news

MARYLAND FIRMS BAND TOGETHER: Rep. Anthony Brown (D-Md.) "is launching a local consortium on Tuesday to link small and large aerospace and defense firms and educational institutions in the Pentagon’s backyard — so the companies can solve common problems like workforce shortages,” writes Defense News. Read more »

Rep. Anthony Brown (D-Md.) has announced plans to launch a local consortium that aims to connect small and large defense and aerospace companies to educational institutions to address workforce shortages and other challenges facing the defense sector. Read more »

Funding in the Army's budget for new systems will match spending on legacy systems in just a few years as it pursues its major modernization goals, Army Undersecretary Ryan McCarthy forecast today. McCarthy said the service's shift toward more new platforms reflects efforts to adapt to the new National Defense Strategy, which aims to recalibrate the military toward competition with Russia and China. Read more »

WASHINGTON — A Maryland congressman is launching a local consortium on Tuesday to link small and large aerospace and defense firms and educational institutions in the Pentagon’s backyard — so the companies can solve common problems like workforce shortages. The Pentagon has identified the aging workforce as a challenge to country’s defense industry, and it’s playing out in Rep. Anthony Brown’s district, which is near NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, a major space research laboratory, and Fort Meade, the home of U.S. Cyber Command. Read more »

With over 50,000 federal employees, the fourth congressional district in Maryland represents the fifth largest number of workers, and Maryland likely counts as the third-largest impacted state by the government shutdown, according to Democratic Rep. Anthony Brown. “So, I’m hearing about this, like my colleagues, each and every day from my constituents while this shutdown is set to become the longest in the nation’s history,” said Brown, who joined Congressional Black Caucus Chair Karen Bass (D-Calif.); Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), on a media conference call on Friday, Jan. 11. The CBC members said they were calling for an end to the shutdown so that workers can again begin to collect their paychecks and critical government services can resume. Read more »

Lawmakers across the Washington region spent the weekend touching base with federal workers affected by the government shutdown at roundtables, town halls and potlucks. Rep. Anthony Brown held a town hall meeting in Largo, Maryland, on Saturday, where he took questions from constituents about the government shutdown. Read more »

WASHINGTON — With the partial shutdown of the U.S. federal government now in its fourth week, President Donald Trump continues to hold out the possibility that he will declare a national emergency along the southern border with Mexico. Trump could use the declaration to fund his long sought border wall, but Democrats in Congress firmly oppose the barrier, and even some Republicans object to the idea, calling it an overreach of executive authority. Read more »

Democratic lawmaker said that President Donald Trump’s refusal to sign a budget deal that will put federal employees back to work has members of the Republican Party too embarrassed to admit they are powerless. Appearing on MSNBC’s AM Joy, Rep. Anthony Brown (D-MD) said Trump’s insistence on the wall has put members of his own party in a tough spot. Read more »

The partial government shutdown, now tied for the longest lapse in appropriations in the country's history, is poised to harm recovery efforts in several states and U.S. territories ravaged by hurricanes, wildfires and severe storms in recent years. Read more »

The White House has asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to look into projects approved in a bill providing disaster relief for Puerto Rico, Texas, California and Florida to see where funding could be diverted to build a wall along the border with Mexico, according to a congressional aide familiar the discussions. Read more »