captioned by t the national capaptioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> business news from the capital region. this is "washington business report" with abc7 national correspondent rebecca cooper. >> thanks for jojoining us for a look at busess anand finance the washington r region. we started the week with the president's swearing in, but he was not given mucuch time for our honeymoon. the debtbt ceili was postponed until may but other deadlines are them in march. for all ththe kidsds want t deep c cuts in social prorograms, while democrats insist -- republicans

wanteeper cuts s in social prrams while demrats i insist they must be coupled with tax increases. as yogi berra would say, deja all over again. first, it is time for the annual book of lists. "the washington busins journal's" run o out of the biggest, best, and fastest growing in the region. joining us is one of our favorites, jennifer nycz- conner "washingt business journal's" special secti producer and so much more. the book of lists tells you everything you want to know about washington business, from a whwho is in, who is out, what is up, what is downwn. one of the most intnteresting this is t fastest-growin -- i -- you will tells a little bit about why thehese tngs are on the list. we will start with dfs

construction corp., a company thatat grew at an avere of 403.38% bebetween 2009 and 2011. they are based i arlington. number to grow an averag o of 24. they are baseded in viennnna. and numberr three for an avage of the -- 162% the grew an avererage of 1 162%. they and athe biggest cocompanies in the region, but they are seeing phenomenal growth at a time when the economy is limping along. >> the top 50 companies we rank every year, we did this average represent edges. it looks at a four-year snapshot. in this region, a business -- a big businesses government contracting. when you win a big a government

contract, what happens? you get a lot of money really fast into your revevenue streamm and you have to get busy y getting on those contracts. >> my question is, are they goining to see thikind of growth that they have? once a land a big gogovernment contracts, you are in. dfs construction, trying g to put the piec of the p puzzle together, they have a few thinings going for them. they have landed gsa contracts lalanded a big contract in japan and have 1 lolots of awards for the interior desn. kind of the perfect storm for what you need to bgrowing and construction today. >> just showing you what happens inside andnd outside of the beltway. it all has to do with the governmement influx of money. one of the othther this to note that is interesting aut ts is that therere is a stringent ceiling where you have thit

certain markers. you have to keep growing up. >> you have to s sustain that growth. this company is based in vienna andhey were focused o i.t., and they y added on asset management roe real estate ned byy banksks. theyave seen their growth due foreclosed -- due to foreclosed properties where they had taken over the management. >> with a t of these companies, they are nimble. they are ming changes quicickly. theyey manage to kind of keep their finger on the pulse of what is happening and they look for wh the next opportunityty will be in the next couple of years. >> i said roe, ii meant reo. kind of an odd name, b --

>> i am glad you check your pronunciation. >> the key to their growowth is having knowlge of many things. theyey went from something like three high-level consultants as a consnsulting firm, to 50 and growing the range of expertise. they our consultants on everything from the environment to finanance. a lot of different peop who can talk a lot of different subjects. >> you hit on a key point that we hear in a lot of our conversations tate yoyou h have these ceo's in a room together, and in addition to keep growth and revenuee growing it migh make sure they are finding a and retaining od p peopland keeping an eye out on the nextxt wave of them. >> i want to spend time on that, because that list -- i scratch my head and say, "who?" and then i google them a and am

fascinatated by what they e doing. these are all names we k know. number one, fannieae, d.c.- based. $137 billion with a b in revenue. number two, or freddie mac $88.26 billilion. they are b based in mclean. no. 3, lockheed martin, $46 billion, with 123,000 employe. they b by farar have the largest employees in the list. >> once again, a government contract is a big player. th are bigmployers to general dynamimics lockheed, some of the biggest employers in the region. marriott is also one of the big employers. you have hotels and government contractors. what is interesting is who is on and who is off. >> who got kicked off thehe list

of public companies? >> sallie mae is one of them. they moved. they are in delaware now. one of thehe trends is b big public companies going private. one was black brd, which is always a big deal as a public company in washington and they are now a privivate companyny. >> fannie mae and freddie mac are always a ltle controversial witcongress. quasi-private, quasi-public. let's go on to the largegest privately owned companies in the washington region. number one, landing the sweet ot, a candcompany bad in mcleanan $3030 billion in revenue only 340 in thmetro area. >> one of those notorious company'around here, because you read a lot about them -- >> private. very private family. >> they are out there a dealing with chocolate and food an everything else but you don't hear a lotot about them.m.

