U.S. Representative Mike Rogers (R-AL), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, delivered the following opening remarks at a hearing on Department of Defense acquisition pathways and innovation efforts.
Chairman Rogers’ remarks as prepared for delivery:
I want to thank our witnesses for being here and the University of California Santa Cruz for hosting us.
This is the first time in several years that the Armed Services Committee has left the bubble of DC for a hearing.
We chose to come to Silicon Valley to hear directly from America’s leading innovators about solutions to a problem that has vexed the Depart of Defense for decades.
Why does the DOD continue to struggle with rapidly developing, scaling, and delivering innovation to our warfighters.
For years we’ve been hearing complaints from industry about the glacial pace of acquisitions.
And from small innovators that lack the capital and support necessary to bridge the valley of death.
This is immensely frustrating to us because this committee has spearheaded dozens of efforts over the last decade to –
Reform DoD’s acquisition process;
Create new flexible acquisition pathways, and
Make it easier for the DoD to partner with the private sector to expedite the fielding of innovation.
It’s also frustrating because our time to solve this problem is running out.
China has invested heavily in new capabilities that are key to success on future battlefields.
And they’ve figured out how to rapidly deploy them.
Make no mistake - these capabilities are being developed specifically to defeat our military.
We cannot let that happen.
We can’t let China or any adversary outpace us on innovation.
Fortunately, the United States has something our adversaries do not – a robust innovation ecosystem.
There is no shortage of innovative Americans, especially here in Silicon Valley, with the ideas and know-how to keep us ahead of our adversaries.
We must take better advantage of this.
As we’ve seen in Ukraine, the side that’s faster at innovating, scaling, and deploying has the advantage on the battlefield.
Earlier this year, we held a similar hearing with senior DoD officials who insisted they had all the authorities they needed and were doing everything they can to expedite innovation.
We’re here today because we respectfully disagree.
We think more can and should be done.
We want to hear from America’s innovators on whether DoD’ acquisition pathways are actually working.
And we are eager to hear your recommendations for improving them.
Finally, we want to know your thoughts on how we can overcome DoD’s historic aversion to moving fast and taking on risk when it comes to innovation.
