President Obama has signed legislation designed to rein in cost overruns on defense weapons systems. The Weapons Systems Acquisition Reform Act, S. 454, was approved unanimously by both houses of Congress.

It calls for the appointment of a director of independent cost assessment to ride herd on weapons projects and requires review of major systems before they can receive continued funding.

In signing the law, Obama said, “When it comes to purchasing weapons systems and developing defense projects, the choice we face is between investments that are designed to keep the American people safe and those that are simply designed to make a defense company or a contractor rich.” 

The legislation is one of the centerpieces in Obama’s effort to overhaul federal procurement. “Wasteful spending comes from exotic requirements, lack of oversight and indefensible no-bid contracts,” he said.

SBA said it will begin providing interest-free loans to some cash-strapped businesses by June 15.

The America’s Recovery Capital or ARC loans were created under the Recovery Act. Provided by banks with an SBA guarantee, ARC loans are deferred-payment loans of up to $35,000 available to established, viable small businesses that need short-term help to make their principal and interest payments on existing qualifying debt. The loans are interest-free to the borrower and carry no SBA fees.

The Office of Management and Budget has raised the maximum executive compensation allowable under federal contracts to $648,181. That is an 8.5% increase over 2007.

The figure is the maximum compensation that can be applied to federal contract costs. It is based on an analysis of surveys of executive pay.

The Senate has confirmed Aneesh Chopra to be the federal chief technology officer. He is the former secretary of technology for the Virginia state government. Chopra also will serve as associate director for technology in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

The Washington Post reports President Obama plans to appoint a “cyber czar” to develop network security strategy for the government and private sector. The president promised during the campaign to raise cybersecurity to “top priority.” A White House official told the Post Obama intends to name someone who can “pick up the phone and contact the president directly, if need be.”