In releasing his version of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee today cautioned that the Administration should not repeat the mistakes of the past while expecting better results.
U.S. Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-Calif.), the defense panel’s chairman, detailed how the annual defense authorization bill provides an alternative path forward, proposing significant savings while also meeting the needs of our nation’s warfighters.
“The Department of Defense cannot continue to conduct business as usual and expect better results. Proposing to cut defense spending by nearly $500 billion in the coming decade without first conducting the necessary due diligence to determine what our nation’s basic defense requirements will be is an invitation to other countries to challenge America’s supremacy,” stated McKeon.
“When tapped to lead the Armed Services Committee, I committed—and instructed all Members of the Committee—to scrutinize the Department of Defense’s budget and identify inefficiencies so we may invest those savings into higher national security priorities. Up until now, the Pentagon has taken a band-aid approach to acquisition and management problems and has done little to identify the root causes of the inefficiencies that exist within the defense enterprise,” continued McKeon.
“The 2012 defense bill reflects the fact that members of the Armed Services Committee, the broader Congress—and the nation—must make tough choices in order to provide for America’s common defense. We must examine every aspect of the defense enterprise—not as a target for arbitrary funding reductions as the current Administration has proposed—but to find ways that we can accomplish the mission of providing for the common defense more effectively,” concluded McKeon.
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