| 摘要 |
Introduction: Since arriving at AEI, I have written and spoken out extensively about the need to reform the defense acquisition process. Many of my specific reform ideas are contained in a number of publications and public speeches that I have given over the past year. As defense budgets have decreased, there has been a revised interest in issues related to acquisition and management reform on Capitol Hill and in the Department of Defense (DOD). As a result, many requests have gone out for specific proposals to fix the system in anticipation of a new round of acquisition reform legislation expected next year. Given this renewed attention, I thought it might be helpful to expand upon and bring together in one place the various legislative reform recommendations I have made in one form or another over the past year. Hopefully, this will be of assistance to policymakers both in Congress and at DOD as they prepare for significant changes to the defense acquisition system.
While the next round of acquisition reform legislation is expected to be included in the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, it would be extraordinary if comprehensive reform can be completed in just one year’s time. Thus, I anticipate that this compendium can serve as a living document to be updated periodically with further refinements as Congressional debate progresses and DOD continues to implement its “Better Buying Power” initiatives.
It was actually difficult to limit this volume to just 50 ideas and I had to leave some proposals on the cutting room floor. I also did not address topics such as international acquisition and globalization, budgetary flexibility, the requirements process, and small and medium sized business policy that could be addressed in a future volume.
I will not spend time on what is wrong with the acquisition system (that path I believe has already been well covered), but rather offer specific legislative solutions to the current system. While DOD could enable some of these fixes administratively, it is likely that real change will need to come from Congress. Legislation is sometimes needed to give reformers at DOD the guidance and political cover to do the right thing. In the 1990s, the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1994 and the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996 served this purpose for many internal defense reforms that unfortunately now have run their course.
Today, instead of leading reform in many areas, DOD is currently moving backwards by not pursuing appropriate policies or exercising its current authorities. For example, in the case of commercial item and information technology (IT) acquisition the Department is doing its best to undermine law and policies put in place twenty years that are still compelling and correct. Thus, in these areas congressional action is likely needed to reiterate to the Department where it should be heading and put constraints on past administrative actions.
This is an unfortunate sign of the times that despite Frank Kendall’s (the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics) desire for change, it appears many in his bureaucracy hold to their own versions of what they think Congress wants from acquisition reform or perhaps more cynically only hear what they want to hear from the sometimes cacophony of voices on the Hill. These bureaucrats hold a fond regard for a return to Cold War practices that do not make sense in today’s modern world and globalized industrial base. This effort to bring back the past can, and is doing, consequential damage to the acquisition system and even with new reforms it may take years to entice greater innovation back into the halls of the Pentagon.
Organizationally, this volume will address legislative proposals in the following areas: System Review and Deregulation; Exceptions to the Current Acquisition System; Leveling the Playing Field Between Traditional and Non-Traditional Contractors; Acquisition Reform by Types of Acquisition, Improving the Acquisition Workforce; Bid Protest Reform, and Organizational Changes and Oversight. |
