McCain unveils defense acquisition reform bill
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican and U.S. presidential candidate, on Tuesday introduced broad legislation aimed at fixing what he called the "dysfunctional" way the Pentagon buys major weapons.
He said major issues had arisen with some of the biggest defense programs during this Congress alone, including the Navy's Littoral Combat Ship and the Air Force's $15 billion program to build a new combat search and rescue helicopter.
The Navy last month terminated Lockheed Martin Corp.'s contract to build a second shore-hugging Littoral Combat Ship after major cost overruns on the first one.
In February, the Government Accountability Office sustained a protest filed by Lockheed and Sikorsky Aircraft, a unit of United Technologies Corp., after the Air Force awarded the helicopter contract to Boeing Co..
"If we continue to buy weapon systems in an ineffective and inefficient manner so that costs continue to go up or the deployment of the system is delayed, it will only hurt the soldier, sailor, airman, or Marine in the field," McCain said in a statement on the Senate floor.
He said he planned to offer his package of acquisition reforms as part of the defense authorization bill now being crafted by the Senate Armed Services Committee.
"Without fundamental reforms ... we will continue to buy weapon systems in an ineffective manner, which usually results in long delays and unexpected cost growth," he said.
Congress killed a proposed $23.5 billion Air Force deal to lease and buy 100 Boeing 767s as refueling tankers after a lengthy investigation by McCain revealed that it would have cost taxpayers $5 billion more than necessary.
The scandal also led to the conviction of a former top Air Force official and a former top Boeing official for federal conflict of interest violations, and prompted thorough reviews of other big weapons programs.
McCain said his reforms would address the tendency by defense officials to add requirements to weapons systems once they were under development, which swelled costs, or to drop requirements that military commands say they need.
He said his legislation would have the top uniformed officials in each service oversee acquisition decisions, and create a new committee headed by acquisition, resource and requirements officials to make investment decisions.
In addition, he said the legislation had new guidelines to help the Pentagon better manage unexpected cost growth.
It would also limit multi-year weapons contracts to the "best performing and most stable programs," rein in abuses in the use of award fees, and require contractors to have tough internal ethics rules.
He said action was urgent, given that it could take years to implement the reforms.
"Our defense spending has doubled, from $350 billion to $650 billion in the last decade," he said. "The taxpayer expects that we spend his hard-earned paycheck in a sound and cost-effective manner. But to do that we must start now."
The House Armed Services Committee has worked on acquisition reform measures, which increases the chance of some of the measures at least winning approval and becoming law.
