OUTGOING DEFENSE SECRETARY PANETTA LAUDS MILITARY MEMBERS, BLASTS CONGRESS FOR "MEANNESS"

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta testifies on the Defense Department’s response to the attack on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya, during a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington, D.C., Feb. 7, 2013. DOD photo by U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Strong Defense Rests on Strong Congress, Panetta Says
By Karen Parrish
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Feb. 13, 2013 - The current lack of effective partnership in government is his biggest disappointment as he leaves Washington after 50 years of public service, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said today.

Panetta told Pentagon reporters during what he called his final news conference here that his Defense Department team has achieved remarkable things.

"First and foremost, we've kept the country safe," he said. "Secondly, we have ... [dedicated] ourselves to bringing two wars to a conclusion, the war in Iraq and now we're well on the way to bringing the war in Afghanistan, hopefully, to a conclusion, as well."

Military members serving under him have weakened terrorism and strengthened cooperation with their counterparts in intelligence, he added. And together, he said, military and civilian defense leaders crafted and put in place a defense strategy that "really makes good sense for this country, in terms of the force we need for the 21st century."

The secretary added that as the son of Italian immigrants, he's also proud to have led the effort to "expand opportunities for everyone to serve in the military." Panetta's acts as secretary included expanding the number of jobs for servicewomen, and increasing the rights of same-sex couples with military members.

"And I'm proud of the care that we continue to provide for our wounded warriors and for their families," he said. "They are truly deserving of whatever we can provide because of the sacrifices they've made."

The secretary said he has put a lot of burdens on the military in working through tough decisions.

"And, you know, they always responded. They responded ... [with] dedication to country and dedication to the military. We've been able to do some historic things as a result of that," he said.

In turning to what threatens those achievements, Panetta expressed some frustration.

"I'm sorry about this, but I've got to say it," he said. "All of the work that we do here to try to make this country strong and develop a strong defense" depends on a strong partnership with Congress, the secretary said.

"What should be and what our forefathers, I think, envisioned as a strong bond between an administration, an executive branch, and a legislative branch ... is not as strong as it should be," he said. "Oftentimes, I feel like I don't have a full partnership with my former colleagues on the Hill in trying to do what's right for this country."

When he served in the House as a representative from California, Panetta said, there was a customary form of speech between members who disagreed: "With the greatest respect, I disagree with my friend."

What makes Congress work is that it's a place to fully debate political and ideological differences, he said.

"That's the whole purpose of our forefathers fashioning that legislative branch, to debate fully those differences," the secretary added. "But there are also some lines that are there that make that process work."

Without mutual respect and courtesy among those seeking to resolve differences, those lines break down, Panetta said.

"Everybody's got legitimate points, but there's a way to express it in a way that complements our democracy, doesn't demean our democracy," he said. "And I think, you know, what you see on display is too much meanness."

Panetta said he has spoken to leaders around the world during his extensive travels as secretary. Leaders everywhere, he said, see the United States as a nation with strong values and a strong military.

"I think what they worry about is what I worry about, which is whether or not ... we can govern and whether or not we can face the tough decisions that have to be made," he said.

Panetta noted he repeatedly has said the biggest threat to U.S. national security "is that budget uncertainty and that inability to govern and find solutions."

As a step toward better government and a better world perception of the nation, he said, "somehow the members both in the House and Senate side have to get back to a point where they really do respect the institution that they're a part of."

PRESIDENT OBAMA ASKS CONGRESS TO STOP SEQUESTRATION

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFESNE
Obama Calls on Congress to Avoid Sequestration
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
 WASHINGTON, Feb. 5, 2013 - President Barack Obama today called on Congress to avoid deep, across-the-board spending cuts looming March 1 under a "sequestration" mechanism in budget law and to take a balanced approach to America's debt problems.

If sequestration happens, hundreds of thousands of Defense Department civilian employees could be furloughed and readiness of the military force will plummet, Pentagon officials have said.

The American economy is poised to make progress in 2013, the president said in remarks at the White House today, but sequestration could put an end to any forward movement.

