Companies Gear Up for Activist Congress
WASHINGTON—Corporations are scrambling to retool their lobbying efforts as Republicans, preparing for control of the House, Senate and White House come January, hope to break the partisan logjam that has blocked the passage of legislation for six years. Among policy areas back on the table—in some cases for the first time since Barack Obama was elected president in 2008 along with a Democratic-controlled House and Senate—are immigration, health care, the tax code, infrastruct
Virginia’s first hemp crop in decades could signal new opportunity
RICHMOND — Marty Phipps started a business this year selling an innovative type of bedding for horses and small animals — a shredded substance that absorbs liquids, resists microbes and cuts down on smell. But because the product is made with hemp, which is the same plant species as marijuana and is tightly controlled by the government, Phipps has to import it from Europe. He figures his costs are double what they would be if hemp were an ordinary crop grown locally. Virginia
DARPA Wants Real Time Operations in Space
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is working to "make space a real time operational domain, which it is not at all today," the agency's director said on Nov. 17. Because there "is more and more a real possibility" of conflict in space, DARPA Director Arati Prabhakar said her organization is putting time and money into building "a completely new architecture for space." For today's US military, "there is nothing that we need either from an intelligence perspective
Politico Defense: Trump presidency a huge wild card for national security
The election of Donald Trump as commander-in-chief poses a real risk that decades-old norms of defense and foreign policy will be upended — with uncertain consequences at home and abroad. The Republican real estate mogul has claimed he knows more than the generals and vowed to fire en mass the top military brass. He's suggested that allies like South Korea and Japan should build up their own nuclear arsenals as part of a more isolationist "America First" foreign policy. He si
Pentagon Could Look to Close Bases Without BRAC Authorization
Defense News WASHINGTON – For several years, the Pentagon has been blocked by Congress in its request to begin another round of Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC). Now, facing an expected wave of modernization bills in the next decade, a top DoD official has suggested the building needs to look for alternative ways to shut down excess infrastructure.
Jamie Morin, the head of the Pentagon’s office of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE), told Defense News that he
'MINIBUSES' MAY NOT START
Association of Defense Communities: Defense Communities 360 The GOP likely will be forced to abandon its plan to wrap up fiscal 2017 appropriations by passing a series of “minibuses” because of the abbreviated schedule when Congress returns to Washington next week, budget experts at the Heritage Foundation said last week.
Democrats oppose the idea because of the possibility that Republicans would pass one spending package for defense and other national security-related agen
Outsourcing, Mission Changes to Shape Installation of the Future
The Army’s real property footprint can be expected to evolve incrementally as past decisions about the role of the service’s installations continue to exert a critical influence on its infrastructure, according to an appendix in the Army’s new strategic framework for supporting its installation requirements. But several changes already are shaping the installation of the future, starting with a trend toward greater outsourcing for both installation and mission support activit
ARMY STRATEGIC PLAN EMPHASIZES SHEDDING EXCESS SPACE, PREPARING FOR BRAC
Association of Defense Communities: Defense Communities 360 The Army has made preparing for the next round of base closures one of the primary pillars of its new strategic framework for supporting its installation requirements. “Given the time required to prepare for and conduct the analysis and recommendation development, setting conditions for a future BRAC round prior to legislative authorization is critical, “Army Installations 2025” states. The document calls for the ser
No More Fat to Cut
Air Force Magazine: Journal of the Air Force Association A long-term continuing resolution could "potentially break programs apart," Air Mobility Command chief Gen. Carlton Everhart said Tuesday. "I have moved programs and shifted programs across the [Future Years Defense Program] so I can pay the immediate bills, but I will submit to you that any more tweaking of that, and I am cutting into the bone. There's no more fat, there's no more muscle; I'm cutting into the bone," Ev
