The Pentagon ended a controversial rule yesterday limiting the length of reports to Congress after a leading House member threatened to penalize the Pentagon.
Under Secretary of Defense for Policy James Miller rescinded year-old guidance yesterday saying most reports to Congress should not exceed 10 pages, Pentagon spokesman George Little told reporters at the Pentagon.
Miller’s action came a day after House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-Calif.) lashed out at the rule at a press conference, when he told reporters the Pentagon gave Congress a report on China’s military that was inadequate because of a new policy he was told limits such reports to 15 pages. McKeon sent an angry letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta Wednesday, then went further yesterday and threatened to block Pentagon requests to Congress to reprogram funds in its coffers.
Miller issued a memo yesterday rescinding the guidance limiting reports to 10 pages when possible, saying now “there is no page limit,” according to Little.
“Congressional reports should be as long as necessary to ensure that they fully answer the questions posed by Congress,” Little said, reading from the memo.
The spokesman said Pentagon officials “take very seriously our obligations to engage regularly with Congress, to inform them of the activities of this department.”
He said the page-limiting guidance didn’t have a “hard-and-fast” 10-page limit, and the goal of it was “to ensure more concise and well-written reports.”
Little also noted the Chinese military report that frustrated McKeon is longer than 10 pages and has a “much-longer” classified annex.
McKeon told reporters “many things were left out” of the annual China report, which he said was more robust in past years. His staff circulated a list of issues not addressed in the report, yet observers noted at least some of them may be addressed in the classified document’s appendixes.
In his letter to Panetta, McKeon charged the justification for the report-limiting rule did not appear to be cost-savings, “but rather an internal decision to limit the amount of information to be provided to Congress.”
The HASC chairman charged the now-defunct guidance “reeks of obstructionism, a lack of transparency and is harmful to constitutionally mandated congressional oversight and national security.”
Lawmakers often lament that the Pentagon does not deliver reports to them in the required time or with the desired information, while Pentagon officials have said Congress’ frequent calls for reports of all varieties are excessively costly.