Smith’s Statement on DOD Acquisition Reform Bill
April 28, 2010
“The existing acquisition process of the Department of Defense takes far too long and often times breeds excessive cost overruns. The process is susceptible to waste, fraud, and abuse. This must change. The current defense acquisition process must be reformed. When the system fails, it fails our troops and it fails the American tax payer.
“The legislation passed by the House today will help ensure that our brave men and women in uniform get the equipment they need to do their job in a more efficient and timely fashion. The legislation will overhaul the defense acquisition process by enacting four common sense reforms: establishing a better accountability system, improving the management of the acquisition workforce, creating an auditable financial management system at DOD, and expanding and strengthening the industrial base.
“These reforms, while not a panacea, are expected to save the taxpayer $135 billion over the next five years. That is a substantial amount of money, and these are substantial reforms. I applaud Congressman Rob Andrews and Congressman Mike Conaway as well as all the member of HASC who worked so hard on this issue over the last year.”