HASC, SASC Chairs: Acquisition Reform at Stake in Face of NDAA Veto Threat

President Obama’s threat to veto the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that passed the House and Senate and is now on its way to the president’s desk could jeopardize the bill’s defense acquisition reform provisions, according to the chairmen of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees. If Obama vetoes an “overwhelmingly bipartisan” bill that was “authorized to the level that the president requested,” $611.9 billion, then “he is placing a higher priority over his concern and opposition to the funding budgetary mechanism than he is over the defense of the country,” said Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) yesterday at the Brookings Institution. “It is not a money bill,” he added. “The money is in the appropriations committee, so if he has a problem with the level of appropriations, then it seems to me that fight should be with the appropriators.”

 

The NDAA authorizes Obama’s defense discretionary spending request in full, which includes $12.5 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). However, Obama has threatened a veto over the use of Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funding to avoid base budget caps. “[Obama] has accepted other bills with OCO in it,” McCain noted. “It is not as if this is a brand-new problem.” Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Tex.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, pointed to the reforms included in the bill, particularly acquisition reform. “If it continues to take us 20 years to field a new airplane, that airplane is going to be hopelessly out of date by the time it gets there. We’ve got to do better,” he said. Thornberry said that the bill focuses on “thinning out some of the regulations” and “requiring more of the work be done up front.”