A senior senator is researching ways to reform Pentagon weapons buying and plans to offer legislation intended to build up the Weapon Systems Acquisition Reform Act of 2009.
Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Defense subcommittee (SAC-D) and Senate Majority Whip, said Tuesday he wants the Pentagon’s acquisition processes to be examined for cost savings. He said he is “gathering information” to inform future legislation.
He told reporters that he doesn’t want to “reinvent” the weapons-systems act from four years ago, which the Senate Armed Services Committee crafted.
“But several things have come to light,” Durbin said Tuesday after a SAC-D hearing. “This whole concurrency issue (when the Pentagon builds systems it is still developing) is controversial and it deserves to be taken a look at, because it’s very expensive. They’ve found that this test-as-you-buy adds time and cost to the process.”
Durbin said at this point he’s “open to some ideas” on how to address concurrency, which is a practice used with Lockheed Martin’s [LMT] F-5 Joint Strike Fighter, the Pentagon’s largest weapons programs. The SAC-D will hold a hearing on the F-35, Durbin said, calling it “exhibit A because of its cost.”
Durbin said as he researches possible acquisition changes he wants to examine the implementation of the 2009 weapons-reform legislation.
“I want to evaluate what they achieved, and also the shortcomings of their effort,” he said. “Many times we have great ideas as legislators that don’t work so well in the real world. So I want to take an honest look at that.”
Durbin said he does not know if the acquisition legislation he is working on would be a stand-alone bill or be included in the Senate Appropriations Committee’s (SAC) fiscal year 2014 appropriations legislation.
He further said he does not know when the SAC will advance its Pentagon budget legislation, because the Senate is revising its so-called 302(b) allocations for its appropriations bills. Asked if the SAC might unveil its defense appropriations bill this summer, Durbin replied: “Wouldn’t that be nice.”
The House Appropriations Committee, meanwhile, plans to mark up its version of the FY ’14 defense appropriations bill Wednesday.