allows rain to filter through to the ground below are some of the tools that are being considered. The military will be using a database called BayStat to keep track of restoration efforts.

The presidential order outlines cutting nitrogen, phosphorus and other runoff contaminants that spur the growth of oxygen-robbing algae blooms. The strategy also orders the federal government to lead by example by implementing projects such as the one in Chesapeake Bay.

The military is a large landowner in the area, with 68 Department of Defense facilities.

“What we do on each of them matters and makes a difference,” Mabus told the commanders.

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The three agencies made it to the top 10: GAO ranked second on the list, followed by NASA as the fifth best place, and GSA came in eighth. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission was tapped as the most-desirable government workplace.

The fifth conducted since 2003, the “Best Places to Work in the Federal Government” survey is based on data from the Office of Personnel Management’s Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey to rank agencies and their subcomponents. Agencies and subcomponents are ranked according to a “Best Places to Work” index score, which gauges overall employee satisfaction. The “Best Places to Work” score is calculated both for the organization as a whole and also for specific demographic groups.

In addition to employee-satisfaction rating, agencies and subcomponents are scored in 10 workplace categories such as effective leadership, employee skills/mission match, pay and work/life balance.

The “Best Places to Work” rankings also give an overview of each agency and subcomponent, trend data on changes from past analysis and rankings, tips and information for job seekers, and expert analysis of what the results mean.

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Photo: Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley

U.S. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Tuesday met with leaders of U.S. European Command and U.S. Africa Command to discuss existing partnerships.

Navy Adm. Mike Mullen visited with Army Gen. William E. “Kip” Ward, commander of Africom, and Army Lt. Gen. John D. Gardner, Eucom’s deputy commander, and members of their respective staffs.

“One of my goals as chairman is to engage the [combatant commanders] not only when they’re in Washington on my turf, but out on their turf,” Mullen told reporters traveling with him en route to Germany.

Although Navy Adm. James G. Stavridis, Eucom’s commander, was unavailable for Tuesday’s meeting, Mullen said he had spoken with him on the phone before leaving Washington.

Eucom’s area of focus includes all of Europe, as well as large portions of Asia, parts of the Middle East and the Arctic and Atlantic oceans. The command is responsible for U.S. military relations with NATO and more than 50 countries.

In the most recent years, Eucom has expanded its partnerships with U.S. agencies outside of the Department of Defense to gather subject-matter together and facilitate the exchange of information for “whole of government” international efforts in which military and nonmilitary agencies have what Eucom officials call “a coincidence of purpose.”

Mullen said he was a strong proponent for the creation of Africom, which was launched in October 2008. Previously, Eucom was responsible for U.S. military relations in Africa, but with Eucom’s vast area and its commander also serving in a NATO role, it was not physically possible for Africa to receive an appropriate level of attention and engagement, he said.

“[Africom] gives us a 24/7 engagement in that continent that we had very little of prior to that stand-up,” the chairman said, “so I’m very pleased with the leadership and the progress in what we’ve been able to do in Africa over a relatively short period of time.”

Africom was created as an “engagement command” to help African nations build their capabilities, Mullen said, but it has had to work to overcome suspicions that the United States created the command with designs on militarizing the continent.

“A great deal of that has been dissipated,” he said, noting that many countries that at first were suspicious and concerned have come to recognize the command’s value.

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The Food and Drug Administration yesterday launched an innovative performance management system called FDA-TRACK to monitor more than 100 program offices.

The system is designed in line with the President Barack Obama’s commitment to transparency, public participation, and collaboration in the government.

FDA-TRACK measures data from key performance measures established on an annual basis. That data will be gathered monthly, analyzed and presented each quarter to FDA senior leadership. Importantly, the information will be open to the public through the FDA-TRACK website.

“FDA-TRACK will bring the operations of this historically opaque agency into the daylight and help us be even more responsive as we work to protect the public health,” said FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg.

FDA-TRACK is designed to be informative, encourage accountability among FDA employees, and make their work more transparent and measurable. It also provides a way for the public to monitor agency activities.

Adapted from several successful state and local performance management models, FDA-TRACK hopes to set the standard for open government at the federal level. The system monitors performance indicators in four categories: common measures, key center director measures, program measures, and key projects.

Statistics measured could include, among others, the number of employees trained in the Incident Command System, an emergency response system; monitoring publishing of technical publications; and even developing new approaches for evaluating safety of new drugs.

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Photo: DoD

In a move signaling the pervasiveness of social media, the Department of Defense has recently allowed service members to use social-networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter at work.

While DoD monitors individuals’ use, it is also using them to ensure consistency in organizations’ online footprint.

The new policy requires organizations to register their Facebook pages as an “official external presence” with the assistant secretary of defense for public affairs on a list maintained on www.Defense.gov (linked under “social media”). A military organization page must use official logos, official website links and adhere to a list of directives and regulations.

Even though the new DoD social-media policy does not require organizations to use social media, it has an entire hub dedicated to them. The U.S. Army alone has hundreds of official Facebook pages, and thousands more comprise the collection of military pages, mostly on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.

Even the Army’s Installation Management Command, who oversees Army communities worldwide, makes it clear in its terms of reference that public affairs offices are responsible for telling the Army and IMCOM story “through all communication venues inclusive of press releases, Internet, newspapers and social media.”

Being registered enables users, whether soldiers, family members or the public media, to confirm a site is official and a reliable source of information. Sites on the DoD Social Media registry must operate under guidance from commanders, officers-in-charge, or service component and the information posted complies with DoD policy, existing regulations and official public affairs guidance.

Now that social-media sites are accessible both at home and work and their use is officially encouraged, users must consider how to manage their “brand” while safeguarding privacy.

“One way to protect against identity theft is to sign up and register your Facebook page (or other popular social-media account) before someone else does. Own your space,” said Steve Dalby, an Army Europe Information Technology training specialist who teaches a Social Networking Systems and Site Awareness course.

He adds that servicemen and woman should always obtain approval before starting a new official Facebook page, and keep in mind that the principle of “need to know” applies to military conversations just as much as it does to private conversations. Instead of posting comments on a friend’s Facebook page, maybe a private message is better idea.

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The Department of Defense’s first-ever director of media affairs and social media czar has left the Pentagon, Wired reports.

Price B. Floyd, who is also an adjunct professor at The George Washington University, was tapped last year by DoD Secretary Robert M. Gates to improve the way the department communicates and promote the use of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social-networking tools to spread the department’s message. A frequent user of Twitter with more than 3,000 followers, Floyd often sought peoples’ ideas on what the Pentagon was doing and whether its critics made valid points.

Regarding his departure, Floyd told Wired it is simply time to move on. His official last day was yesterday, but on Monday he began teaching a class on public diplomacy at GWU. He will also help out on special projects for the Center for a New American Security, a think tank where he worked prior to coming to the Pentagon.

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