NDAA Conferees Should Retain Several Good-Government Provisions

Dear Chairman Inhofe, Chairman Smith, Ranking Member Reed, and Ranking Member Thornberry:

On behalf of National Taxpayers Union (NTU), the nation’s oldest taxpayer advocacy organization, I urge you to retain several good-government provisions in the Senate and House versions of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) as you prepare to conference on the legislation. These provisions, detailed below, would help make the Department of Defense more efficient and accountable to taxpayers without adversely impacting servicemembers or civilian personnel at DoD.

NTU has long used its extensive body of work on government reform to advocate for better operational and financial management at the Pentagon. Though we sometimes disagree with Members of Congress on topline levels of investment in the Pentagon budget, we have regularly found common ground with Members across the ideological spectrum on the need for a DoD that is more transparent and effective for taxpayers.

To that end, we urge you to keep the following provisions of S. 4049, the “National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021,” in the conference version of the FY 2021 NDAA:

• Sec. 1003, “Incentives for the achievement by the components of the Department of Defense of unqualified audit opinions on the financial statements.”^[1] This section would require DoD to develop and report to Congress on incentives that could help agencies and departments within DoD pass their financial audits. This commonsense measure would explore what incentives, if any, could help DoD turn the tide on its decades-long financial management struggles.
• Sec. 1088, “Requirement to post a 100 word summary to regulations.gov.”^[2] Even legal and policy experts can sometimes have trouble analyzing lengthy and complex proposed regulations from federal agencies. This provision would require a short “plain language” summary for each proposed rule, instantly making these agencies more accessible to the general public.

And we encourage you to keep the following provisions of H.R. 6395, the “William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021,” in the conference version of the FY 2021 NDAA:

• Sec. 1770, “Taxpayers Right-To-Know Act.”^[3] The Taxpayers Right-To-Know Act would require the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to complete its work on a federal program inventory, a requirement originally included in the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) Modernization Act of 2010. A coalition of eight good-government groups wrote to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform in July 2020, urging their support for this amendment’s inclusion in the NDAA.^[4] The coalition was pleased to see Taxpayers Right-To-Know added to H.R. 6395 on a voice vote, and NTU sincerely hopes conferees will keep the legislation in their compromise bill.
• Sec. 813, “Contractor whistleblower protections relating to nondisclosure agreements.”^[5] Whistleblowers play a critical role in preventing waste and abuse of taxpayer dollars. This provision, which earned bipartisan support in the House, would ensure subcontractors and subgrantees have the same whistleblower protections the federal government affords to contractors and grantees.
• Sec. 849, “Reestablishment of Commission on Wartime Contracting.”^[6] This provision would restore the Wartime Contracting Commission, which during just three years of existence uncovered between $31 billion and $60 billion lost to waste, fraud, and abuse through wartime contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan.^[7]
• Sec. 1005, “Department of Defense audit remediation plan.”^[8] This section would give Congress a better sense of how much DoD has spent on maintaining and updating its financial management systems over the past five years. This will give lawmakers a better understanding of the Pentagon’s progress in avoiding future audit failures and improving the in-house financial system at the sprawling agency.
• Sec. 1006, “Public availability of Department of Defense legislative proposals.”^[9] When DoD makes certain requests of Congress that do not contain classified or otherwise sensitive information, the public should know about these interactions between the two branches. This measure would ensure that the public has access to requests DoD makes to either of the Armed Services committees in Congress.
• Sec. 1115, “Vacancy of Inspector General positions.”^[10] This section would ensure that Inspector General (IG) vacancies are filled by first assistants in an acting capacity and, if first assistants are not available, by an individual who served in an IG office for at least 90 days during the prior year. This provision would ensure that acting IGs, who serve a critical role in watching over taxpayer dollars, are filled by individuals qualified to serve as an IG and knowledgeable of the office’s responsibilities.
• Sec. 1522, “Report on transitioning funding.”^[11] This provision would require the Secretary of Defense to report to Congress on how the Pentagon intends to shift Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funding from the OCO account to the base budget. The OCO account may go away soon with the expiration of Budget Control Act (BCA) caps, but if it does not then DoD should have a plan for moving base and enduring costs out of an account that is supposed to be limited to emergency needs.