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5 ‘bold’ recommendations to improve DoD acquisition

January 22, 2019 By Andrew Smith

Congress and the Defense Department are paying close attention to recommendations coming from the Section 809 panel to change the military’s acquisition process.

The House and Senate Armed Service committees added every idea from the group’s May 2017 interim report as well as many of the recommendations from the panel’s January 2018 volume one report to recent Defense authorization bills, said David Drabkin, the panel’s chairman.

“During this process, we have met frequently with both the House Armed Services Committee, the Senate Armed Services Committee, and on occasion we have met with the House Appropriations Defense subcommittee and Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Defense, and have worked closely with the department as you can see on the panel, three of the department’s acquisition executives have been a part of the panel itself,” Drabkin said Tuesday during the roll out of the volume 3 recommendations in Washington, D.C. “We can’t assure Congress will accept our work, but we have an indication that they are very interested. As you look around the room, you can see members from the staff of the HASC and SASC sitting in the meeting today.”

So with the congressionally-mandated group of public-private sector experts issuing their third and final set of recommendations on Jan. 15th detailing 58 new ones across 13 sections, the likelihood of many of these proposals advancing is good. In all, the panel made 93 recommendations, provide implementation plans and legislative language across more than 1,000 pages and three volumes of work since 2016.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/acquisition/2019/01/5-bold-recommendations-to-improve-dod-acquisition/

See the 809 Panel’s final report here: 

  • Final Report – Part 1 – Sec809Panel_Vol3-Report_JAN19_part-1
  • Final Report – Part 2 – Sec809Panel_Vol3-Report_JAN19_part-2

See the 809 Panel’s earlier reports here: https://section809panel.org/media/updates/ 

Filed Under: Contracting News Tagged With: acquisition reform, Congress, DoD, House Armed Services Committee, innovation, procurement reform, Section 809 Panel, Senate Armed Services Committee

Four steps to fix the security clearance backlog

December 13, 2018 By Andrew Smith

Congress will get an update on the security clearance backlog this week, but if you can’t tune in, here’s the bottom line up front: the government has taken steps, there has been progress and the system is improving, but it’s not nearly enough.

There are still more than 600,000 government and industry employees waiting for security clearances from the federal government — highly skilled Americans who are sidelined because of bureaucratic red tape. Some have been waiting as long as 500 days just to go to work.

We in the aerospace and defense industry must frequently ask new employees to delay showing up for work, or do less important work, for months until their clearances are approved. The slow pace of background investigations impedes our industry’s ability to recruit the talented individuals we need to fulfill important roles, such as conducting space missions, managing cyber networks, and performing advanced manufacturing.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2018/12/four-steps-fix-security-clearance-backlog/153445

Filed Under: Contracting News Tagged With: advanced manufacturing, cybersecurity, House Armed Services Committee, industry, security, security clearance

Next NDAA might add more cyber provisions

May 8, 2018 By Andrew Smith

The next defense authorization bill could have a slew of new cyber provisions aimed at streamlining the Defense Department’s collaboration with the rest of government.

The House Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities released a markup of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act on April 26 that includes a range of cyber provisions and recommendations focusing on expanding cyber forces, protecting critical infrastructure and consolidating cyber responsibilities.

Key provisions include:

  • Studying state cyber teams.
  • Protecting critical infrastructure with more hackathons.
  • Boosting breach notification requirements. 
  • Prioritizing tech needs at DOD installations.
  • Fully integrating DIUx’s Silicon Valley vibe into defense labs. 
  • Mapping cyber vulnerabilities in weapons systems. 
  • Cyber Command absorbing (some of) DISA’s responsibilities.

Read details on each of these provisions at: https://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2018/04/27/ndaa-markup-cyber.aspx

Filed Under: Contracting News Tagged With: critical infrastructure, cyber, Cyber Command, cyber incidents, Cyber Security, DISA, DIUx, HASC, House Armed Services Committee

Latest effort to reform DoD acquisition borrows heavily from expert panel’s recommendations

April 24, 2018 By Andrew Smith

For the fourth year in a row, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee is pushing a package of legislation that he says will modernize and accelerate the Defense acquisition system.

This year’s version includes at least a couple of key differences though. For one, it attempts to prod the Defense Department to implement the changes Congress has already passed as part of prior-year reform bills.

For another, most of the changes Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) is proposing were first recommended by the Section 809 Panel, an 18-member team of acquisition experts Congress commissioned in 2017 to provide advice on how to streamline the system.

Among the traits shared by the Thornberry bill and the recommendations the 809 panel has already delivered is an emphasis on scraping years of detritus from the federal statutes that govern the acquisition system.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsradio.com/defense-main/2018/04/house-chairmans-latest-effort-to-reform-dod-acquisition-borrows-heavily-from-expert-panels-recommendations/ 

Filed Under: Contracting News Tagged With: acquisition reform, commercial item, HASC, House Armed Services Committee, NDAA, procurement reform, Section 809 Panel

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