Jared Serbu Reports 
Top News
- OMB reworking financial systems to focus on outcomes, not inputs
- Lew taps government retiree pension fund to avoid default
- OMB taps VanRoekel to lead management team
- PHOTOS: Meet the 2013 Service to America Medal Finalists
- Hagel: Accountability breakdown was leading factor in sexual assaults
- Former IRS commissioner faces questions about Tea Party
- SBA starting new lending program for veterans
- New Apple devices cleared to join DoD IT networks
- Army prioritizes access to data in fight over intelligence IT system
- DoD upends slow approval process for mobile devices
- Senior execs' bonuses under fire at agencies
- Gould moves the needle on many of VA's toughest challenges
- Tuesday federal headlines - May 21, 2013
Jared Serbu covers the Department of Defense for Federal News Radio. Jared's reports can be heard Monday - Friday on the Federal Drive and In Depth.
IRS struggling to tackle massive surge in identity theft
Faced with declining resources, the Internal Revenue Service has diverted resources from elsewhere inside the agency to try and head off skyrocketing cases of identity theft stemming from tax refunds.
Army launches new push to help vets transition to civilian workforce
Nancy Hammer, the senior government affairs policy counsel at the Society for Human Resources Management, joins On DoD with Jared Serbu to discuss a new partnership between SHRM and the Army to help military veterans transition out of uniformed service and into the civilian workforce.
Senate debates 'arbitrary' cuts to DoD civilian workforce
Senators attempt to head off provision in annual Defense bill that would require reductions among Pentagon civilians.
Players in budget war game plot $500B in Defense cuts
This past summer, defense experts gathered into teams to map out how to cut DoD's budget by a half trillion dollars over 10 years. The results from the game provide some guidance on ways to make the cut happen in real life based on strategic choices, the organizers say.
Defense experts debate sequestration's impact
There's a little more than a month to go until sequestration kicks in, taking more than a $1 trillion from agency budgets over 10 years unless Congress finds a way to agree on a Plan B for deficit reduction. In this week's edition of On DoD, Jared Serbu, Federal News Radio's DoD reporter, talks with several defense experts about sequestration and the Defense budget in a second term under President Obama:
'Give it a rest,' USPTO chief tells patent critics
USPTO director David Kappos says software is every bit as entitled to patent protection as hardware innovations. Critics of the agency should give recent reforms a chance to work, he told a think tank audience Tuesday.
'Careless' budget cut threatens critical debris tracking system, Air Force space chief says
Gen. William Shelton says some costs for space activities are unsustainable and the service is working to bring them down. But he implored "congressional teammates" not to cut funding for programs that are working.
Next few weeks critical to defining DoD in second Obama term
"Fog bank" of threatened automatic spending cuts makes predicting Defense policy under a re-elected President Obama difficult. But experts agree DoD is likely to take more cuts, with or without sequestration.
On cyber defense, U.S. ‘stuck at the starting line'
NSA, DHS taking steps to improve information sharing by creating a set of standardized technical specifications that let machines detect cyber threats and communicate them to one another in real-time. Whole of government approach is starting to take shape when it comes to cybersecurity.
Panetta calls on lame duck Congress to resolve sequestration
Pentagon makes one more plea for a resolution to sequestration. A regular budget, an annual authorization bill and a resolution to the fight over cybersecurity laws would be helpful as well.
Army looks 30 years into future on acquisition, modernization
The service's new acquisition strategy tries to imagine the Army's needs over the next three decades as the focus shifts away from large counterinsurgency and stability operations.
Army to take first integrated set of IT to the battlefield
Two brigades of the Army's 10th Mountain Division are training on a ready-to-go set of networking capabilities as they prepare to deploy to Afghanistan. The IT comes out of the Network Integration Evaluation process.
DoD opens bidding for secure mobile device project
DISA wants a secure mobile device manager and app store to support at least 162,000 Apple and Android mobile devices. Contract would begin next spring.
DoD, CFPB to educate service members against rising debt
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the financial health of service members is important for troop readiness. A new report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau details potential problems service members are facing.
Lighter force has double meaning for Marine Corps
After a decade of heavy land war, Marine Corps turns to energy efficiency as a way to lighten its load and return to its expeditionary maritime roots. The service already rolled out four technologies that reduce the amount of energy a marine uses. The Marines Corps also is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on developing and testing other energy efficient equipment.
Paralympian supports new generation of wounded warriors
Chris Devlin-Young is a Coast Guard veteran, who became partially paralyzed when his plane ran into a mountainside in 1982. Since then, he's won numerous world medals in the Paralympic sport of monoskiiing and does counseling work with wounded veterans.
DISA offers 'off-ramps' for military services' IT expenses
The Defense Information Systems Agency sees itself as a safety valve for increasing pressure on military services' IT budgets. At a meeting of CIOs last week, DISA told the military services they could offload commodity IT services to their data centers.
Air Force looks to revamp its definition of cyberspace
Current definitions of cyberspace have led to confusion about roles, responsibilities, lanes in the road, a top Air Force general said Thursday. Senior leaders will convene a summit in November to zero-in on a common understanding of cyber.
DoD, intelligence community tune in, turn off IT systems
The Defense Department and the intelligence community are working on joint data standards as they migrate toward enterprise IT environments. Both organizations also are implementing roles-based, access control to ensure secure information sharing.
Intelligence community cloud coming online in early 2013
Intelligence Community Information Technology Enterprise will reach initial operating capability next March on the way to full implementation in 2018. The NGA and DIA are building a common desktop for all of the intelligence community agencies.
