Maggie Goodlander: Military Right-To-Repair Could Cut Down 'On Waste, Fraud, And Abuse'

5 months ago

During a House Armed Services Committee hearing before the Congressional recess, Rep. Maggie Goodlander (D-NH) asked Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Michael Duffey about right-to-repair for military equipment.

Transcript

00:00A gentlelady from New Hampshire, Ms. Goodlander.

00:02Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to our witnesses for being here today.

00:07Mr. Duffy, I really appreciate your testimony about the importance of competition in the

00:12defense industrial base, and I'm grateful to the chairman and the ranking member for their

00:17leadership on acquisition reform, which is such a crucial part of promoting competition,

00:23which is going to go to the heart of cutting down on waste, fraud, and abuse,

00:27and it's going to strengthen our military readiness across the board.

00:31I wanted to ask you, just thank you for your written testimony on the major defense

00:37acquisition program reviews that are underway. From your testimony, I take it that these

00:42reviews are still ongoing, is that the case? That is correct, yes.

00:46And I did notice that it's a 90-day review, so I'm just curious if you have a sense of,

00:52from the April 9th executive order, when you expect your review to be complete?

00:56So we do have an initial review that we're working through that will support deliverable

01:03to the White House. I know we're a little late on that, but we're working towards that initial

01:08review, which was a combination of conversations with the programs and an analysis of the data

01:14that's available. But I think we're viewing the MDAP review process as continuous, right? It's a

01:20constant opportunity for us to evaluate the performance of those programs and engage with

01:25those program leaders to ensure that we're providing the top cover and support they need to execute.

01:30I couldn't agree more. It should be an ongoing review. How many programs are you looking at overall?

01:36Is it 72? That's correct, 72 MDAPs. And can you tell us now, of these programs that you've reviewed,

01:42are there any programs that are on schedule?

01:48I'm sorry, I don't have the aggregate data. I'd be happy to provide that to you. I do believe we do

01:54have some success, excuse me, some successful programs that we're championing, like the B21 is one that I

02:01believe we have, Mr. Bailey may correct me, but I believe we view that as a model program that performs

02:07on cost and schedule. That's great. Well, be eager to hear what you're learning throughout this review

02:13and ways we can work together to raise up the gold standards, to identify and raise up the gold

02:20standards. You know, I wanted to ask, there have been some questions about the right to repair. This is

02:24something I'm very passionate about. I'm grateful that this has been a truly bipartisan issue. When I

02:30think about it, it really goes to the core of readiness. It goes to the core of cutting down on

02:35waste, fraud, and abuse. I want to ask you, as we look at, there are, of course, some technical issues

02:43to work out, some big questions about how we balance priorities and imperatives. But as we look towards

02:51implementation, I'm curious if there are particular systems that come to mind for you that you would

02:56say we should be focused on and prioritizing as we work to maximize readiness and reduce the risks to

03:03our service members. I'm not sure that I've got a specific system, but I can talk you through kind of

03:09the thinking, right? I mean, the one, of course, priority is the criticality of systems to the war fight,

03:17right? All our systems are important, but which ones are critical and how does that measure against the

03:22current operational readiness? And then how does that measure against our dependency on ensuring that

03:28they're sustained? So I think that would be part of, as we're working through those MDAP reviews, not just

03:34thinking about where are we in terms of developing and procuring those systems, but how are we thinking about what it would

03:41be required for us to maintain a whole of life cycle plan to address sustainment? And I mean, two-thirds,

03:50traditionally two-thirds the cost of a weapon system is in the sustainment of it. And so ensuring that

03:55we're thinking ahead when we're acquiring a system to manage the cost and the ability for us to sustain

04:01that system throughout its life cycle needs to be paramount. Well, I thank you for that and look forward

04:06to continuing the conversation. You know, my home district, New Hampshire's home to a number of

04:11small businesses that are really crucial to our nation's submarine and shipbuilding programs.

04:18These companies are really at the core of supporting DOD and the Navy in meeting their 2 plus 1 Virginia

04:24class and Columbia class submarine manufacturing goal. In the past few months, I know the department has

04:29awarded a number of contracts to prime shipyards to cover large inflationary cost increases over the

04:36past five years. Small businesses in my district have said that they're facing the exact same

04:42challenges. So I wanted to ask you, Mr. Duffy and Mr. Potter to, and I'll ask you this on the questions

04:49for the record too, but I'm curious to know more about the department's approach to assisting small

04:53businesses, second and third tier suppliers like the ones in my district who are also experiencing these

04:59challenges. And those answers have to be for the record.

Maggie Goodlander: Military Right-To-Repair Could Cut Down 'On Waste, Fraud, And Abuse'

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