irfax is doing preretty well. >> fairfax is doing fine e with that tax b base. montgomery county, clark enterprises. it has real estatate construction lots s of different ars wherere they make money basedn beththesda. no. 3 on t list, a lot o of people know w its dine corp. internationall bid --- dyncorp international. they are based in falls church. >> what is ieresting about public companies that the brand we buy on the shelves -- there are a lot of tentacles to a lot of these companies did what makes them large i is not always what is known about thehem. >>e will have the honor to talk about nonprofits and changes in the executive ring. that's g get t to the list t that everyone wants. the highest-paid.

tell us about what kind of revee hes seeing these days. >> honey boo boo is treating people well. >> t tlc discovery. >> the ceo of discovery communications, which is only public a few years ago -- davidid brought home a cool $52 million last year. >> they started with aa controversial reality s show about muims but ended with "honey boo boo." roroberttephens, chairman n and ceo of lockheedd martin. defense contract in baseball in ththe washingtonon area -- defense contracting pays well in the washington area.a. >> be david from discovery or work for northrop, because it occupies five of the top 25 spots of f highehest paid executives

and the region. >> not bad pla to be paii am surehat everyone will be at thparty next week toto unveil. that you for being here -- thank you for being here. stay with us, as we talk hot topic with o roundtabl. presentism -- does it apply to you? we're sitting on a bunch of shale gas. there's natural gas under my town. it's a game changer. ♪ ♪ it means cleaner, caper american-made energy. but we've got to be careful how we get it. design the wells to be safe. thousands of jobs. use the most advanced technology to protect our water. billions in the economy. at chevron, if we can't do it right, we won't do it at all. we've got to think long term. we've got to think long rm. ♪ ♪

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according to the centers for disease control. scientists estimate that sleep deprivation cost u.s. companies more than $63 billilion in 2011, due to what scientists call presentism, people who show up for work but operated subpar levels. scientists in sisingapore estimatete tt for every hour of sleep, the worker waste's eight

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northrop grumman. o0 c1 >> we have s said it before and w we will say it agai -- if there's

something the businessss and financial l world hates, it i uncertainty. that is what congress and the ite hohouse keeps giving wall street investorsrs. they agreed to yet again postpone the fight over the debt ceilining. unrtainty looms over the streamlinener. and president obama is starting to form m his ececonomic team. lots ofopics to tkle withh our roundtable. this week, a new face at the round table, mj lee politico's editor coverinfinancial news.s. and. -- and peter m morici, professor at the univeversity y of mararyland. mjmj lee do u think is punting cutting off discussion on the debt ceiling? >> one thing is for sure, republicans no longer have the debt ceiling to use as a maneuver they y have to get thingss they what in terms of spending

cuts and other things they were hoping to g from democrcrats. at this point we are l looking at the sequester that is coming up in march, the deadline e that is also coming up later in the month -- >> government shutdown if we don't get it done. >> absolutely. the house and senate have to put out a budget resolution, and we don't know how bad is going to gogo --htt is going tgo. >> peter, why d did the publicans ive up the debt ceiling as a weapon? >> i t think thihis is the gop's new sortf game plan. even until recently, republican lawmakers were adamant that any increase in the debt ceiling had to come with matching spending cuts. at one point, they decided t this is not something we are going for any more, and wewe will get what we want to it with the otother battles comingng up, we will makeke a small cononcession when it

comes to the debt ceiling by allowing the debt ceiling to increase for a couple of months until may, and focus on getting what w we wa wit the otr bales at argrgument rightow. >> peter, u very much want them to tackle the spending issues. was that a smart maneuver? >> i think it was. what the republicans need to doo is return to regular order and denigrate the process if bringing a budget and spending resolutions -- began the pross of bringing up a budget and spending resolutions -- and you are making a commitment to spend addional money over a certain time, so they p pass a budget, passed appropriaons,ttach the debt ceiling, send it to the set. i understandhat e senate willorrow the house historian to find out i is they pass a budget of there. [laughs] mj you have been reporting that the republicans don'tare how

they g get it, but you also report that there are some republicans that tnk it is okay to go into that peod of sequestration, with the autotic spendi cuts that are across the board, that include defensnse and domestic spendnding. whatre you hearing about the appetite for government shutdown? -- >> as far asas sequestration we hear increasinglyy that lawmwmakers e signaling, well, you know what, we mights well let the sequester take placece because we n't know if the political dynamics will allow w us to come to some e sort of compmpromise withh democrcrats. it highlighthts the tension thatat is there betetween d democrats and repuicans and what thehey want. democrats wantt to raise revenue through h tax reform, republicans e oppoposed to that. in terms of defense spending cuts, they want to replace them th cuts to domestic prprograms. >> you thi they are open to a government stdown as well?

