Digital Government
VA's Flexibility Over GI Bill Choices
This month I cautioned veterans to <a href=http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2009/07/vets_choose_your_gi_bill_caref.php>carefully weigh benefits</a> available under the new <a href=http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=110_cong_bills&docid=f:h2642enr.txt.pdf>post 9/11 GI bill</a> and the older <a href=http://www.mygibill.org/federalbenefits/montgomerygibill>Montgomery GI bill</a>, even though the package of benefits under the new bill, in most cases, provides a better financial deal than the old one.
Digital Government
Infighting Tanks Yet Another Project
The Senate Armed Services Committee directed the Defense Department to terminate a new command and control system <a href=http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2009/07/travelocity_for_command_and_co.php>modeled on commercial Web sites such as Travelocity</a> due to unwillingness of the services to agree on a centrally managed system.
Digital Government
An IRS Approach for VA Claims?
That appears to be the thinking of the folks on the House Appropriations Committee, who think the Veterans Affairs Department could model its disability and pension claims process on electronic tax filing systems.
Digital Government
Elmo and the Brigadier General
Elmo, the fire engine red Sesame Street Muppet, will make a special guest appearance with Army Brig. Gen. Loree Sutton, director of the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, at a press conference in Philadelphia next week. She will unveil how Elmo and his pals can help kids deal with the stress of military deployments.
Digital Government
North Korea's Hackers in a Luxury Hotel
An <a href=http://www.scribd.com/doc/15078953/Cyber-Threat-Posed-by-North-Korea-and-China-to-South-Korea-and-US-Forces-Korea>internal paper</a> published in May by an intelligence analyst at U.S. Forces Korea said North Korean hackers penetrated U.S. military networks and Web sites with greater frequency than any other country in the world, <a href=http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2009/06/chinas_128_cyberattacks_a_minu.php>including China</a>.
Digital Government
U.S. Forces Korea Another Cyber Victim?
Repeated attempts to reach the <a href=www.usfk.mil>Web site of U.S Forces Korea</a> on Wednesday afternoon failed -- an indication that the <a href=http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090708_9390.php>alleged cyberattack launched by North Korea</a> over the July 4 weekend against South Korean and U.S. government Web sites continues.
Digital Government
JCS Chair on Facebook, With Fans
Adm. Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, launched his <a href=http://www.facebook.com/admiralmikemullen?ref=ts>Facebook page</a> on July 2 and has already managed to attract 309 fans.
Digital Government
Coincidence, Thy Name Is Einstein
Depending on what newspaper you read on July 3, the Obama administration is either ready to roll out the third version of <a href=http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20080917_9296.php>Einstein</a>, a system designed to protect the computer networks of nonDefense Department agencies or delayed it because of privacy concerns related to the role of the National Security Agency.
Digital Government
Vets: Choose Your GI Bill Carefully
In many cases, the new GI bill, called the 2008 <a href=http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=110_cong_bills&docid=f:h2642enr.txt.pdf>Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act</a>, offers a better deal than its predecessor, the <a href=http://www.mygibill.org/federalbenefits/montgomerygibill>Montgomery GI bill</a>. But not always.
Digital Government
Travelocity for Command and Control
Three companies -- FGM Inc., Booz-Allen Hamilton and SAIC -- won <a href=http://www.defenselink.mil/utility/printitem.aspx?print=http://www.defenselink.mil/contracts/contract.aspx?contractid=4062>contracts</a> on Wednesday to provide systems engineering support to the Defense Information Systems Agency for development of the Defense Department's new command and control system <a href=http://www.disa.mil/necc/overview.html>Net-Enabled Command Capability</a>.
Digital Government
The Zimbabwe Connection
The Government Accountability Office usually does a good job in exposing flaws in Defense Department information technology systems, but in its <a href=http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09577.pdf>report</a> on the Defense Travel System released on Tuesday, the GAO decided to pick some really weird nits.
Digital Government
Who's Holding the Bag for Sats?
The House Appropriations Committee eliminated the requirement that the Defense Department fund half the cost of the new National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) in its version of the Commerce Department's <a href=http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_reports&docid=f:hr149.111.pdf>fiscal 2010 appropriations bill</a> passed on June 25.
Digital Government
The Reform Thing's Catching On
In a familiar refrain, a top military leader on June 26 said, "We should fashion our military structure not for the wars of the last century, but for the real wars of today."
Digital Government
Cost of Selling 'Net Monitoring to Iran
In the case of Siemens Medical, the answer comes out to at least $267 million, the value of the <a href=http://www.defenselink.mil/contracts/contract.aspx?contractid=3995>three-year contract</a> the Defense Department awarded the company in March for radiology systems.
Digital Government
A Cloud for the GI Bill System
At the Thursday <a href=http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090625_2930.php>hearing</a> hearing of the House Veterans Affairs Economic Opportunity Subcommittee on the post-9/11 GI bill, Mark Krause, a Veterans Affairs Department program manager who works at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Atlantic, said he is eyeing the use of cloud computing to host a spiffy new claims processing system for education benefit claims.
Digital Government
CTO Levin to Do VA's Tech Vision Thing
The Veterans Affairs Department has hired <a href=http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=181502820>Peter Levin</a>, a White House fellow in the Clinton administration, as its new chief technology officer in the office of the secretary and senior advisor to VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, Press Secretary Katie Roberts told me.
Digital Government
Ondra Not a candidate for VA Post
On Monday I <a href=http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2009/06/gulf_war_vet_edges_closer_to_t.php>suggested</a> that Dr. Stephen Ondra, an Army Gulf War vet who is a professor of neurological surgery at the <a href="http://www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/">Feinberg School of Medicine</a> at Northwestern University in Chicago, had the inside track for appointment as under secretary for health at the Veterans Health Administration.
Digital Government
So Much for Low Key Cyber Approach
Some of my military public affairs contacts tell me that the Pentagon really, really wanted to take a low-key approach to the establishment of a <a href="http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090624_6400.php">new Cyber Command</a>.
Digital Government
Recognizing the Lionesses
Since the United States started operations in Iraq, a small group of military women, known as Lionesses, has provided support to combat units, and the House Armed Services Committee thinks its time they received recognition and support from both the Defense Department and the Veterans Affairs Department.
Digital Government
Vet Edges Closer to Top VA Health Job
In April, I <a href="http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2009/04/gulf_war_vet_for_top_va_health.php">reported</a> that Dr. Stephen Ondra, professor of neurological surgery at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago, had emerged as the likely candidate for under secretary for health at the Veterans Health Administration.
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