As indicated by the recent roll out of the House Republican budget strategy, the gloves are off in the battle to define the country’s spending priorities in the run-up to the November elections. But neither party adequately addresses the largest item in the discretionary budget: the Pentagon.

The Obama Administration’s approach to curbing runaway defense spending has been far too timid, while Republicans – from Paul Ryan to Mitt Romney – actually want to increase spending substantially beyond current levels.

A key player in this debate is the defense industry, which is pulling out all the stops to get the Pentagon a free pass from future budget cutting. The industry’s main trade group, the Aerospace Industries Association, has financed two studies raising the specter of a million jobs lost from planned Pentagon cuts.

Washington Post

As Justice Department investigates shooting of Florida teen, doubts arise about federal charges [Justice Department, FBI] — Sari Horwitz reports that while the Justice Department and FBI have opened an investigation into the Floritda community watch incident that left a black teenager slain, it’s unlikely that the federal forces will be able to charge the perpetrator with charges

Obama’s evolution: Behind the failed ‘grand bargain’ on the debt [President Obama, federal debt debate] — Peter Wallsten, Lori Montgomery, and Scott Wilson profile the 2011 struggle between the White House and Republican lawmakers over the federal debt

U.S. general suggests Afghan force should stay level after ’12 drawdown [General John Allen, Afghanistan] — Karen DeYoung reports that General John R. Allen, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, doesn’t expect another drawdown of troops for a while after this year’s scheduled withdraw of 23,000 U.S. troops

Idled nuclear driver for government still collecting paycheck [federal workforce] — Lisa Rein recounts the tale of Stephen Patrick, an Energy Department employee — hired to drive nuclear materials around the country to support the U.S. stockpile — who still receives a paycheck from the U.S. (as he’s still technically in the workforce) despite having been suspended from his job in 2007 for breaking the agency’s overnight-rest rules

NRC seeks public comment on proposed order [Nuclear Regulatory Commission] — Timothy R. Smith reports that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is seeking public comment on a proposed government order to require nuclear plants to maintain functions despite loss of electric grid or energy generators — part of a government effort to prepare America’s nuclear reactors for a natural disaster

New York Times

Supreme Court revisits issue of harsh sentences for juveniles [Supreme Court, criminal justice] — Adam Liptak reports that the Supreme Court seems willing to limit the harsh punishments that are imposed on juvenile offenders

Justices limit suits filed over Family Leave Act violations [Supreme Court, Family Leave Act] — Adam Liptak reports that the Supreme Court has decided — in a 5-to-4 vote split along ideological lines — that state workers may not sue their employers for money for violating a part of the federal Family and Medical Leave Act

Wall Street Journal

Bernanke goes back to school [Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke] — Jon Hilsenrath and Kristina Peterson report that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke suggested that he’s in no real hurry to raise interest rates

Weak schools said to imperil security [Council on Foreign Relations, U.S. schools] — Jason Dean reports that the Council on Foreign Relations has concluded that U.S. schooling is a national security risk — failing to produce adults with the necessary math, science, and language skill snecessary to ensure American leadership in the 21st century

Soldier sentenced in kickback case [defense contracting] — Joel Millman reports that Sergeant Terry Hall is the latest U.S. soldier to be sentenced in a multi-million-dollar defense-contracting scandal at a base in Kuwait, where millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks from defense contractors were solicited

The National Transportation Safety Board is urging Michigan not to repeal a state law that requires motorcycle drivers to wear helmets. The State Senate had previously passed such laws only to have them vetoed by Michigan Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm. New GOP Governor Rick Snyder is more receptive to getting rid of the safety measure.

This naive, safety-first blogger mistakenly presumed that all states required cyclists (including bicyclists) to wear helmets. But only 20 states have laws requiring all motorcyclists to wear helmets. Illinois is one of three states, along with Iowa and New Hampshire, to have no motorcycle helmet-use law on the books whatsoever.

Federal authorities have recently signaled that they would consider delaying some aspects of implementation of the newest version of the International Classification of Diseases, known as ICD-10-CM, a coding system used to define health care charges and diagnoses. Some industry groups have reacted with dismay, and many providers with relief. We are concerned that adopting this new classification system for reimbursement will be disruptive and costly and will offer no material improvement over the current system. Because the health care community is also working to integrate health information technology and federal meaningful-use specifications that require the adoption of other complex coding standardization systems (such as the system called SNOMED CT), we recommend that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services consider delaying the adoption of ICD-10-CM. Policy makers should also begin planning now for ways to make the coming transition to ICD-11 as tolerable as possible for the health care and payment community.