that did not plalay as well withwi speaker girich durg th clinton n admistration. >> i thinknk that because of how politicall divided eveone is right now on capitol hill, is a possibilityy that is being talked about. i don't know that that would be the best road for lawmakers to take. >> if the take a shutdown to force spendingng cuts, now is the time to do it, because thehey are aa great distance from the xt election. however, i don't think they really have to do that. if they pass a budget which sets reasonable speing goals -- cuts spending and sent it to the senate, it is up to the senate to shut down the government by not passing a budget as well. same thing with the prpreparations for the balance of the year. >> business leaders are tearing their r hair out -- >> no, i think the washington board of trade is tearing its year out - > it is not a good waway to run your company.

>> all i can tell you is that i spent a lot of time with the ceo's and business leaders, and the notion of a government shutdown is not something thatt just comes off of their lips. >> but it does matter in this area. >> well, that is true, but sequestration is more likelyly to have a b bigger impact on this area and a govovernment shutdown. a government shutdown lasthree days, five days, seven days, and that we are back to normal. we go to sequestration ththose budget cuts, tse cututs in spending, , could last a lon time and become reasonably permanent. th is the fallback pition if they don't reach compromise e on spending cuts and entitlements. >> no matter what they say in davos, it matters here and they should care. let's turn to boeing and what started as a bad week a a couple of weeks ago has g gone frfrom bad to worse. the grounding of the dream mininor -- we don'know how l long -- the grnding of the dream liner, we

n't know how long that could go on. bolling is divided betweenen -- they arere trying to look at wha is happening with the battery on board, andhe japanese manufacturer is taking a different angle. where do we stand righght now?w? remarkably, the japanese government, who represents the many f factors in all things commcial, said that overheating was not a problem. boeing has to get this right. the end of the day, it is the boeing company that goes out if they havanother overheatiting incident ithe year. this is a terrible hit u.s. exportrts. by the w way, the people a airbus a not h happy aut thihis, because they think are going to rely on these batteries a as well. >> not just blowing t that is going to be heard by this. >> suppliers. this wholele supply chain behind them. it is a major eort industry fofor the united states.

>> mj, ls of announcents f for the esident this week, frorom chief of staff to the ad of the sec one of the articles y read ys tt reblicans have a a int a whip for the fininancial services committee to keep track of the boats and see who was falling in line anand was not. >> it has been a busy y week for the white house and the president and in terms of nominating people to k key positions. mary jo white has en nominated to be the next sec chair -- >> she took on terroristss as she is willing to take on wall street. >> people i t talk to are concerned at about this sending the signal that the president is set on being tough on wall street banks durining his second teterm. the administration has gotten criticism during the first four yearars that they were not tough enough on the actors that created the that -- that cost

the financial crisis to begin with. another renomination wewe saw this week was richardrd cordray cfpb direct or. >> consumer fincial protecection bubureau -- >> i can never remember. [laughter] >> republicans are not thrilled with jack lew at treasury. the presidenent clearly putting in the team he wants rather than necessarily the team that oththers are looking for in terms of negotiions.. >> white is a good choicice. wall street t does need a good cop and historically the new york attorney general doeoes that, because we have not been getting that from washington. i think she will be effectiveve. there are concerns about conflicts of interest because she defends white-collar folks that are accused o crimes s on wall s stree but that isis just the way the law works. >> a lot of gamames to watch and

we will be watching them in the coming months. stay with us.

>> welelcome back. we always like to hear fromou. there arare all kinds of ways t to connect with us using siall media. let us kw aboutopics you would like to see diussed.

you can alwlways find a streaeaming versrsion of the sho at wjla.com. than for joining us.s. i am rebecca cooper. look, every

daye're using more and more energy. the world needs more energy. where's it going to come from? ♪ ♪ that's why right here in australia, chevron is building one of the biggest natural gas projects in the world. enough power for a city the size of singapore for 50 years. what's it going to do to the planet? natural gas is the cleanest conventional fuel there is. we've got to be smart about this. it's a smart way to go. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] now at your neighborhood subway: the big hot pastrami melt. we've perfected the pastrami sandwich -- filled with juicy pastrami