The long-awaited process of demolishing the Navy Annex and its surrounding parking lots is scheduled to begin within the next month or two, officials tell ARLnow.com.  The 1 million square foot military office complex, first built in 1941 and located on the eastern end of Columbia Pike, will be torn down to make way for an expansion of Arlington National Cemetery. The entire 42-acre Navy Annex site, which includes a large surface parking lot on the other side of Columbia Pike, will be turned into a grass field in advance of an official transfer from the Department of the Army to Arlington National Cemetery in late 2013.

The specter of sequestration was a common looming threat in otherwise mixed earnings reports from three of the Washington region's largest defense contractors.

First-term Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) is discussing a plan with fellow lawmakers that would defer for six months the $109 billion in across-the-board spending reductions set to go into effect in January.

The unemployment rate among younger U.S. military veterans, long a source of worry, is declining as companies step up efforts to hire them.

The Washington, D.C. metro area continues its economic expansion, but at a slower pace than in prior expansion periods, according to a third quarter 2012 office market/economic report put out by Delta Associates and Transwestern. This slower growth is due partially to the uncertainty associated with possible sequestration and the end of Bush Era-tax cuts, tentatively scheduled for January, 2013, according to the report. 

Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Darrel Issa (R-Calif.), wrote to the heads of 10 defense companies seeking information about the legal justification for not issuing notices of potential layoffs due to sequestration.

A bipartisan group of eight senators met Wednesday for the second day of a three-day session intended to craft a solution to the expiring Bush-era tax cuts and across-the-board spending reductions slated to occur at the beginning of next year.

Army Undersecretary Joseph Westphal said Wednesday the service is not planning any contingencies for sequestration and warned the cuts would threaten the Army’s stability.