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TITLE VIII--ACQUISITION POLICY, ACQUISITION MANAGEMENT, AND RELATED MATTERS

Subtitle A—Provisions Relating to Major Defense Acquisition Programs

JWNDAA Section

House Conference Report 109-702

(a) BIANNUAL UPDATES REQUIREMENT.—Not later than January 1 and July 1 of each year, beginning with January 1, 2007, the Secretary of Defense shall provide to the Committees on Armed Services of the Senate and the House of Representatives a report containing an update on the implementation of plans to reform the acquisition system in the Department of Defense.

(b) MATTERS COVERED.—Each report provided under subsection (a) shall cover the implementation of reforms of the processes for acquisition, including generation of requirements, award of contracts, and financial management. At a minimum, the reports shall take into account the recommendations made by the following:

(1) The Defense Acquisition Performance Assessment Panel.

(2) The Defense Science Board Summer Study on Transformation, issued in February 2006.

(3) The Beyond Goldwater-Nichols Study of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

(4) The Quadrennial Defense Review, issued February 6, 2006.

(c) RECOMMENDATIONS.—Each report submitted under subsection (a) shall include such recommendations as the Secretary considers appropriate, and implementation plans for the recommendations.

(d) TERMINATION OF REPORT REQUIREMENT.— The requirement to submit reports under subsection (a) shall terminate on December 31, 2008.

The House bill contained a provision (sec. 804) that would require the Secretary of Defense to submit quarterly reports to the Committees on Armed Services of the Senate and the House of Representatives on the implementation of plans to reform the defense acquisition system.

The Senate amendment contained no similar provision.

The Senate recedes with an amendment that would change the reporting requirement to a biannual submission and make other clarifying changes.

House Armed Services Committee Report 109-452

SECTION 804--QUARTERLY UPDATES ON IMPLEMENTATION OF ACQUISITION REFORM IN THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

This section would require the Secretary of Defense to provide quarterly reports to the Senate Committee on Armed Services and the House Committee on Armed Services on the implementation of plans to reform the defense acquisition system. The updates would cover implementation of reforms of the processes for Acquisition, including generation of requirements, award of contracts, and financial management. The quarterly updates would include, at a minimum, consideration of recommendations made by:

(1) The Defense Acquisition Performance Assessment Panel;

(2) The Defense Science Board Summer Study on Transformation;

(3) The Center for Strategic and International Studies: Beyond-Goldwater-Nichols Study;

(4) The Quadrennial Defense Review; and

(5) The Committee Defense Review of the House Committee on Armed Services.

The first quarterly update would be required no later than 45 days after the enactment of this Act and the first day of each successive quarter. The requirement would terminate on the first day of the quarter in which the Selected Acquisition Reports indicate that no new programs have breached either the significant cost growth threshold or the critical cost growth threshold.

The ability of the Department of Defense to analyze and synthesize these reform recommendations into a series of meaningful and actionable implementation plans concerns the committee. In the past, bureaucratic impediments, changing senior leadership, and numerous other factors prevented implementation of major acquisition reform despite comprehensive studies on the subject. In particular, the committee notes that the President's Blue Ribbon Commission on Defense (1986), commonly known as the `Packard Commission,' recommended numerous reforms to the acquisition system that, despite the efforts of Congress and the Department, have not been fully realized. Nearly twenty years later, the four major acquisition reform studies of 2005 identify the same challenges identified by the `Packard Commission' including rampant cost growth, unreliable cost estimates, and requirements relying on immature technology increasing overall program cost. The committee is concerned about the ability of the Department to solve these decades' old problems.