Modernization, force protection and the environment also get House attention.

This post wraps up our review of The Oversight Plan of the House Armed Services Committee for the 110th Congress. Looking at Congressional oversight plans can give us insights into procurement issues for the coming year.

Military Modernization
The committees seeks to ensure that that the

highest priority requirements of the nation’s active, guard and reserve land,
sea, and air forces are properly resourced.

Force Protection
The HASC plans to pay significant attention to personnel body armor, tactical wheeled vehicle armor protection and countermeasures to improvised explosive devices (IED) in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In something that should be a good thing for our community, the committee will explore innovative acquisition policies and procedures in an effort to provide sufficient flexibility in support of:

• requirement identification [more requirement focus],
• research and development,
• immediate procurement, and
• rapid operational testing and fielding of additional capabilities.

Environmental Programs
Directly impacting installations and installation contracting, the committee will significantly increase its oversight of the Department and military services’ environmental management. Perhaps the increased emphasis is directly due to the new composition of the committee (and Congress).