Washington Post

Afghanistan poppy killers get scrutiny absent in prior contracts – Michelle Jamrisko reports that U.S. contractors, including DynCorp International, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon among others, with almost $2 billion worth of counter-narcotics business in Afghanistan, will face more scrutiny than they faced for similar work in Latin America over the past decade, which was marked by inadequate competition and little oversight

Obama’s Afghanistan plan gets mixed reviews from grunts at Fort Campbell – Kevin Sieff reports from Tennessee’s Fort Campbell military base to reflect the negative, dismissive view of President Obama’s recent announcement of a major phaseout of troops in Afghanistan

A new way of thinking as sea levels rise – Darryl Frears reports that as fears over rising sea level loom in Virginia Beach — where water is expected to rise 14 to 17 inches in the next century — the Environmental Protection Agency is advising against seawalls and dikes, and urging residents to accept rising sea levels as inevitable

New York Times

Behind veneer, doubt on future of natural gas – Ian Urbana reports that disagreements abound among the United States Energy Information Administration, where some are convinced of natural gas’s prosperous future, but others are skeptical, wary of how this bubble might burst as the housing and technology bubbles did, and concerned about how much natural gas can affordably be extracted

U.S. plans stealth survey on access to doctors – Robert Pear reports that the Obama Administration plans to deploy “mystery shoppers” to gauge general access to primary care doctors, judging how difficult it is for people to get care when they need it

U.S. to provide guidelines to bolster computer security – Riva Richmond reports that the Homeland Security Department will soon release a new system of guidance intended to help make the software behind such services as Web sites and power grids less susceptible to hacking; the guidelines will include a list of the top 25 programming errors that most clearly enable serious attacks

Wall Street Journal

Your mileage may vary – Josh Mitchell and Sharon Terlep reports that the Obama administration may soon require automakers to just about double the average fuel economy of their car and light truck fleets, to 56.2 miles per gallon by 2025

Showdown over use of cancer-drug Avastin – Alicia Mundy reports that Food and Drug Administration scientists are fighting to have their decision to revoke cancer drug Avastin accelerated approval for breast cancer upheld

Biden pushes debt-reduction plan – AP reports that Vice President Joe Biden took a stance against Republican and their attempts at lowering the national debt limit, saying that their approach would only benefit the wealthy

Governments constantly face the challenge of determining how much they should spend to prevent premature deaths and suffering in their populations. In this article we explore the benefits of expanding the delivery of life-saving vaccines in seventy-two low- and middle-income countries, which we estimate would prevent the deaths of 6.4 million children between 2011 and 2020.  Present the economic benefits of vaccines by using a “value of statistical life” approach, which is based on individuals’ perceptions regarding the trade-off between income and increased risk of mortality. Our analysis shows that the vaccine expansion described above corresponds to $231 billion (uncertainty range: $116–$614 billion) in the value of statistical lives saved. This analysis complements results from analyses based on other techniques and is the first of its kind for immunizations in the world’s poorest countries. It highlights the major economic benefits made possible by improving vaccine coverage.

The program of US foreign assistance to advance health and health care in developing countries survived the 2011 budget battles, but it continues to face other challenges.

Fifty percent of college students who drink report alcohol-induced blackouts, and alcohol abusers in general put a heavy burden on the medical care system. Using data drawn from a randomized, controlled alcohol intervention trial at five university sites, our study quantified the costs of visits to emergency departments by college students who experienced blackouts from drinking alcohol. Of 954 students in the study, 52 percent of males and 50 percent of females at the outset of the study had experienced an alcohol-induced blackout in the past year.

Of 404 emergency department visits among the study participants over a two-year observation period, about one in eight were associated with blackout drinking. Injuries ranged from broken bones to head and brain injuries requiring computed tomography. We calculate that on a large university campus having more than 40,000 students, blackout-associated emergency department visit costs would range from $469,000 to $546,000 per year. Conclude that blackouts are a strong predictor of emergency department visits for college drinkers and that prevention efforts aimed at students with a history of blackouts might reduce injuries and emergency department costs.

Washington Post

Federal agencies to open investigation into black teen’s death [Justice Dept. Civil Rights Division, FBI] – Sandhya Someshekhar reports that the Justice Department will investigate the shooting death of a black teenager in Florida by a neighborhood watch who claims he shot the unarmed youth in self-defense; federal authorities are pursuing the case after a public outcry over the local police department’s failure to arrest the shooter

IRS employee-screening records found lacking [Treasury Dept., IRS, Office of Personnel Management] – Eric Yoder reports that the Internal Revenue Service often hires employees without completing the “rigorous” background investigation required for its employees who are responsible for handling sensitive information; records of fingerprint checks against FBI records and the applicant’s history of paying taxes are often missing, according to a Treasury Department Inspector General report

U.S. commander in Afghanistan to appear before wary Congress [Pentagon, Gen. John Allen, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan] – Ernesto Londoño and Richard Leiby preview the congressional testimony of Gen. John Allen, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, who will be grilled about U.S. plans for withdrawal from the region at a time when relations with the Afghan government are at a new low and discussions with the Taliban have broken off

