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Top News
- Furlough Friday: Multiple agencies take advantage of holiday weekend
- New mobile tools gives agencies ‘giant innovation permission slip'
- VA chipping away at oldest disability claims in backlog
- Congress pressures agencies to speed up office consolidations
- Data breach puts DHS employees at risk of ID theft
- What's the latest on phased retirement?
- IRS replaces official in Tea Party controversy
- Commerce nominee sails through hearing
- Obama nominates Archuleta as next OPM director
- FedRAMP achieves another cloud security milestone
- Tangherlini to be nominated as permanent GSA chief
- House GOP panel moves on deep budget cuts
- OMB reworking financial system requirements
- Federal retirement funds temporarily tapped
- Meet the 2013 Service to America Medal finalists
- Thursday federal headlines - May 23, 2013
Navy sends new ship to Singapore amid budget cuts
US Navy deploys new ship to Singapore even as automatic budget cuts pinch federal spending
Karzai's allegation not new
Afghan President Hamid Karzai's surprising allegation that the U.S. and Taliban are conspiring together to keep the war going caught some off guard. But during his eight years as president, Karzai has frequently antagonized the U.S. government by claiming the U.S. motives for being in Afghanistan were selfish. At one point he accused the U.S. of using Afghan soil for its own goals and purposes. More than 2,000 American have been killed and more than 18,000 have been wounded.
AP IMPACT: Combat stress felt far from front lines
AP IMPACT: Far from the front lines, combat stress troubles Air Force intelligence units
DoD furloughs to begin April 26, with almost no exceptions
The Pentagon will send furlough notices to civilian employees in the next two weeks. Defense components would not be spared from furloughs, regardless of any other efforts they take to offset sequestration.
Hagel to review Air Force sexual assault case
Defense secretary will review general's decision to overturn conviction in sexual assault case
Hagel visits Afghanistan
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel went to Afghanistan late last week for his first visit as Pentagon chief. He said there are many challenges ahead as NATO continues to hand over the country's security to the Afghans. "We are still at war," Hagel said, warning the U.S. and its allies to remain focused on the mission while noting that the U.S. never intended to stay in Afghanistan indefinitely.
Army promises improvements in evaluation of soldiers with PTSD
Internal review finds no systemic issues with regard to the misdiagnosis of post-traumatic stress among soldiers, but it makes dozens of recommendations for improving the disability evaluation system.
Malian conflict continues
France's defense minister made a surprise visit to Mali on Thursday to see French troops fighting extremists there. The Associated Press is reporting "military officials said at least 100 al-Qaida-linked fighters died in a two-week campaign to oust them from a rocky desert valley that had been their key base. French forces are in their most bloody and close-range fighting since they deployed eight weeks ago to Mali to help the West African country's embattled government rid its vast north of militants imposing harsh Islamic rule."
General foresees end to grim rise in Army suicides
New central commander foresees end to grim rise in Army suicides
Too much money spent in Iraq for too few results
10 years later, final watchdog report concludes US spent too much, for too little, in Iraq
IG: Billions wasted on Iraq reconstruction
In his final report to Congress, Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart Bowen's conclusion was all too clear: Since the invasion a decade ago this month, the U.S. has spent too much money in Iraq for too few results.
Joint Chiefs welcome House fiscal 2013 budget proposal
The lower chamber's bill would significantly soften the blow against DoD and potentially eliminate current plans such as civilian furloughs because of the automatic budget cuts. The remainder of the government would remain under both sequestration and a full-year continuing resolution.
House budget plan includes fed pay freeze extension
House Republicans unveiled a stopgap government funding measure Monday. The measure would extend the federal pay freeze and leave in place automatic sequestration cuts but would award the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments their detailed 2013 budgets while other agencies would be frozen at 2012 levels -- and then bear the across-the-board cuts. The current continuing resolution expires March 27.
Lawmakers applaud VA on same-sex burial request
Sixteen Democratic senators are calling on the Veterans Affairs Department to keep granting waivers so that same-sex spouses can be buried in national cemeteries.
DoD's recovery from sequestration-related cuts will take months, years
With sequestration now in effect, the Defense Department says it will have to begin to make decisions that cross the threshold between "reversible" cuts to military capability and those that will have long-lasting impacts.
Syrian rebels reject U.S. aid
Syria's rebels have rejected the food and medical supplies the United States wants to give them. Gen. Salim Idris, told The Associated Press, those supplies, "won't bring them any closer to defeating President Bashar Assad's forces in the country's civil war. We don't want food and drink, and we don't want bandages. When we're wounded, we want to die. The only thing we want is weapons," he said.
Workers anxious as cuts set to take effect
In nation's military communities, workers anxious as deep cuts set to take effect
Manning pleads guilty
Bradley Manning, the Army private arrested in the biggest leak of classified material in U.S. history, offered to plead guilty. The "Associated Press" says he made the plea to charges that could send him to prison for 20 years. He said he exposed the secrets to reveal the American military's "bloodlust" in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was the first time Manning directly admitted leaking the material to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks and detailed the frustrations that led him to do it.
Military worried small business suppliers will disappear during sequestration
Small firms already have taken a disproportionate hit from DoD's pullback in 2013 spending, Pentagon officials say. Military acquisition leaders worry the sudden cuts will bankrupt small businesses that provide one-of-a-kind capabilities.
Manning to tell judge about WikiLeaks disclosures
An Army private charged in the biggest leak of classified material in U.S. history is set to tell a military judge how he did it and why.
