House takes on waste in weapons purchases

WASHINGTON — The House on Wednesday took on the perennial Pentagon tendency to buy weapons systems that end up costing far more than originally anticipated and needing far more time than expected to reach the troops.

Lawmakers voted 428-0 to approve legislation to tighten and add new oversight and transparency to a procurement system that long has been marked by cost overruns and delays.

The House vote came just six days after the Senate unanimously approved a similar bill, and responds to a request by President Barack Obama for Congress to send him a bill improving Pentagon purchasing practices by Memorial Day.

It coincides with moves by Defense Secretary Robert Gates to halt or curtail weapons programs, such as the F-22 fighter, that have soared in cost at a time the Pentagon is shifting its warfighting strategies.

The Defense Department also has announced plans to add 20,000 personnel over five years to keep an eye on contracts, cost estimates and oversight.

“The need for this legislation is urgent and indisputable,” Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said. Skelton cited a recent congressional study concluding that 96 major weapons systems are now running almost $300 billion over original cost estimates and on average are 22 months behind schedule.

“That is more than two years of pay and health care for all of our troops,” he said.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, noted during the earlier Senate debate that just two big-ticket weapons programs — the next-generation Joint Strike Fighter and the Future Combat System — have accumulated cost overruns of $80 billion, with average unit costs now 40 percent above original estimates.

He blamed such problems as unrealistic cost estimates and performance expectations and using immature technologies.

The House bill requires the defense secretary to name officials within his office to oversee cost estimates and assess performance. It seeks to promote competition in the acquisition process, limit conflicts of interest and tighten existing rules under which programs plagued by cost overruns can be put under greater scrutiny or terminated. It also tells the Pentagon to track the cost growth of programs in the early stages of acquisition when most costs are determined.

“The focus on early-stage acquisition is vital,” said Rep. John McHugh of New York, top Republican on the committee, because “the sins that cause most cost overruns are generally created in the initial stages of the acquisition process.”

Skelton said the House bill was tailored to match the Senate-passed bill so that it could get to Obama quickly. But there are some differences that need to be resolved.

Unlike the House bill, which establishes an acquisitions adviser within the defense secretary’s office, the Senate would create a new director of independent cost assessment tasked with ensuring that the budget assumptions are sound. The director would report to the secretary but would be picked by the president and be subject to Senate confirmation.

Levin, author of the Senate bill with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said the status of this new director could be “a major sticking point” when the two sides negotiate a final bill.

Skelton and McHugh also pointed out that, like the Senate bill, their bill deals mainly with major weapons systems, which comprise only about 20 percent of total Pentagon spending on acquisition. They said they will continue working on the issue. “The remaining 80 percent of DOD programs will not go unaddressed,” McHugh said.

Spending on weapons usually comprise about a third of the Pentagon’s annual budget. The White House has proposed a defense budget of $533.7 billion for the 2010 fiscal year.

The bill is H.R. 2101.

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