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On Tuesday June 24, 2014, the full House Armed Services Committee will hear testimony on Case Studies in DoD Acquisition: Finding What Works
The hearing comes as leading national security voices are speaking out about the need for Defense Acquisition Reform. Last year, HASC Chairman Buck McKeon (R-CA) tapped HASC Vice Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-TX) to lead the Committee's ongoing effort to achieve meaningful reform to the Defense Department's acquisition processes.
"Get More Defense Out of the Money We Spend"- HASC Vice Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-TX)
"Of course, it is not just about the total dollars spent; it is also about how that money is spent. And we have a lot of work to do to see that we use our defense dollars wisely – that we get more defense out of the money we spend. We have a bipartisan, bicameral effort underway to work with the Pentagon and with industry to reduce overhead and improve acquisition."
"Focus on outcomes for major programs and services" - Jon Etherton, Senior Fellow at the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA)
"With the budget cutbacks, I think there is continuing to be a focus on outcomes, both on major programs and services and IT...But folks are now starting to ask the question if we can actually afford the process itself that we currently have."
Look at "proposed changes to DoD organization, bureaucracy" - Former Department of Defense Comptroller Dov Zakheim
"Ever since Robert McNamara attempted to reform a system that at the time was yielding cost overruns and schedule delays, successive secretaries and deputy secretaries of defense, legislators and congressionally-mandated commissions have proposed changes in the nature of DoD’s management, its organization, its bureaucracy, its processes and its contracting methodology. And still programs overrun, and still schedules slip, and still there are cancellations.”
"Need for a ‘professional, concerted attempt to… improve acquisition’" - Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Frank Kendall
"What Congressman Thornberry and I have talked about is simplifying the rules so that they're more comprehensible, so they're easier to understand, they're easier to implement, they're more straightforward....And we should be able to simplify that and not sacrifice the intent behind those rules. You know, they've been built on in layers ever since Goldwater-Nichols. There have been layers of acquisition reform or acquisition improvement that in one form or another add up. Many of them have been very good. They're all well motivated. But that total body of law now is very large and complex."
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