U.S. SENATE — U.S. Senator Steve Daines today secured the passage of his legislation to ensure taxpayer dollars are spent efficiently and effectively at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
This morning the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs overwhelmingly passed both S.886 – DHS Acquisition Review Board Act and the S.906 – Reduce DHS Acquisition Cost Growth Act.
“We need more accountability and transparency with taxpayer dollars,” Daines stated. “Making government more efficient should be bipartisan and I appreciate the bipartisan support today.”
DHS spends over $7 billion on acquisition programs annually. This legislation would codify acquisition best practices, increase transparency and accountability, increase communication and understanding of needs to industry providing these technologies, and require notification to the Inspector General and Congress when certain cost, schedule, and performance objectives are not met.
A recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report reviewed 26 acquisition programs at DHS in fiscal year 2016 (FY16) worth $7 billion. For FY16, the average schedule delay was 6 months with cost overruns of $988 million for the year and $1.57 billion over the lifecycle. GAO’s recommendations are to define technical requirements before setting baselines; document the rationale for key acquisition decisions; and clarify guidance on how programs are to report breaches.
The bills now awaits action on the U.S. Senate floor.
Daines introduced these bills on April 12, 2017.
The text of the bills is available HERE and HERE.
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Contact: Marcie Kinzel, Katie Waldman