DorobekINSIDER: 7 stories you need to know: Another year of federal pay freezes?

The SEVEN stories that impact your life for Thursday the 7th of June, 2012

1. A House spending panel has approved a bill that would freeze pay for another year. The Federal Times says the financial services and general government appropriations bill is now headed to the full House Appropriations Committee, where it is expected to pass. The bill also includes major cuts for some federal agencies and stronger oversight of the General Services Administration.
2. A Senate Defense bill has taken the first steps to undo sequestration. The Washington Business Journal says the National Defense Authorization Act orders Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to produce a detailed report examining the impact of sequestration on DOD. Panetta has said in the past that sequestration would create a doomsday scenario for the Pentagon. If Congress doesn’t act Sequestration would take effect on Jan. 2, 2013.
3. The Senate Armed Services Committee has approved a cap on contractor pay. The Federal Times says under the bill defense contractors could charge the government no more than $230,700 annually— to pay most of their employees’ salaries. That’s the same amount the vice president currently makes. The new limit would reverse and 8 year spike contractor pay. The cap has increased by more than 75 percent since 2004.
4. The heads of two major government contractors are retiring. The Washington Post reports that Jay Johnson the chairman and chief executive at General Dynamics plans to retire at the end of the year. Meanwhile Paul Cofoni the president and chief executive at CACI International will retire Dec. 1st. Johnson and Cofoni are just the latest in string of high profile contractors retiring. There have also been changes to Lockheed Martin and SAIC.
5. House leaders are backing a new bill to make Congressional information more accessible by the public. House Speaker John Boehner says it’s time to embrace a more open, more transparent, and more effective way of doing the people’s business. Boehner says the goal is to provide bulk access to legislative information to the American people without further delay. He has created a taskforce to get the process started immediately.
6. A new smartphone app will help visitors to Arlington National Cemetery pinpoint grave sites. USA Today says the app will use the power of GPS technology to help visitors navigate through the more than 250,000 graves at Arlington. And if the app due out this fall is success, the Department of Veterans Affairs is considering expanding it to other veteran cemeteries across the country.
7. And, our mission here at GovLoop is simple, help you do your job better. One of the ways to do that is with better and more efficient communication. We’ve created a guide to help. Our State of Communications Guide highlights the ten hottest trends in government. We tackle the digital divide, culture change and social media. It’s a power packed guide. To check it out for yourself head over to our homepage and search state of communication guide.

On Today’s DorobekINSIDER:

• One fed is working hard to keep plutonium and uranium out of the hands of terrorists. You’ll meet her. And he work has made her a Service to America Medal Finalist.
• Zeroing in on the barriers to big data. Insights from a big data expert — Paul Wohlleben. Here’s a hint, Big Data is only successful when the information is accurate.