Congressman Murphy Votes To Cut Waste, Fraud And Abuse In Defense Acquisition Programs

Press Release

Today, Congressman Scott Murphy (NY-20) helped pass the bipartisan legislation, the IMPROVE Acquisition Act of 2010 to reform the defense acquisition system. This vital reform will save American taxpayers $135 billion over the next five years and make sure that the men and women who are risking their lives to safeguard our country get the proper equipment they need to do their jobs and protect themselves on the battlefield.

"We need to continue to seek out and remove any waste, fraud or abuse in government programs," said Rep. Murphy. "The IMPROVE Act is another way that we can save more money for programs that work in the federal government. Our brave men and women in the military will continue to risk their lives to protect and serve our country, and we owe it to them to have an efficient and honest acquisition process for acquiring the equipment and materials they need. This is about saving money, but more importantly, it's about saving lives."

The IMPROVE Acquisition Act cleans up waste, fraud, and abuse in the defense acquisition system through four key common sense reforms. It creates a better accountability system, establishes an auditable financial management system at DOD, improves the management of the acquisition workforce, and expands and strengthens the industrial base. The bill builds on the legislation enacted by the Democratic-led Congress last year to clean up wasteful defense spending and reform weapons system acquisition.

Congressman Murphy had two amendments included in the bill during the committee markup process. The first amendment would further ensure that reputable contractors provide the goods and services our soldiers need by increasing access to accurate information on contractors known to be in violation of the law. This amendment will require federal subcontractors, along with prime contractors and grantees, to disclose any delinquent tax debt so that businesses that aren't paying their taxes aren't rewarded with other people's tax dollars. Ensuring the placement of well run firms, in compliance with the law, at the forefront of defense acquisition is vitally important to meeting Soldier needs and maintaining value to the taxpayer.

The second will help restore a strong audit function to our Defense Acquisition process, repairing widespread defense contract auditing problems that have left billions of taxpayer dollars vulnerable to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement. The provision creates an independent general counsel for the Defense Contract Audit Agency and empowers DOD auditors to compel the production of necessary audit documentation by withholding payments to contractors. By ensuring an independent auditing function, we assure that prices paid by the government for needed goods and services are fair and reasonable and that contractors are not overcharging the government. Every dollar wasted during the development and acquisition of defense systems is money that is not available for other priorities within DOD and across the government.

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