Texas Insider Report: WASHINGTON D.C. U.S. Congressman and Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee Mac Thornberry (R-Clarendon) today introduced the Agile Acquisition to Retain Technological Edge Act H.R. 1597 a bill to reform the Department of Defenses (DOD) broken acquisition system.
We are releasing this bill one month ahead of the National Defense Authorization Act consideration because we want to get peoples feedback. We listened to a lot of folks as we drafted this bill and we want to hear from them again as we work to make it law Thornberry said. While this bill wont fix all that is broken it is a start.Thornberry and other Members of the Armed Services Committee have engaged with experts at the DOD in the defense industry and within Congress for more than a year with a focus on reforming the DODs acquisition system. Thornberry said part of the motivation to act on this reform is out of budgetary concerns to make sure taxpayer dollars are being spent wisely. He also explained that dysfunction in the acquisition process is sapping Americas technological edge and robbing the U.S. military of agility in the face of multiplying threats.
The broken acquisition system is contributing to the loss of our militarys technological edge. I hope that by streamlining the process improving accountability and eliminating outdated regulations we can start to get some of that edge back said Thornberry. Ultimately this acquisition reform must make the system more proactive agile transparent and innovative.You can find the bill text and more information about the reform effort here: Defense Reform.
