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SEC. 1088. REPORT ON FOREIGN LANGUAGE
SUPPORT CONTRACTS FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE.
(a) In General- Not later than 90 days
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of
Defense shall submit to the congressional defense committees a
report setting forth an assessment of the current approach of
the Department of Defense to managing foreign language support
contracts for the Department.
(b) Elements- The report required by
subsection (a) shall include each of the following:
(1) A description and analysis of
the spending by the Department on all types of foreign
language support services and products acquired by the
components of the Department.
(2) An assessment, in light of the
analysis under paragraph (1), of whether any adjustment is
needed in the management of foreign language support
contracts for the Department in order to obtain
efficiencies in contracts for all types of foreign
language support for the Department.
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Report on foreign language support
contracts for the Department of Defense (sec. 1088)
The Senate committee-reported bill
contained a provision (sec. 1063) that would direct the
Secretary of Defense to assess the Department's current approach
for managing foreign language support contracts.
The House bill contained no similar
provision.
The agreement includes the Senate
provision.
We note that at a minimum, the
assessment shall include an analysis of spending for all the
types of foreign language support services and products that
have been acquired by the Department of Defense (DOD)
components. Additionally, the assessment shall include a
reevaluation, based on the results of the analysis of spending,
of the scope of the DOD executive agent's management of foreign
language support contracts to determine whether any adjustments
are needed.
Senate Report
113-044
Report on foreign
language support contracts for the Department of Defense (sec.
1063)
The committee recognizes that Department of Defense (DOD)
operations require personnel with a range of foreign language
skills and regional expertise, such as translation and
interpretation capabilities. As evidenced in recent operational
experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq, these capabilities can be
critical factors to mission success. Further, the committee
believes that changes to the size and location of DOD's overseas
presence, such as forward-stationed or deployed military forces,
and a renewed emphasis on developing partnerships, particularly
in the Asia-Pacific region and Africa, indicate that DOD will
likely need to continue its significant investments in acquiring
foreign language-related support for the foreseeable future.
However, in the face of current fiscal pressures and budgetary
constraints, the committee also believes that DOD has a
heightened need to maximize efficiencies and that one way to
achieve greater efficiencies is through more coordinated
acquisition approaches.
Over the years, the Government Accountability Office (GAO)
identified opportunities for DOD to improve its approach to
contracting from a broad perspective as well as in areas related
to foreign language support. For example, DOD contract
management remains on the GAO's list of high-risk areas in the
Federal Government and, in its 2013 annual report to Congress
highlighting areas in the Federal Government where duplication,
overlap, and fragmentation exist, and where programs may be able
to achieve greater efficiencies in providing government
services, GAO identified DOD's management of foreign language
support contracts as one of 31 areas in the Federal Government
where greater efficiencies might be achieved.
At that time, GAO reported that DOD had obligated over $6.8
billion from fiscal years 2008 through 2012 on contracts to
acquire foreign language-related services and products for its
forces. GAO also noted that DOD had centralized the contracting
for certain foreign language-related services and products under
an executive agent and had realized some efficiencies, but that
the executive agent's focus had been exclusively on translation
and interpretation services and that DOD had not taken steps to
comprehensively assess whether additional opportunities existed
to gain efficiencies in fragmented contracts for other types of
foreign language support which are estimated to cost more than
$1.0 billion annually. Other GAO work has found that agencies,
including DOD, reported savings ranging between 5 and 20 percent
by implementing more coordinated acquisition approaches rather
than fragmented contracting. Therefore, on the basis of the
level of DOD's considerable investment in contracts for foreign
language support both now and in the future, the committee
believes DOD may be able to achieve significant cost savings by
comprehensively assessing whether additional opportunities exist
to gain efficiencies in fragmented contracts for all types of
foreign language support.
Accordingly, the committee recommends a provision that would
direct the Secretary of Defense to assess the Department's
current approach for managing foreign language support
contracts. At a minimum, such an assessment should include an
analysis of spending for all the types foreign language support
services and products that have been acquired by DOD components
and a reevaluation, based on the results of the analysis of
spending, of the scope of the DOD executive agent's management
of foreign language support contracts to determine whether any
adjustments are needed. |
