President Obama

The Office of Management and Budget has asked federal agencies for additional information to finalize contingency plans if sequestration goes into effect should the Obama administration and Congress fail to reach a budget agreement, says White House spokesman Jay Carney. OMB is taking precautions "to ensure that the administration is ready to issue such an order should Congress fail to act."

The Senate has no specific rules for filibustering and filibusters exist because Senate rules purposefully lack provisions that would place limits on a Senator's rights to control the floor during the legislative process. Current rules establish no generally accepted limits on the length of debate and also provide no way for the majority to vote to bring a current debate to an end.

The government has avoided $47 billion in improper payments over the past three years, dropping its error rate in payments to contractors and to those using government programs to 4.3 percent from a high of 5.4 percent in fiscal 2009, says the White House.When including the Defense Department's commercial payments, the total savings would reach $70 billion and the government-wide error rate would be just 3.7 percent.

President Obama signed an executive order July 7 directing the Homeland Security Department to establish a new center with industry capable of stepping in to provide communications connectivity to government "under all conditions."The order also details responsibilities for particular agencies, assigning to the Commerce Department development of guidance on the use of technical standards and metrics.