House Armed Services Committee

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How Pentagon Contracting Is Killing the Military’s Technological Edge

Katherine McIntire Peters | Government Executive | May 17, 2017

How long does it take to buy a new handgun? More than a decade, if you’re the U.S. Army. What sounds like the set up to a bad joke is all too real in the world of Defense acquisition. It took the Army 10 years to develop and rewrite requirements for a new handgun when, in 2005, the service set out to replace the M9 Beretta pistol soldiers had carried for decades. The first draft of the Army’s 350-page request for proposals (not counting 23 attachments) issued in 2015 somehow neglected to identify key requirements, such as the caliber of the weapon. As chronicled in a new report on Defense acquisition, “the paperwork alone added an estimated $15 million or 20 percent to procurement cost”...

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Panetta, Shinseki Acknowledge Frustration in Streamling Military Health Care

Staff Writer | Washington Post | July 26, 2012

Secretary of Defense Leon E. Panetta and Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki acknowledged Wednesday that they have been frustrated by departmental bureaucracy in their attempts to streamline military health care for severely wounded service members. Read More »

Panetta: Defense and VA Need to ‘Kick Ass’ to Improve Service to Veterans

Bob Brewin | NextGov | July 26, 2012

The bureaucracies in the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments hobble joint efforts to care for veterans, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta told lawmakers at a House hearing Wednesday. Read More »

U.S. Nuclear Security Agency Has 'Failed,' Advisory Panel Says

Diane Barnes | Nextgov | March 27, 2014

A congressionally mandated panel says a key Energy Department agency has "failed" in its mission to effectively oversee U.S. nuclear-arms operations.  Drastic reforms are crucial to address "systemic" management shortcomings at the National Nuclear Security Administration, according to preliminary findings unveiled on Wednesday by the co-chairs of the Advisory Panel on the Governance of the Nuclear Security Enterprise.

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