Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) are pushing for legislation to extend reimbursements for federal contractors unable to work due to COVID-19 through Sept. 30.
By Lauren C. Williams
Mar 03, 2021
The Defense Department will likely have to look even deeper for cost-savings as flat budget looms for 2022 and beyond.
Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), the chairman for the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that while topline budget numbers don t adequately reflect value, the Pentagon and military services should look for cost-savings and where reinvestments can be made. One of the ironies of the Budget Control Act was that it was designed to reduce the deficit but after a while it actually became a force to, I think, increase spending because Republicans want strong defense spending. We re 50-50 split and we would get strong domestic spending and ironically it led to the budget you ve seen the last few years. That s now gone, Reed told reporters Feb. 24 during a Defense Writers Group virtual event.
By Lauren C. Williams
Mar 03, 2021
Unless the Air Force can modernize the IT infrastructure at the Air Force Academy, the school’s accreditation could be in jeopardy, according to Lt. Gen. Richard Clark, the academy s superintendent. Our IT is woefully behind where we need to be a provider of cyber excellence, Clark testified during a House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee hearing on March 2. The Academy’s IT needs don t get the same attention as the Air Force’s broader enterprise needs because it is funded as an .edu rather than a .mil organization, he said. That difference means the school doesn’t “fall under the normal IT funding that the rest of the Air Force comes under, Clark said. So that funding that we need, not only now but into the out years, is vital for us. In fact, it threatens our accreditation.
At a recent hearing on the massive hack on SolarWinds IT management software, witnesses explained that they are still unsure how widespread the attack was, how hackers corrupted the Orion software and what they intend to do with the information they’ve accessed