March 21, 2024

Manchin Questions Defense Budget Officials On Department Of Defense Fiscal Oversight

Washington, DC – Yesterday, U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), questioned officials with the Planning, Programming, Budgeting and Execution (PPBE) Reform Commission on reinstating the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Chief Management Officer position and promoting fiscal responsibility when communicating within the Department.

Congress established the PPBE Reform Commission in the Fiscal Year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to examine the effectiveness of the Department’s PPBE process, which allocates resources to meet national security objectives.

On reinstating the DoD Chief Management Officer (CMO) position:

“In 2005, the Chief Management Officer position was recommended and you all paid no attention. It never took hold and no one supported it…you would think the Department of Defense, being as large as it is, would want oversight on spending,” Senator Manchin continued. “Is what you’re saying that by having an oversight CMO – a management officer – is adding to the bureaucracy? They’re supposed to be overseeing it to not become more bureaucratic…No one is reporting on any checkers. I can tell you that because we can’t get an audit out of y’all.”

On promoting communication around fiscal responsibility within DoD:

“In your executive summary for your report, you all call out the damage delayed budgets and continuing resolutions due to our national security, which we all agree. One example is the continuing resolution that covered the beginning of Fiscal Year 2023, which cost DoD nearly $18 billion, according to the American Enterprise Institute,” Senator Manchin said in part. “To help address this, you’ve called for the creation of a ‘common modern business system’ to better communicate information inside the Department and to Congress…Who do you see in the Department successfully leading this effort?”

The witnesses were Robert F. Hale, Chair of the PPBE Reform Commission, Ellen M. Lord, Vice Chair, and Lara C. Sayer, Executive Director.

A video of Senator Manchin’s questioning of the witnesses can be found here.