The White House is working to adapt a new program for procuring Medicare equipment, the New York Times reports. The shift to a competitive bidding process resulted from a one-year experiment where Medicare solicited bids and awarded contracts to 356 suppliers in nine metropolitan areas. Medicare’s usual fee-for-service process lets beneficiaries to select any supplier [...]
“Smart power” — ever since Defense Secretary Robert Gates outlined the policy in a 2008 speech, it’s become the emerging tenet for how the United States should approach global security initiatives. Through a mix of military strength and nation-building activities, the aim is to keep “fractured or failed states,” as Gates put it, from teetering [...]
The announcement of cyber coordinator may be near. At least that’s what a source tells Federal Times. And it’s a toss-up between two contenders — ISF President Howard Schmidt and former Assistant Defense Secretary Frank Kramer. The source goes on to say the announcement may come around Thanksgiving — effectively ending speculation that’s persisted since [...]
Congressional activity over the 2010 defense budget is heating up. On July 30, the House of Representatives passed a defense spending bill for fiscal year 2010 that included money for four programs the Obama administration opposed. Now it’s up to the Senate to come up with a version of the legislation that meets with White [...]
