Government Matters

Inside Defense defense business editor Marjorie Censer and Inside the Pentagon chief editor Tony Bertuca discussed readiness challenges facing the Pentagon and the defense industry's response to executive orders.

Lt. Col. Joe Plenzler (USMC, ret.), executive vice president of membership and marketing at the U.S. Naval Institute, discussed tension between Defense Secretary James Mattis and the White House over Mattis' picks for top Pentagon positions.

Christopher Preble, vice president of defense & foreign policy at the Cato Institute, offered his view on the right way to cut wasteful defense spending.

Virginia Democratic Congressman Gerry Connolly gives an update on the recent House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearings on Inspectors General, and the National Background Investigation Bureau. He also discusses the bill he introduced in the House -- the FAIR Act, which aims to raise pay for federal employees.

Casey Coleman, group vice president of civilian agencies at Unisys, and former CIO at the General Services Administration discusses the dos and don'ts for acting CIOs in government.

Mallory Barg Bulman, vice president of research and evaluation at the Partnership for Public Service, discusses potential top priorities for the new director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Cindy Brown Barnes, director of education, workforce and income security issues at the Government Accountability Office, discusses her latest report tracking official time usage by employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Sean Carberry, defense reporter at Federal Computer Week, discusses the Department of Defense's listing of sixteen job descriptions that are exempt from the federal hiring freeze.

Margaret Hurwitz, a contractor at SSAI and applied sciences coordinator at NASA Goddard, discusses the work that earned her recognition as Women in Tech Rising Star.

Loren DeJonge Schulman, deputy director of studies at the Center for a New American Security, and James Carafano, vice president of foreign and defense policy at the Heritage Foundation, discussed controversial changes to the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council.

Chris Lu, former deputy secretary at the Department of Labor, discussed President Trump's management style, the importance of communication with federal agencies, and the impact of a federal hiring freeze on agency morale.

Government Executive editor-in-chief Tom Shoop, FedScoop managing editor Billy Mitchell, and Federal Times reporter Carten Cordell joined Francis for this edition of the Federal Beat. They discussed the federal hiring freeze and President Trump's nominees to lead various agencies.

David Hawkings, senior editor at CQ Roll Call, discusses the upcoming confirmation hearings on the Hill for President Trump’s cabinet nominees.

Mike Olson, chief strategy officer at Cloudera, discusses the continued implementation of cloud technology in government and the transition of workload from data centers to federal cloud.

Kymm McCabe, technology principal at Deloitte, discusses the possible objectives of the Trump administration’s digital strategy and how the administration could best embrace digital government.

Carolyn Hantz, assistant IG for Audit Policy and Oversight at the Department of Defense, discusses her latest report on contracting officer actions at the Pentagon.

Vago Muradian, editor of Defense and Aerospace Report, discusses why the Coast Guard should not be forgotten in the Trump administration's plans to strengthen the military.

Katherine Blakeley, research fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, discusses the highlights of the proposed FY18 defense budget.

Jeri Buchholz, former Chief Human Capital Officer at NASA, discusses how agencies can retain their employees and implement workforce strategy during a federal hiring freeze.

Richard Spires, CEO at Learning Tree International, discusses how CIOs in government can navigate the federal hiring freeze and workto improve their cybersecurity postures.

Mike Hettinger, president of Hettinger Strategy Group and Rich Beutel, principal at Cyrrus Analytics, discuss the details known so far about the cybersecurity executive order President Trump is expected to sign.

Ambassador Barbara Stephenson, President of the American Foreign Service Association, discusses reports of resignations, retirements and rotations within the State Department's senior management team.

Pentagon correspondent for Voice of America Carla Babb, discusses President Trump's executive order, "Rebuilding the U.S. Armed Forces" and it's impact on the Pentagon.

Carmen Spencer, President and CEO of Anser, discusses the acquisition of Advanced Technology International by Anser, and it's impact on research and development efforts government-wide.

Sebastian Taphanel, principal solutions architect at Evident.io and Cameron Chehreh, chief technology officer at DELL EMC Federal, discuss progress of the Army's new private, on-premise cloud, and other cloud trends emerging in government.

President of the Institute for Defense Analyses, David Chu, discusses the Defense Department's policy change for civilian layoffs during a workforce reduction.

Jessica Klement, legislative director at the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association, discusses the impact of the federal hiring freeze on Capitol Hill.

Jeffrey Neal, senior vice president at ICF and former chief human capital officer at the Department of Homeland Security, discussed how hiring managers can navigate the federal hiring freeze.

Federal News Radio senior correspondent Mike Causey, Government Executive senior correspondent Eric Katz, and FCW executive editor Adam Mazmanian joined Francis for this edition of the Federal Beat. They discussed the federal hiring freeze, reports of a communication crackdown at some agencies, and workforce comments from President Trump's nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget.

C.R. Wooters, deputy executive director at the Tech CEO Council, and Dan Chenok, executive director at the IBM Center for the Business of Government, discussed "The Government We Need" -- the $1 trillion savings plan they delivered to President Trump this month.