On Space Coast, Signs of Comeback After End of an Era
MELBOURNE, Fla. — The day after the shuttle Atlantis landed for the last time at the Kennedy Space Center on July 21, 2011, Angel Telles, a man with three master’s degrees, scooped up his white Mission 101 coffee mug and drove away from NASA after 24 years on the job there. The shuttle era had ended, and with it the jobs of 8,000 NASA and civilian workers who found themselves unemployed in the midst of a harsh economic downturn and a crush of home foreclosures. A diner at a r
FAA to Close 149 Air Traffic Towers
FAA on Friday announced its decision to close 149 contract air traffic control towers as part of its reduced operating budget under the recently enacted automatic across-the-board government spending cuts known as sequestration. The agency said it was forced to reduce its budget by $637 million for the 2013 fiscal year, and reduced the number of planned tower closures from 189 to 149 after considering the impact to the nation’s air transportation system, ultimately choosing t
Landrieu Angrily Confronts Cruz Over Abortion Amendment
Ted Cruz’s effort to tie United Nations funding to China’s abortion policy provoked a sharp, private rebuke from Mary L. Landrieu on the Senate floor Saturday morning. Shortly before 4 a.m., the Louisiana Democrat strode from her desk on the Democratic side of the chamber all the way to the Texas Republican’s desk on the far side to give him a piece of her mind after Cruz insisted on a roll call vote on his amendment to the Senate budget resolution. Cruz wanted to create a ne
New White House Plan Would Cut $100 Billion From Defense
WASHINGTON — The White House is preparing to submit a fiscal 2014 federal budget that would partially offset across-the-board sequestration cuts by reducing the Pentagon budget by $100 billion, but not until later this decade, according to a senior defense official and budget documents. Obama administration officials are pushing these Defense Department spending cuts, along with an additional $100 billion in nondefense discretionary spending — for a total of $200 billion in c
Furloughs for Federal Workers Still Likely in New Stopgap Budget
The stopgap budget Congress is likely to pass this week to fund the government through the rest of the fiscal year gives a few agencies flexibility to address spending priorities. But by locking in $85 billion in across-the-board cuts known as the sequester until Sept. 30, the plan is unlikely to stop the furloughs of more than a million federal employees — some for as many as 22 days, according to congressional, agency and union officials. The version of the plan approved by
OMB Instructs Agencies on Freezing Real Estate Footprint
The Obama administration continued its drive to economize on federally owned real estate, issuing guidance requiring all agencies to submit a plan to “restrict the growth in their office and warehouse inventories.” Controller Danny Werfel posted a memo on Thursday outlining a “Freeze the Footprint” policy on which agency progress will be evaluated and posted on performance.gov. “Agencies have made tremendous progress in making their real estate inventories more efficient,” We
Bring Back Earmarks
We pride ourselves on saying the difficult things – the type of things that people might be thinking but are too afraid to say. One of those difficult things to say is that we think it may be time for Congress to bring back earmarks. Yes. You heard us correctly. Give us the pork. The art of “a favor for a favor” is about as old as Congress itself. And what made Congress work, to some degree, was its ability to allocate money to specific members of Congress for projects within
Governor Goes on Offense on Behalf of Defense
Seeing his state about to get hit hard by sequestration budget cuts, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell looked down the road and saw another possible threat looming. Congress is not currently planning for it. But in an economic climate of defense cutting, McDonnell feared that Congress might support a new round of federal base closures, making Virginia’s defense assets vulnerable. So McDonnell tapped the recently retired head of the Navy’s Fleet Forces Command, Adm. John Harvey, to
House Opposes New BRAC Round
WASHINGTON (AP) — House lawmakers said Thursday they are opposed to a new round of military base closings in the United States and challenged Defense Department officials to provide tangible evidence of the need to reduce the number of installations. Military bases are often the economic lifeblood of the communities that surround them and any discussion about shutting bases down is politically charged, especially at a time when the U.S. economy is still in recovery. During te
DOD Official Discusses BRAC Issues with Congress
WASHINGTON, March 15, 2013 – The Defense Department has more real estate than it needs in the United States and abroad, a senior DOD official told a House panel yesterday. Another round of base realignments and closings should be an essential part of any overall strategy for reshaping the military, John Conger, the acting deputy undersecretary of defense for installations and environment, told the House Armed Services Committee in prepared testimony. “Force structure is decli