New York Times

Use of ‘conflict minerals’ gets more scrutiny from U.S. [Securities and Exchange Commission, United States office of Global Witness] – Edward Wyatt reports that the electronic manufacturing industry is worried about an obscure provision of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law that requires publicly traded companies to trace certain minerals used in their products and to report to shareholders and the Securities and Exchange Commission whether their mineral supply comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo — where brutal militias are financing themselves with the profits from the sale of those minerals; following voluminous comments on how to implement the law, and heavy lobbying, the SEC chair said the agency will issue a rule in a couple of months

U.S. war game sees peril of Israel strike against Iran [Pentagon, Central Command, Iran, Israel] – Mark Mazzetti and Thom Shanker report that the U.S. military conducted a simulated war game called “Internal Look” to determine the effect of an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities for the U.S., which would likely become involved in such as conflict, and concluded that an Israeli first strike would have “dire consequences” for the region and the U.S., although military specialists note that it is impossible to predict Iran’s response

Wall Street Journal

U.S. energy-efficiency program falls short, report says [Energy Dept.] – Ryan Tracy reports that a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee report sharply criticizes the Energy Department weatherization program as poorly managed and ineffective

Fed choices offer steady path [Federal Reserve] – Kristina Peterson reports on two nominees to the Federal Reserve Board — Democrat Jeremy Stein, a Harvard professor of economics, and Republican Jerome Powell, a former private-equity executive — neither of whom has sparked opposition

Court upholds graphic tobacco labels [Food and Drug Administration, tobacco] – Jennifer Corbett Dooren reports that the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a lower court that the Food and Drug Administration had the authority to require graphic images on tobacco packages warning of its health effects as part of its authority to regulate tobacco products under a 2009 law, and the court rejected tobacco companies’ claim that such ads violate their free speech rights; the D.C. Circuit will review a lower court decision in its jurisdiction that came to the opposite result, and the Supreme Court is likely to ultimately decide the matter

In 2010, drunk driving represented 31 percent of all highway deaths, equating to 10,228 lives lost. Another 350,000 people were injured in drunk-driving crashes. The cost of this epidemic to our country was $132 billion. However, to me, these aren’t just numbers. My 15-year-old daughter, Alisa, was killed in a drunk driving crash. And while drunk-driving deaths have been reduced by more than half in the 32 years since Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) was founded, we still have much work to do.

A cutting edge research project called DADSS (Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety) is currently underway and could one day eliminate drunk driving in our country. The project seeks to develop an in-vehicle technology to seamlessly and passively detect a driver’s blood alcohol concentration (BAC). The program to develop this lifesaving technology is a joint effort between the Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety, comprised of the world’s leading auto manufacturers, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Since retaking control of the House, GOP leaders, along with an assortment of anti-union and corporate organizations, have subjected the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to ferocious criticism. After 15 months of desperate attacks, however, the sole “offense” of which they can credibly accuse the board is improving enforcement of the law. This explains their outrage – at heart, they oppose the fundamental rights the board enforces.

But now the NLRB’s Inspector General (IG) has produced a report that documents a real ethics scandal – as opposed to the GOP’s imaginary ones – at the board. While serving as NLRB Chief Counsel to GOP board member Brian Hayes (himself the subject of an earlier ethics investigation), newly appointed Republican member Terrence Flynn funneled confidential information about the board activities and deliberations to two former Republican NLRB members, Peter Schaumber and Peter Kirsanow. Schaumber is now chief labor advisor to the Romney campaign, while Kirsanow has represented the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM).

The IG’s report concludes that Flynn “violated the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch.” As Chief Counsel, Flynn must have recognized the sensitivity of the “most confidential of Agency information” that he leaked, which was intended only for key board personnel.

The use of performance indicators has the potential to improve service quality and avert costs, yet such indicators have typically not been used to assess family planning and reproductive health services. An exception is California’s Family PACT (Planning, Access, Care, and Treatment) Program, a statewide family planning and reproductive health services program. Our study assessed whether the behavior of providers participating in this program was influenced by performance reports that used both quality improvement and utilization management indicators.

Examined three indicators in each category from 2005 to 2009 and found that change occurred in five of six indicators among private providers and in three of six indicators among public providers. Chlamydia screening rates in women age twenty-five and younger, for example, increased significantly among both private and public providers. Despite the challenges enumerated in this article, we conclude that the methodology used in the program could serve as a starting point for the development of a uniform set of provider-focused reproductive health quality and utilization reports that could be instituted by state family planning programs, state Medicaid programs and health plans, and other health care delivery systems.

