House defense modernization caucus eyes ‘constructively disruptive’ reforms at DOD
Defense Department leaders and congressional lawmakers are eyeing major acquisition reforms, bureaucratic fixes and new funding flexibilities for certain emerging military capabilities in the early days of the second Trump administration, officials said Tuesday on Capitol Hill.
“I think that the building is not quite prepared for what’s about to happen to it. That’s my observation in the first 30 days,” noted Colin Carroll, chief of staff to the deputy secretary of defense, referring to the Pentagon.
Carroll, a former Marine Corps intelligence officer with deep AI expertise, participated on a panel with defense and industry officials at the House Defense Modernization Caucus’ official re-launch for this session of Congress.
At the event, HDMC’s co-founders Reps. Rob Wittman, R-Va., and Pat Ryan, D-N.Y., also spotlighted some of the caucus’ near-term initiatives — including growing its bipartisan membership and driving legislative changes to transform how DOD adopts modern software and tech-enabled warfighting assets.
“I think we have a huge opportunity in the new administration. I’m very optimistic that there’s broad, bipartisan and sort of non-partisan recognition of the urgencies here. And disruption can be good as long as we’re thoughtful about it, which I think we will be. And we want to be part of driving that and making sure that that’s aligned with you all,” Ryan, an Army combat veteran, told attendees.
Broadly, the lawmakers suggested that in parallel with their Senate colleagues, the one-year-old caucus is keen to pinpoint and ultimately eliminate what they view to be unnecessary bureaucratic layers and processes that are hindering the DOD acquisition system.
They each emphasized the need for more innovative “flexible funding” mechanisms to accelerate the delivery of new and quickly-evolving capabilities to the military — especially at the operational level.
“I think the caucus is a critical component of what’s necessary to inform both the authorization and appropriations process. The good news is that the authorizers and appropriators are starting to see what is necessary for us to do,” Wittman said.
“We’ve seen in the past when we’ve had significant changes, it is because Congress has acted. And we have to be unafraid of making big changes. Being constructively disruptive, that’s our key,” he added.
Government and industry officials on a separate panel also highlighted existing policy and contracting complexities that could be hindering the military’s progress, suggesting a need for both immediate and more lengthy institutional reforms to modernize how the Pentagon does business.
Carroll hinted at some of the potential changes in the pipeline from DOD’s new and incoming leadership team.
“I think you’ll see the administration do some interesting things with a concept called the DRPM, the Direct Reporting Program Manager, which is a formal acquisition concept that the services typically run,” he said, pointing to the Navy’s Overmatch program as one example.
“I think you’ll see that applied to some weapons systems and business systems directly to either the deputy or [acquisition and sustainment directorate] going forward [to move more quickly]. But you can’t do that with every weapon system and program in the department. So, we have to fix the longer-term foundation as well,” he explained.
