Here are the first picks on the PPBE Reform Commission

There seems to be broad agreement among most stakeholders the US needs “better, faster, affordable” development and acquisition of emerging technologies that will drive competitive advantage during potential future conflicts with peer adversaries. Despite thorough analyses and implementation of wave upon wave of acquisition reform proposals over the last 75 years, many in the national security enterprise remain frustrated and concerned with the inability to fix issues in costs, schedules, and performance in the delivery of new capabilities to the warfighter. There appears to be an emerging consensus among stakeholders that we must examine the PPBE resourcing authorities and processes as means to drive more dramatic and sustained change.

That was from a new NDIA report: Stepping back from acquisition reform: How our resourcing processes drive defense outcomes. I think that paragraph frames the overarching problem well enough, and prefaces the important announcement of the first four commissioners to the PPBE Reform commission! They come from the chair and ranking members from the House and Senate Armed Services Committees:

• HASC Chairman Adam Smith selected: The Honorable Eric Fanning is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA). Fanning joined AIA after serving as the 22nd Secretary of the Army.
• SASC Chairman Jack Reed selected: The Honorable Robert F. Hale is a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). From 2009 until 2014, Mr. Hale served as Comptroller and Chief Financial Officer at the Department of Defense. [Bob Hale has published two important papers in his Financing the Fight series: History and Assessment of DoD Budget Execution Processes and A history and assessment of Department of Defense budget formulation processes.]
• HASC Ranking Member Mike Rogers selected: Raj Shah is the Managing Partner of Shield Capital, an investment firm focused on technologies applicable to both the commercial and defense markets. Previously he ran the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx).
• SASC Ranking Member Jim Inhofe selected: The Honorable Ellen M. Lord is a senior adviser at The Chertoff Group. From 2017 to 2020, Ms. Lord served as the first Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment.

I hope they’re willing to take a bold vision of what needs to happen, but implement it incrementally. There are still 10 outstanding picks, four from the appropriations committee, four from majority and minority leadership in congress, and two from the Secretary of Defense.

By the way, the FY22 NDAA required the commission be established 30 days after the act passed, which implies January 26, 2022. Moreover, it says appointment authority “shall expire” after those 30 days, and the number of commissioners will be reduced by the amount not yet made. We’ll let all that slide. Here are some key notional dates from the NDAA:

One of the ironic parts is that the PPBE reform commission cannot start on time because DoD doesn’t have the money. The commission to reform the problem of resource allocation cannot get resources itself. The commission to reform untimely funding runs into untimely funding:

Pentagon Comptroller Mike McCord testified last month that DoD can’t fund the establishment of the internal budget process commission while the department operates under a continuing resolution, which freezes funding for programs at the previous year’s levels.

 

“Ironically, we won’t be able to support the standup of that commission under a CR until this [funding] issue is resolved,” McCord told House appropriators.

 — UPDATE: Additional commissioners selected include:

Senate:

• Senator Chuck Schumer (Majority Leader – Dem) appoints Arun Seraphin
• Senator Mitch McConnell (Minority Leader – Rep) appoints Jonathan Burks
• Senator Patrick Leahy (SAC Chair – Dem) appoints Jennifer Santos
• Senator Richard Shelby (SAC Ranking Member – Rep) appoints Dave Cortese

House of Representatives:

• Representative Nancy Pelosi (Speaker – Dem) appoints the Honorable Susan Davis
• Representative Kevin McCarthy (Republican Leader – Rep) appoints (?)
• Representative Rosa DeLauro (HAC Chair – Dem) appoints the Honorable Jamie Morin
• Representative Kay Granger (HAC Ranking Member – Rep) appoints Honorable David Norquist

The Secretary of Defense Appointed Peter Levine and Lisa Disbrow.

You can find more resources on the imperative of PPBE Reform here.