Many Feds Face Furloughs Twice
Dems Back Retroactive Shutdown Pay
How Long Has the Shutdown Lasted?
Agencies Post Shutdown Plans Online
No TSP Contributions During a Shutdown
How Contractors Might Weather a Shutdown
AUTHOR ARCHIVES
Bob Brewin
Editor at Large
Bob Brewin joined Government Executive in April 2007, bringing with him more than 20 years of experience as a journalist focusing on defense issues and technology. Bob covers the world of defense and information technology for Nextgov, and is the author of the “What’s Brewin” blog.
True Blue: VA’s Gift To the Country
12:00 AM ET In August 2010, President Obama told veterans they soon would be able to go to the Veterans Affairs Department website, “click a simple blue button, download or print your personal health records so you have them when you need them and can share them with your doctors.” It was a ...
Tonight Was Made for C-SPAN Junkies
September 30, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
Based on my conversations with various federal employees today, C-SPAN will attract a large audience tuned into Congress tonight as maneuvers over the shutdown of the government go on until 1159 PM. This is an exercise I choose not watch, and I will be well rested tomorrow to continue reporting ...
Army Awards Year-End Communications Contracts Worth $4.7 Billion
September 30, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
The Army has awarded year-end communications contracts valued at $4.7 billion, including a $4.1 billion deal Thursday with 12 companies for long-haul communications and transmission systems. These companies will compete for task orders on the five-year indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract supporting the Defense Communications and Army Transmissions Systems program, ...
VA Will Cut Off Disability Payments If Shutdown Lasts a Month
September 30, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
If a government shutdown continues through the end of October, the Veterans Affairs Department said it will have to cut off disability and education benefits payments, which could cause financial devastation to veterans, according to the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Veterans Benefits Administration claims processors will continue to handle disability ...
Troubled Navy Yard Radio System Was Operated by Army
September 30, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
The Navy land mobile radio system, which experienced failures during the Sept. 16 Navy Yard shootings in Washington, is operated by the Army, not the Navy, Nextgov has learned. A Navy official who declined to be identified told Nextgov that the LMR system used by Naval District of Washington -- ...
The Military Has More Than 900 Suicide Prevention Programs
September 27, 2013 The Defense Department has more than 900 suicide prevention programs and plans to whittle down that number based on a cost-effectiveness ratio, according to this missive from the Military Health System. “What we have been doing is looking at efficiency and effectiveness” of the programs, Jacqueline Garrick, head of the ...
Long Before Navy Shooting, Military First Responders Complained of Bum Radios
September 26, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
Radio failures reported by Navy emergency personnel responding to the Sept. 16 shootings at the Washington Navy Yard underscored problems Navy firefighters have documented since 2009, union officials said. The transmission range was so poor, firefighters working in an incident command post within a building at the Navy Yard had ...
Dear Ted Cruz, Please Join Me on the Bataan Memorial Death March
September 26, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
Somewhere in his 21 hour blabbathon this week, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, compared his performance to the 1942 Bataan Death March in the Philippines which resulted in the deaths of up to 11,000 American and Filipino troops. That tragedy is commemorated every year at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., and ...
How Agencies Bury Noncompetitive Procurements
September 25, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
I get a daily FedBizOpps feed of widget and gadget procurements and awards, and have spent literally hours the past two days poring through year-end sole source contract awards. These are taxpayer dollars expended in an end-of-fiscal-year “use it or lose it” frenzy, but eyeballing these sole source awards is ...
Army Awards Vehicle Radio Deal Worth up to $140.7 Million
September 25, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
The Army awarded Harris Corp. a $140.7 million contract for a vehicle radio designed to link infantry platoons and companies with higher headquarters. The mid-tier networking vehicular radio, or MNVR, runs government-owned software waveforms developed under the now-defunct joint tactical radio system project and adopted by Harris and other vendors ...