"We've seen the effects that political dysfunction can have on our progress," Obama said. "The drawn-out process for resolving the 'fiscal cliff' hurt consumer confidence. The threat of massive automatic cuts [has] already started to affect business decisions."

While it is critical for the U.S. government to cut wasteful spending, "we can't just cut our way to prosperity," Obama said.

"Deep, indiscriminate cuts to things like education and training, energy and national security will cost us jobs, and it will slow down our recovery," he added.

The president emphasized that sequestration does not have to happen.

"For all of the drama and disagreements we've had over the past few years, Democrats and Republicans have still been able to come together and cut the deficit by more than $2.5 trillion through a mix of spending cuts and higher rates on taxes for the wealthy," he said.

"A balanced approach has achieved more than $2.5 trillion in deficit reduction," the president continued. "That's more than halfway towards the $4 trillion in deficit reduction that economists and elected officials from both parties believe is required to stabilize our debt."

Obama called on Congress to finish the job with a balanced mix of spending cuts and more tax reform. Though he favors a balanced approach that will solve the problem, the president said, he is realistic.

"I know that a full budget may not be finished before March 1," he said. "And unfortunately, that's the date when a series of harmful automatic cuts to job-creating investments in defense spending ... are scheduled to take effect."

If Congress cannot act immediately on a bigger package, Obama said, "then I believe that they should at least pass a smaller package of spending cuts and tax reforms that would delay the economically damaging effects of the sequester for a few more months until Congress finds a way to replace these cuts with a smarter solution."

There's no reason "that the jobs of thousands of Americans who work in national security or education or clean energy -- not to mention the growth of the entire economy -- should be put in jeopardy just because folks in Washington couldn't come together," he added. "Our economy right now is headed in the right direction, and it will stay that way, as long as there aren't any more self-inflicted wounds coming out of Washington."

 

'BUDGET GYMNASTICS'

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Air Force Leaders Call for End to 'Budget Gymnastics'
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service


WASHINGTON, Jan. 11, 2013 - The government's "ongoing budget gymnastics" are having an effect on service members, Air Force Secretary Michael B. Donley said here today.

Donley and Gen. Mark A. Welsh III, the Air Force chief of staff, said the looming "fiscal cliff" as well as conducting government business under repeated continuing budget resolutions create an atmosphere of unease among Air Force military and civilian personnel.

"Failure to enact a settled budget leads to repeated budget iterations, which, along with the overhanging threat of large and largely arbitrary cuts, creates wasteful churn," Donley said during a Pentagon news conference.

This churn could lead to many airmen voting with their feet and leaving the service, he said. "They see and understand what's going on in Washington," he added. "They're very well-connected. They're the most educated force we have ever had. And they stay connected to what's going on in our Air Force and what's going on in our military [and] what's happening in Washington. ... They are watching this and ... making their own judgments about the process."

The secretary said it is extremely inefficient and disruptive to operate a "$100-plus billion enterprise, which is the United States Air Force, on a budget a month or two at a time."

Welsh said that although re-enlistment remains solid for the service, the burden of deploying time and again since 1990 and working to keep "antique" aircraft such as the B-52 flying is wearing on airmen.

"They're not begging to get out the door," the general said. "Our retention rates are great. They're still proud of who they are and what they do. They express it every single day. But they want to know what's coming."

He said he has been working to keep airmen informed. "They're phenomenally engaged, and so we're trying very hard to keep them informed and improve the communication with them."

"Communication for us right now is absolutely essential internally if we're going to be successful down the road'" the general added. "And so we're working this pretty hard."

DOD MEMO INDICATES A PLAN FOR BUDGET UNCERTAINTIES

Ashton B. Carter

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Memo Tells DOD Components to Plan for Budget Uncertainties
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Jan. 10, 2013 - Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter has released a memo directing the services and defense agencies to begin planning for possible upcoming budget challenges.

The memo allows defense components to freeze civilian hiring, terminate temporary hires and reduce base operating funds. It also allows components to curtail travel, training and conferences and to curtail administrative expenses.

