The Price Tag Goes Way Up: According to CongressDaily, the Bush Administration plans to request $160 million to help Veterans Affairs pay for the free credit monitoring and other actions related to the May 3 data theft. Some of the money would come through reprogramming within VA, which already has siphoned off $25 million to support its new call center and mailing of letters to veterans.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.