Washington Post

U.S. accelerating cyberweapon research [Pentagon, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, U.S. Cyber Command, cyber warfare] – Ellen Nakashima reports that the Defense Department is increasing its efforts to develop cybertechnology capable of disabling military systems of countries such as Iran and Syria, including systems not connected to the Internet; the primary cybersecurity focus up to now has been on defending against cyberattacks

Broadcasters fight plan to post names of political ad buyers on Web [Federal Communications Commission, political advertising] – Todd Shields reviews the written comments by broadcasters opposing the Federal Communications Commission’s proposal to require broadcast stations to post political ad buyers and ad rates on the web, not just make them available at broadcast station offices; groups advocating for greater transparency in campaign financing support the FCC’s proposal

This cost-cutting reform deserves a chance [Medicare] – As the Supreme Court gets set to hear the challenge to the 2010 healthcare law, The Post endorses a provision of the law that House Republicans want to repeal as early as this week – the Independent Payment Advisory Board, a panel of healthcare professionals that would recommend changes to Medicare if healthcare costs increase beyond a targeted amount; the paper says this body would make the necessary, hard choices that politicians consistently avoid

Teach for America’s new partnership with largest for-profit charter network [Teach for America] – Valerie Strauss questions the wisdom of  Teach for America partnering with the for-profit charter school network, Imagine, which operates 75 charter schools in 12 states and whose practices have been the subject of state investigations

New York Times

Mortgages for drilling properties may face hurdle [Agriculture Dept., Rural Housing Service and Rural Business and Cooperative programs, oil and gas drilling] – Ian Urbina reports that the Agriculture Dept. is considering requiring an environmental review of mortgage applications by property owners who lease their land for oil and gas drilling, in keeping with the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires environmental reviews before federal money is spent; the agency’s Rural Housing Service program granted $18 billion in loans or loan guarantees to 140,000 families last year; the decision would also affect the agency’s Rural Business and Cooperative program, which issued $1 billion in loans to 15,000 businesses last year, and it could also subject loans by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to environmental reviews as well

House panel to cite new flaw in energy loans [Energy Dept., green energy, Solyndra] – Matthew L. Wald reports that the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has been building a case against the administration for politicizing the Energy Department’s loan programs and will issue a report to that effect tomorrow when Energy Secretary Chu testifies before the committee

Justice after Senator Stevens [Justice Dept.] – The Times argues that in the wake of prosecutorial misconduct in the Justice Department’s case against the late Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) which was detailed in a 500-plus page special prosecutor’s report, the agency should follow the lead of state and local governments and train its prosecutors to be “far more forthcoming about evidence favoring the defense”

Wall Street Journal

Regulators seek to cool hospital-deal fever [Federal Trade Commission] – Brent Kendall reports that the Federal Trade Commission is concerned that hospital mergers may be anticompetitive and result in higher costs for patients and insurance companies, and will challenge them despite the government’s poor track record in past challenges of hospital mergers

U.S. made profit on mortgage debt [Treasury Dept., Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac] – Jeffrey Sparshott previews the Treasury Department’s announcement later today that the government made a $25 billion profit on mortgage bonds it purchased from mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during the financial crisis

With gas prices rising, smog rules may stall [Environmental Protection Agency] – Tennille Tracy reports that the spike in gas prices may result in the Environmental Protection Agency delaying its roll out of “Tier 3 vehicle and fuel standards” – stricter standards for oil refineries and auto manufactures aimed at reducing pollution and increasing efficiency

This Work Incentive Seminar Event webinar will be held on October 10, 2012 from 3 – 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time. The webinar is for people who receive Social Security disability benefits and who want to learn how the Ticket to Work program can help them earn money and become financially independent. You’ll also learn about writing a resume, job interview tips, whether or not to discuss your disability with a potential employer and tips for on the job success. Register online or call 1-866-968-7842 (V) or 1-866-833-2967 (TTY/TDD).

There is tremendous interest in different approaches to slowing the rise in US per capita health spending. One approach is to publicly report on a provider’s costs—also called efficiency, resource use, or value measures—with the hope that consumers will select lower-cost providers and providers will be encouraged to decrease spending. In this paper we explain why we believe that many current cost-profiling efforts are unlikely to have this intended effect. One of the reasons is that many consumers believe that more care is better and that higher-cost providers are higher-quality providers, so giving them information that some providers are lower cost may have the perverse effect of deterring them from accessing these providers. We suggest changes that can be made to content and design of public cost reports to increase the intended consumer and provider response.

While there has been no shortage of media coverage surrounding this week’s historic Supreme Court consideration of challenges to the Affordable Care Act, one voice has been noticeably silent: that of our nation’s children. No matter what the outcome of the Court’s deliberations, one thing is certain: this law has made several monumental investments in child health, and they deserve to be celebrated.

I’m a pediatrician at Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, and I’ve seen just how much the Affordable Care Act’s investments in preventive care and increased access to care have made a difference for my young patients.