The memo -- dated today -- points to the threat of sequestration and the continued use of a continuing resolution as a way to fund the department. Sequestration was to have become effective Jan. 2, but Congress delayed its activation until March 1 to give lawmakers more time to come up with an alternative. It would impose major across-the-board spending cuts.

Since Congress did not approve an appropriations act for fiscal 2013, the Defense Department has been operating under a continuing resolution and will continue to do so at least through March 27. Because most operating funding was planned to increase from fiscal 2012 to fiscal 2013, but instead is being held at fiscal 2012 levels under the continuing resolution, funds will run short at current rates of expenditure if the continuing resolution continues through the end of the fiscal year in its current form, Carter wrote in the memo.

Given this budgetary uncertainty, the department must take steps now, the deputy secretary said.

"I therefore authorize all Defense components to begin implementing measures that will help mitigate execution risks," the memo reads. "For now, and to the extent possible, any actions taken must be reversible at a later date in the event that Congress acts to remove the risks. ... The actions should be structured to minimize harmful effects on our people and on operations and unit readiness."

The memo allows components to review contracts and studies for possible cost savings, to cancel third- and fourth-quarter ship maintenance, and to examine ground and aviation depot-level maintenance. This last must be finished by Feb. 15.

It also calls on all research and development and production and contract modifications that obligate more than $500 million to be cleared with the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics before being awarded.

For science and technology accounts, the components must provide the undersecretary and the assistant secretary of defense for research and engineering with an assessment of the budgetary impacts that the budgetary uncertainty will cause to research priorities.

PENTAGON SPOKESMAN CALLS BUDGET PROCESS 'A MESS'

George Little

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Budget Process 'A Mess,' Pentagon Spokesman Says
By Claudette Roulo
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Jan. 8, 2013 - When reporters asked him about the budget process during a news conference here today, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little had a plain-spoken answer.

"I could try to be somewhat heartfelt and diplomatic, but I'll boil it down to this: it is, at this stage, a mess," he said.

The instability is "highly problematic" for the Defense Department, Little said, and affects the entire federal budget.

Although Congress acted to delay a "sequestration" provision in budget law that would have triggered deep across-the-board budget cuts last week, he said, its failure to resolve sequestration once and for all is generating uncertainty among service members and civilians alike.

"We've heard that already on the front lines in Afghanistan," he said. "The troops have serious questions about sequestration. This is not just a Washington issue. It's a Camp Bastion issue. It's an issue at Incirlik. It's an issue at our bases in Asia. We need to think carefully about this."

Sequestration has been a topic of discussion for too long, Little said, noting that Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta has said many times that there needs to be "a true, genuine, honest conversation about the budget."

"It's time for Congress to act," he added.

Little reiterated some potential effects of sequestration on the Defense Department that Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter outlined in August, adding that they haven't changed in the intervening five months.

"[Sequestration] could seriously disrupt our forces and programs, to include readiness," Little said. "It could require us to substantially modify and scale back our new defense strategy."

In addition, he said, it could reduce war funding and training for units deploying to Afghanistan, reduce commissary hours, delay payments to medical service providers and disrupt investment programs.

"This is not a rational way to govern," Little said.

Some temporary DOD employees also may be affected, he said. "We're going to do right by our employees in terms of communication and do what we have to do to follow the law," he added. "No decisions have been reached yet, but we're actively consulting with the Office of Management and Budget to see what actions we may need to take in advance of the [March 1] 'fiscal cliff' deadline."

Even though the U.S. military may still be able to carry out the fight in Afghanistan and protect some programs, Little said, "overall, our mission as a department could be devastated -- at least for a short period of time. And that's not a prospect that any of us relish."

Allowing three major fiscal problems to coincide in less than two months -- the debt ceiling, the continuing resolution that funds the government for only a portion of the fiscal year, and sequester -- "is just not the right way to go about business," Little said. "This is not the right way to run government."

The Defense Department is "doing some serious planning for sequestration," he said. "We hope to avoid it. We don't want there to be uncertainty, but with less than two months to go before the next deadline hits for the 'fiscal cliff,' we need to be ready."

