Acquisition issues come into the view of the HASC

Continuing our look at the priorities of the House Armed Services Committee for the 110th Congress...

There are many issues that the committee could have chosen in the area of Department of Defense procurement/acquisition. Here is what they are going to pay most attention to.

In their role of oversight and management, the committee intends to pay particular attention to the Acquisition System and Acquisition Policy. They plan to:

• Oversee “…the defense acquisition system and address growing concerns about cost growth [Note this area] in major defense acquisition programs and the responsiveness of the system to compelling military needs.”
• Examine in depth [my emphasis] the "military requirements process [Note this area, too- you will see it again]… (that) continues to produce outcomes which do not reflect the jointness that the military has achieved at the operating level.”
• Monitor revisions to laws concerning the reporting of cost growth [Here it is again] in weapons systems, controlling the government’s interest in technical data rights, and governing the management structure for contracting for services to recommend further revisions where necessary.
• Continue to push for accountability and integrity in contracting with the Panel on Contracting Integrity and working in part through the reconstituted Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, to identify and eliminate as many contracting vulnerabilities as possible (my emphasis).

Cost growth and requirements generation are certainly areas of concern to the committee.

In addition to acquisition policy, the committee wants to improve the Defense Industrial Base and Technology Transfers. They plan to:

• Give close examination to the health of the defense industrial base and those suppliers (which) appear to be struggling to generate profit margins large enough to justify long-term investments in infrastructure and technology. These long-term investments are vital to the health of the defense industrial base.

[Helping companies that are struggling with profit margins and controlling cost growth seem to be conflicting goals and should bear watching.]

• Examine the effects of mergers, acquisitions, and consolidation of second and third tier suppliers on competition and “the extent to which contractors may be taking on management roles previously performed by the government.
• Continue to review issues surrounding contractors on the battlefield and the outsourcing of inherently governmental operational functions.

[Here is another look at how the "contractorization" of government is being examined.]

The HASC focus on financial/resource management will include examining the “causes of the DOD’s inability to consolidate its financial information and monitor closely the … dollars being spent on business systems modernization programs … proposed to address [DoD’s] financial management problems.”