Defense Finance Reform

John Murtha (D-PA), one of the most powerful members in Congress due to his position as Chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, has caught flack in recent weeks for allegedly doling out no-bid contracts and contracts of questionable relevance to national security back to his district in Pennsylvania.

At his annual defense expo today, Murtha was very bullish on these allegations. He came out with this:

"So what's that got to do with me?" he said, when asked by a reporter about the investigation. "Wait a minute. What do you think, I oversee these companies? That's the Defense Department's job. That's not my job. You guys write these stories [but] you don't have a clue what this is all about."

No, you don't oversee the companies personally John, but you do appropriate them money. And when you are giving out money to companies without a proper bidding process and when these contracts have little to no value for US national security, then people have to ask questions.

Sadly, as this article points out, this practice of awarding dubious contracts is all too common at Congress. While some mavericks at least acknowledge the wasteful Pentagon spending like Gene Taylor (D-MS), many such as Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) simply want to funnel as much defense pork into their state even if the programs are wasteful and irrelevant (in Chambliss' case, the disastrous F-22).

The Weapons System Acquisition Reform Act of 2009 (summary here) is a decent first step, but there are still too many loopholes and easy ways out. In order to have timely and cost effective weapons systems, the Pentagon has to make giant changes and has to make a giant shift in thinking. I don't want to get into the whole "conventional vs. COIN" argument here, but there can be a healthy balance between the two schools of thought.