U.S. CONGRESS AND IT REFORM IN 21ST CENTURY

Photo:  U.S. General Services And Cloud Computing.  Credit:  GSA

FROM: U.S. CONGRESS

Information Technology (IT) Reform
Crafting 21st Century IT Reform
By Rep. Darrell Issa


The federal government currently spends $81 billion each year on information technology, yet its use and deployment of IT is full of duplication and failure. At a time when we are facing record deficits and our national debt has exceeded GDP, it has never been more important for government IT acquisition to maximize the American taxpayer’s return on investment, reduce operational risk and provide value to citizens. Yet, because of the antiquated way the government defines its requirements and acquires IT, we are wasting billions of taxpayer dollars each year on failed programs.

Sixteen years after the seminal Clinger-Cohen legislation laid the foundation for the federal government’s acquisition and management of IT and 10 years after the E-Government Act established a federal chief information officer, program failure rates and cost overruns still plague between 72 percent and 80 percent of large federal IT programs, according to industry estimates. Federal managers say that 47 percent of their budget goes to maintain obsolete and deficient IT resources. Estimates suggest that the cost to the taxpayer is as high as $20 billion wasted each year.

We can reverse our dismal record by overhauling cumbersome federal acquisition process and adopting best practices from the private sector. Over the past few months, I have been drafting IT acquisition reform legislation, and today, to solicit input from all stakeholders, I am posting a discussion draft of the legislation online here at http://oversight.house.gov.

The draft legislation would give agency CIOs effective budget authority over IT programs and put the CIO Council in charge of developing shared services and shared platforms. It also would encourage a broader transition to cloud solutions, make it easier for agencies to embrace the use of open source software, open up federal websites and data for the development of complimentary apps, and support faster data center optimization.

The draft legislation would break down the silos that constitute the heart of waste and duplication in federal IT. It establishes a Federal Commodity IT Center to serve as a focal point for coordinated acquisition practices and the management of government-wide IT contracts.

To allow agencies to focus on acquiring technology that best serves their mission, the draft bill would designate certain agencies as the go-to centers for complex IT acquisition for other federal agencies, offering streamlined contracts and technical expertise. If the Veterans Affairs and Health and Human Services departments deal with healthcare IT procurement on a regular basis, why should other agencies not benefit from their expertise? These Assisted Acquisition Centers of Excellence would centralize the knowledge of specialists mitigating the critical shortage of skilled federal IT acquisition staff.

Successfully implemented, the legislation would aggregate demand among the federal agencies to get the best price for the taxpayer, develop IT acquisition subject-matter experts to help other agencies buy things cheaper, faster, and smarter, and eliminate unnecessary duplication of IT contracts.

Accomplishing major reform will not be easy, but streamlining our obsolete approach to federal IT is essential to providing a better value for the American taxpayer dollar.

ATTORNEY GENERAL HOLDER'S REMARKS ON LEAK INVESTIGATIONS

FROM:  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Friday, June 8, 2012
Statement of Attorney General Eric Holder on the Assignment of U.S. Attorneys to Lead Investigations of Possible Unauthorized Disclosures of Classified Information
Attorney General Eric Holder issued the following statement today on the assignment of U.S. Attorneys to lead investigations of possible unauthorized disclosures of classified information:

“Today, I assigned U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ronald C. Machen Jr. and U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein to lead criminal investigations into recent instances of possible unauthorized disclosures of classified information.

“These two highly-respected and experienced prosecutors will be directing separate investigations currently being conducted by the FBI.   I have every confidence in their abilities to doggedly follow the facts and the evidence in the pursuit of justice wherever it leads.

“In carrying out their assignments, U.S. Attorneys Machen and Rosenstein are fully authorized to prosecute criminal violations discovered as a result of their investigations and matters related to those violations, consult with members of the Intelligence Community and follow all appropriate investigative leads within the Executive and Legislative branches of government.

“I have notified members of Congress and plan to provide more information, as appropriate, to members of the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees.

“The unauthorized disclosure of classified information can compromise the security of this country and all Americans, and it will not be tolerated.    The Justice Department takes seriously cases in which government employees and contractors entrusted with classified information are suspected of willfully disclosing such classified information to those not entitled to it, and we will do so in these cases as well.”