Herseth Sandlin Helps Pass Legislation To Cut Down On Waste In Department Of Defense; Save Taxpayers Billions

Press Release

Today, Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin joined her colleagues in unanimously passing legislation that will increase oversight of the Pentagon's budget, potentially saving taxpayers tens of billions of dollars. The Weapons Systems Action Reform Act was developed in response to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report which found that the Pentagon's current 96 largest acquisition programs had cost overruns of $296 billion and were on average 22 months behind schedule. The bill substantially increases oversight of the Pentagon's system of acquiring weapons, promotes greater use of competition in weapons acquisition, and requires the Department of Defense (DOD) to take steps to prevent conflicts of interest in the acquisition process.

"These outrageous cost overruns and delays are an unacceptable betrayal of the taxpayer's trust," Rep. Herseth Sandlin said. "Americans expect and deserve better stewardship of their tax dollars and with much of our federal budget dedicated to defense, closer scrutiny of how this money is being spent is certainly warranted. While we must maintain our commitment to strong national security, there is clearly also room for improved efficiency and oversight. As a leader of the fiscally-conservative Blue Dog coalition, I've long supported efforts to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse in federal agencies and I'm pleased that this bill is on its way to the president for his signature."

Specifically, this legislation:

Provides for a presidentially-appointed Director of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation at the Pentagon who will be responsible for implementing many of this bill's new requirements for cracking down on cost overruns

Provides for a Director of Developmental Test and Evaluation and a Director of Systems Engineering who will coordinate overseeing the design, development and testing of weapons programs in the early stages.

Requires the Defense Department to set up a new system to track the cost overruns and schedule changes that happen early on in the procurement process - currently the period when most of the waste and little oversight occurs.

Requires greater oversight and scrutiny of troubled weapons programs that have raised questions.

Promotes greater use of competition in the weapons acquisition process by requiring the Secretary of Defense to ensure that the acquisition strategy for each major weapons program includes measures to preserve the option of competition, at both the prime contractor and subcontractor levels, throughout the life of the program.

Requires DOD to take steps to prevent conflicts of interest in the weapons acquisition process. The measure requires the Secretary of Defense to revise regulations dealing with contractors' organizational conflicts of interest.

Rep Herseth Sandlin concluded, "I'm pleased with the bipartisan commitment of this Congress, President Obama and Secretary Gates to crack down on waste and improve efficiency at the Pentagon. Going forward, I believe a similar review of every federal agency will help find ways to cut unnecessary spending from our federal budget and ultimately put us on a path to fiscal sustainability."

This legislation has been approved by the House and the Senate. It has been sent to the president who is expected to sign it into law.

Source