{"id":55850,"date":"2017-03-21T20:02:29","date_gmt":"2017-03-21T20:02:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2017\/03\/21\/democrats-hammer-trump-budget-plan-with-dod-efficiency-study\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:02:50","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:02:50","slug":"democrats-hammer-trump-budget-plan-with-dod-efficiency-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/congress\/2017\/03\/21\/democrats-hammer-trump-budget-plan-with-dod-efficiency-study\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats hammer Trump budget plan with DoD efficiency study"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday\u00a0used a Pentagon efficiency study that claimed $125 billion in unrealized savings to attack President Trump’s plan to fund a defense hike with domestic cuts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the House oversight committee, was among House Democrats who questioned the wisdom of Trump’s planned $54 billion defense add when, according to the Defense Business Board study, there is huge waste in DoD’s back-office bureaucracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“He proposes boosting defense spending by billions of dollars,” Cummings said of Trump, “and he proposes funding this increase by slashing dozens of critical programs that promote our national security and our nation’s most vulnerable communities\u2014the elderly, children, and the rural working class.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

The comments came at a House Oversight and Government Reform hearing, where Democrats decried the Trump “America First” budget’s deep cuts to the State Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, foreign aid and social programs. The budget outline released earlier this month is seen as untenable in Congress and the prelude to a government shutdown\u2014if lawmakers cannot reach a bipartisan deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They should know our national security is paramount, but the Trump administration fails to recognize how these draconian cuts make us less safe,” said Florida Rep. Val Demings, the ranking Democrat on the House Subcommittee on Intergovernmental Affairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the hearing \u2014 which heard from DoD Acting Deputy Chief Management Officer David Tillotson III, and several architects of the study \u2014 several Republicans teed off on Pentagon waste without criticizing the Trump budget request. Some noted that the savings could fund more troops, ships and planes.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Though the\u00a0perception that DoD suppressed the study fueled the hearing, Tillotson pushed back, saying it was “discussed at the highest levels,” and his office is seeking $7.9 billion in efficiencies based on its analytics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I think the one thing I would take unequivocal issue with is that the report was in any way suppressed,” Tillotson said. “It was actively discussed within the department at the time and it has formed the basis of discussion since that time.” The DBB, a civilian advisory panel of business leaders established to provide senior defense leaders with independent management advice, produced this efficiency report among others.\u00a0

After a year of study, the DBB issued its conclusion there was $125 billion in unrealized savings over five years. It claimed that by renegotiating contracts with vendors, offering early retirements and retraining employees to be more efficient, the building could save about $125 billion between fiscal 2016 and 2020, or about $25 billion a year. <\/div>
<\/div><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Those savings could then be pumped back into the force, the board claimed, and would equal the funding it takes to field 50 Army brigades, 10 Navy carrier strike groups or 83 Air Force F-35 fighter wings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the hearing, Tillotson conceded that efficiency and audit efforts are an internal struggle, and that there\u00a0is more for to do, particularly in service contract reviews. But he also\u00a0pointedly noted DoD needs base closures, a move Congress resists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Efficiencies means we take a look at moving money from activities into new activities,” Tillotson said, adding: \u00a0“It’s intriguing to me that when we opt to let a leased contract for a building lapse \u2026 that we spend three trips to a state delegation to explain why we can’t close that contract.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

In December 2016, the Washington Post reported the study was covered up and ignored\u2014a charge lawmakers explored at the hearing. Amid lawmaker questions, former DBB chairman Bobby Stein said\u00a0that his successor as chairman, Michael Bayer, and then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter “did not want to continue” the study after his departure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet DBB member Kenny Klepper, who worked with Stein on the study, said senior military leadership was “extremely supportive” of the work, but did not welcome its timing. (DBB released its findings a week before the 2016 budget request was due to be unveiled.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Tuesday, lawmakers vented frustration that the Pentagon had spent $9 million on the study with so little to show for it.\u00a0

In one tense exchange, committee chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, lashed out at Tillotson over whether the subcontractor studying DoD inefficiency for the DBB \u2014 McKinsey & Company \u2014 was required to produce a report. Tillotson, earlier in the hearing, had brandished DBB’s findings to suggest they had not been squelched. <\/div>
<\/div>
“We paid $9 million in taxpayer’s [dollars] to get a report,” Chaffetz said. “You started flailing around, saying here it is, it’s printed. This is a slide deck, it’s not a report.” <\/div>
<\/div>
McKinsey was contracted to produce research, which DBB used for its report\u2014and that was not realized beyond a slide deck. Tillotson began to explain, but Chaffetz cut him off and the two talked over one another.\u00a0 <\/div>
<\/div>
“This is why we’re having this hearing,” Chaffetz stormed. “This is why you’re overseeing a department in chaos.” <\/div><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Email:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 jgould@defensenews.com<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Twitter:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 @reporterjoe<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democratic lawmakers used a Pentagon efficiency study that claimed $125 billion in potential savings to attack President Trump\u2019s plan to fund a defense hike with domestic cuts. 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