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Bob Brewin

Editor at Large

Bob Brewin joined Government Executive in April 2007, bringing with him more than 20 years of experience as a journalist focusing on defense issues and technology. Bob covers the world of defense and information technology for Nextgov, and is the author of the “What’s Brewin” blog.

Results 41-50 of 2537

Defense Chief Recounts His EHR Roots at VA

April 17, 2013 Amid questions about delays on the integrated electronic health record for the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments at a House hearing yesterday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel noted he had “something to do” with the deployment of the pioneering Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture system while he was deputy ...

Hagel Takes Personal Responsibility for Electronic Health Records

April 17, 2013 Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has said he is personally taking responsibility for resolving problems that have plagued the exchange of electronic health records between Defense and the Veterans Affairs Department. President Obama in April 2009 called for a “unified lifetime electronic health record” to be shared by Defense and VA; ...

Fewer Marines, Larger California Desert Base

April 16, 2013 Though the number of Marines on active duty will soon drop to 181,000 from the current level of 236,000 -- a cut of just under 25 percent – Marine Commandant James Amos told a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee Tuesday that the service wants to boost the size ...

DISA Ready to Act as Commercial Cloud Broker for All of Defense

April 16, 2013 The Defense Information Systems Agency said Tuesday that it has the framework in place to act as the cloud computing broker for the Defense Department, a job Defense Chief Information Officer Teri Takai assigned the agency in June 2012. DISA said it has performed cybersecurity assessments of two commercial cloud ...

Navy Plans to Beef Up Cyber Workforce

April 16, 2013 Cyber, shipboard networks and unmanned systems stand out as key Navy technology investments in 2014 and for the next several years, top service officials told a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. The Navy requested an operations budget of $22.6 million for its Fleet Cyber Command in ...

Sprint Boston Network Operating in Wake of Marathon Bomb Blasts

April 15, 2013 The Sprint cellular network in Boston was operating in the wake of the two bomb explosions near the finish of the Boston Marathon this afternoon, a company spokeswoman told Nextgov on Monday. The Associated Press and the CBS local television affiliate in Boston, WBZ, reported that cellular networks along the ...

Pentagon’s $1.45 Billion Health IT Budget Request Includes Spectacles

April 11, 2013 The Defense Department requested a $1.45 billion operations and maintenance budget for fiscal 2014 -- that’s to keep the light on and the computers humming -- for the Military Health System’s information technology systems, down $15 million from fiscal 2013. I like to get into the budget weeds and could ...

VA Seeks a 10 Percent IT Funding Boost in 2014

April 11, 2013 The Veterans Affairs Department requested $3.7 billion for its 2014 information technology budget -- a 10 percent jump over 2013 spending. W. Todd Grams, the department’s chief financial officer, told a press briefing Wednesday that IT is central to VA’s ability to deliver benefits. More than half of the $495.3 ...

There’s a Word for VA’s Paperless Claims System

April 10, 2013 The Veterans Affairs Department’s paperless claims processing system -- the Veterans Benefits Management System, known by its acronym VBMS -- should be renamed VBMess, an unidentified VA claims employee told the VAWatchdog blog today after a series of outages this week. VAWatchdog posted an internal department email on Monday reporting ...

Pentagon's 2014 Budget Continues the Department's Focus on Asia

April 10, 2013 This story has been updated. The Defense Department said its budget request of $526.6 billion for 2014 supports investments in technology needed to meet future threats and to maintain a competitive edge. It includes $4.7 billion for cyberspace operations and $10.1 billion for space capabilities. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said ...