DoD moves to Android, Apple – Plus DorobekINSIDER’s 7 Stories

On GovLoop Insights’ DorobekINSIDER:

• Ok, you’re sitting at your desk right now in XX agency. Staring at your laundry list of projects and programs you want to enact. But there’s a problem. You don’t know what funding you will have next month, next year, 5 years? The budget black hole is crippling agencies and contractors alike. We detail the budgetary options with the TechAmerica Foundation. Click here for the full recap.

The SEVEN stories that impact your life

1. The Defense Department is taking a big step towards mobile. Federal Times reports that strategy is a marked departure from Blackberry. Defense Information Systems Agency released a request for proposal detailing DoD’s need for software that can monitor, manage and enforce security requirements for Apple and Android devices. The solution, known as a mobile device management or MDM solution, will not be required to support BlackBerry and Windows devices.
2. The Office of Management and Budget is tightening the screws on agency technology spending. Federal News Radio reports acting Director Jeff Zients estimated agencies would save $2.5 billion over the next three years. They’ll do it by using more strategic sourcing, stopping troubled projects and reducing duplication. He said recent review sessions, called portfolio stats, have revealed 13 types of investments ripe for savings.
3. House members are asking government auditors to clarify who is responsible for regulating compounding pharmacies. Federal News Radio reports the request by Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and John Tierney (D- Mass.) is just the latest attempt to understand what some have called “a regulatory black hole.” The two Democrats have sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office. They want GAO to identify gaps between state’s authorities to regulate the industry and the Food and Drug Administration’s power to do so. The House Energy and Commerce Committee has called for an investigation of the New England Compounding Center, the pharmacy at the center of the meningitis outbreak.
4. It’s business as usual at the Postal Service, at least until March. Federal News Radio reports the prediction comes from an independent regulator examining the agency’s dire financial straits. Postal Regulatory Commission Chairwoman Ruth Goldway told Federal Times that even without Congress’ help, the Postal Service can operate without disruption until at least midway through fiscal 2013. The Postal Service has used up its $15 billion line-of-credit with the Treasury Department. That means it has to fund operations with current revenue.
5. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation will receive a $42 million legal settlement from International Paper Company. It’s one of the largest recoveries FDIC will make out of bank failures caused by the 2008 housing crisis. The Wall Street Journal reported International Paper wasn’t connected with the housing collapse. But it had the bad luck to acquire a company that once owned Guaranty Financial Group. Guaranty failed because its housing portfolio was stuffed with toxic assets. And it was part of a lawsuit brought on behalf of FDIC and other creditors. International Paper decided to settle. The other creditors get $38 million.(Wall Street Journal)
6. In President Obama’s pending executive order on cybersecurity, social networks have been excluded from regulation, Tech Crunch reports. After failing to push cybersecurity legislation through Congress last August, Obama promised to leverage executive authority to update national security standards, but his unilateral posturing threatened to revive many of the regulatory and civil liberty concerns that killed the original Cybersecurity Act.
7. And on GovLoop, have you seen our new Path to PMF guide. The interactive website and guide designed to support prospective PMF applicants. Through 100% free online and downloadable resources (no, there is no catch!), the site pulls together insights from more than 60 current and former PMFs, 10 career advisors and agency program coordinators with blogs, videos and discussion forums that help prospective PMF applicants gain information and assistance to navigate every stage of the prestigious PMF application process. Check it out.

The DorobekINSIDER water-cooler fodder

• Could Millennials save the economy? Maybe so. The National Journal reports, in the last four years, millions of young people who otherwise would be starting families and independent lives have waited out the recession in the cozy bunker of their parents’ basement. One in three twentysomethings reported moving back in with their parents for an extended period of time, according to a 2011 Pew report. Some went back to school. Some worked. Some did nothing.