Sequester to hit VA, DC & MD hardest

The economies of Virginia, District of Columbia and Maryland are likely to feel the most impact from the sequester’s spending cuts, according to the New York Times.

Those three jurisdictions would suffer a blow equivalent to 19.7% of their Gross Domestic Product.

In second place was Hawaii, with a 15.8% hit; followed by Alaska, 13.3%; New Mexico, 12.8%; and Kentucky, 9.9%. The average impact across the United States was 5.3%.

The impact calculation is based on federal spending on procurements, salaries and wages as a percentage of state GDP.

More information: New York Times graphic http://goo.gl/vknXK

NASA’s time for SEWP

NASA is holding an industry day on March 11 for SEWP V, which has an expected value of $10.5 billion.

The SEWP (Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement) can be used by any agency to buy IT products and related services.

SEWP IV awarded $9.4 billion in task orders, according to Deltek.

The industry event will be held in Greenbelt, MD.

More information:FBO.gov notice http://goo.gl/ssLCM

Changes at VA: IT leadership, iEHR

Two key technology executives recently resigned from the Veterans Affairs Department.

Roger Baker, chief information officer, and Peter Levin, chief technology officer, separately announced their plans to leave. The departures appeared to be unrelated.

Baker told reporters he had no immediate plans and had fulfilled his commitment of four years in the demanding CIO position overseeing $3 billion in annual IT investments.

Meanwhile, in another development, the secretaries of the VA and Defense Departments announced they were canceling plans for a joint integrated digital health record, and were instead pursuing alternative means to improving interoperability in health records.

The cost of the joint system had ballooned to $12 billion, according to NextGov.

DOD mobility strategy

The Defense Department released a mobility implementation strategy to support mobile smartphones and other devices on classified and unclassified networks.

The plan outlines a framework and guidelines for mobile devices, wireless infrastructure and mobile applications.

The goal is to get 100,000 unclassified users online by the second quarter of fiscal 2014. Eventually, there will be about 600,000 users.

DOD officials said the strategy is device-agnostic.

More information: DOD strategy: http://goo.gl/gtdZU

Pentagon wants more base closures: report

Defense Department officials are believed to be planning two new rounds of military base closures, according to a report by Politico.

The Pentagon made that request a year ago, but it was rejected.

Sources said DoD officials recently told an advisory panel they are planning a round of the Base Realignment and Closure process first in 2015, followed by a second round in 2017, Politico said.

The Pentagon did not confirm the reports.

Only Congress can authorize the BRAC process, in which a bipartisan panel evaluates and recommends potential closures.

More information:http://goo.gl/cMU4f