{"id":25908,"date":"2022-09-19T18:08:42","date_gmt":"2022-09-19T18:08:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/uncategorized\/2022\/09\/19\/budget-reform-panel-at-work-after-organizational-problems\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T05:03:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T05:03:27","slug":"budget-reform-panel-at-work-after-organizational-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/congress\/2022\/09\/19\/budget-reform-panel-at-work-after-organizational-problems\/","title":{"rendered":"Budget reform panel at work after \u2018organizational problems\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2015 A select panel exploring a revamp of Pentagon budgeting is making \u201csignificant progress\u201d with meetings and research efforts after some \u201corganizational problems,\u201d according to its chairman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The congressionally mandated Commission on Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution Reform<\/a>, has been quietly convening for more than five months, interviewing witnesses and hiring staff, according to its chairman, former Pentagon comptroller Bob Hale<\/a>. The panel \u2015 made up of former officials from Congress, the Pentagon and industry \u2015 has also hired two federally funded research and development centers to assist its work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have made significant progress. We\u2019ve had some organizational problems, but, since we first met in March, we\u2019ll have our 10th meeting tomorrow,\u201d Hale told Defense News in an interview last week. \u201cWe have finally started to hire staff; that was tied up in some of the organizational issues we confronted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the panel is chartered by Congress, it\u2019s funded by the Defense Department, and that sparked internal debates that held up its plans to hire staff, according to Hale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chartered by the 2022 defense policy bill to recommend improvements to the Pentagon\u2019s 40-year-old process for allocating its immense resources, the panel\u2019s findings could have far-reaching effects. It comes as critics<\/a> say the process is too slow and cumbersome for the Pentagon to quickly buy cutting-edge technologies and outpace China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI spent 12 years as a political appointee in the financial area of DoD, trying to make PPBE work, and I think for the most part we did. But I never had time to step back and ask: How well is the system working? How long does it take? I hope the commission can do that,\u201d said Hale, who served as the Department of Defense comptroller from 2009 until 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the panel\u2019s 13 members are its vice chair, Ellen Lord<\/a>, a former undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment and former chief executive of Textron Systems; former Air Force Undersecretary Lisa Disbrow<\/a>; former Defense Innovation Unit director Raj Shah<\/a>; Aerospace Industries Association CEO Eric Fanning<\/a> and National Defense Industrial Association CEO David Norquist<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll of us have a common goal: to see if we can make some changes in this process that will make it better able to support the warfighter,\u201d Hale said.<\/p>\n\n\n\t