The leaders of the House Armed Services Committee are formally rolling out legislation aimed at revamping the Defense Department’s procurement policies.
The bill — unveiled Wednesday and sponsored by panel chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) and ranking member Adam Smith (D-Wash.) — will be incorporated into the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the annual defense policy bill, after getting feedback from government and industry.
“We are releasing this bill one month ahead of NDAA consideration because we want to get people’s feedback. We listened to a lot of folks as we drafted this bill, and we want to hear from them again as we work to make it law,” Thornberry said in a statement.
He said the Pentagon’s “broken acquisition system is contributing to the loss of our military’s technological edge.”
Experts have long-argued that weapons and other technologies could be developed and get onto the battlefield quicker, and at less cost, if some of the DOD’s buying regulations were reformed or eliminated.
The legislation is the result of over a year’s work by Thornberry, who was tapped in the last Congress to find ways to improve Pentagon acquisitions, a system often chided as bloated and inefficient.
The proposed measure, which is the first step in what committee aides predict will be a multiyear process, seeks to consolidate or eliminate the red tape program managers have to wrangle.
“I hope that by streamlining the process, improving accountability, and eliminating outdated regulations, we can start to get some of that edge back. While this bill won’t fix all that is broken, it is a start,” Thornberry said.
Smith said that improving DOD’s buying policies is “an important step towards ensuring that taxpayer dollars are spent wisely and effectively. This bill is the product of healthy exchanges with the department and with industry, and it provides a solid foundation for continuing a productive dialogue.”
The House Armed Services Committee is expected to mark up its version of the NDAA on April 29.
The full House is expected to take up the policy bill in early May.