Statement of Administration Policy: S. 454 - Weapons Systems Acquisition Reform Act of 2009

(Senate)

(Sen. Levin (D) Michigan and 13 cosponsors)

The Administration strongly supports the improvements in the areas of defense acquisition organization and policy that are addressed in S. 454, the Weapon Systems Acquisition Reform Act of 2009, and applauds the bipartisan initiative on these critical issues. The Administration agrees with the sponsors of S. 454 that the defense-acquisition process needs improvement in the areas of systems engineering, developmental test and evaluation, technological maturity, and cost estimation, and that changes are needed to strengthen a culture of acquisition excellence in the Department of Defense. The Administration is committed to making trade-offs among cost, schedule, and performance to significantly reduce cost growth in major defense acquisition programs. The Administration wants to ensure that the defense acquisition process is free from conflicts of interest and that the process supports the U.S. Government being a better steward of the taxpayers' dollars. The Administration believes that S. 454, with some changes that we have identified and we believe can satisfactorily be resolved, would enable the Administration to meet those objectives.