Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) speaks to the press on January 11, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON— Move over, DOGE. The incoming head of the Senate Armed Services Committee has his own thoughts about how to boost Pentagon efficiency and speed up the pace it takes to field new weapons.
Sen. Roger Wicker, R_Miss., today released a report outlining key reforms the Defense Department and Congresscould make to improve the acquisition process, as well as corresponding legislation called the Fostering Reform and Government Efficiency in Defense (FORGED) Act that lays out language to implement those changes.
The report and accompanying bill comes as Congress races to pass an extension of government funding before it adjourns for 2024. But while business on the Hill gets ready to wind down, Wicker’s report and legislation hints at the priorities the incoming SASC chairman could focus on in next year’s National Defense Authorization Act, as well as potentially helping to set the defense agenda before President Donald Trump is sworn in on Jan. 20.
“The Department of Defense has been doing business the same way for far too long, which has heavily damaged both taxpayer confidence and American national security. We are entering a moment where major reform is possible. My legislation offers an opportunity to maximize the use of public dollars to buy second-to-none weapons systems, adopt new technology faster, and boost competition within the defense industry. I have started a national conversation about making a generational investment. Now we need to discuss how we can spend smarter,” Wicker said in a news release.
The report proposes a five-part plan for making acquisition more efficient: cutting red tape, unleashing innovation, increasing competition, enabling decisive action, and modernizing the budget process. Each of those areas contain several recommendations for policy and legislative changes needed to make the weapons buying process smoother and less bureaucratic.
For instance, to decrease red tape, the report suggests paring back provisions from Title 10 that could be overly restrictive. One such example is Section 3070, which limits the amount of on-hand supplies inventory to no more than two years, a recommendation that the report states may no longer make sense given the longer lead times that have become more common. It also suggests implementing additional recommendations from the Section 809 Panel, with the report noting that only three out of 98 recommendations were actually put into action.
Under increasing innovation, the report recommends providing additional authorities for Software Acquisition and Middle-Tier of Acquisition, which it says should become the default acquisition method for all programs. It also endorses getting rid of the paperwork-heavy “Milestone A” designation and replacing it with a “buy-before-build” process that allows for experimentation.
To increase competition, the report suggests reducing barriers to having multiple sources and streamlining the parts qualification process. It also recommends turning the services’ “program acquisition officers” into “portfolio acquisition executives,” which oversee a group of capabilities and are able to make tradeoffs among schedule, funding, and requirements.
Finally, the report recommends a wholesale restructure of the budget, consolidating induvial line items for programs into ones made for an entire portfolio, and making legislative changes that would allow the Pentagon to better mitigate continuing resolutions.
