Q & A: Helter Skelton

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Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, is from Truman country. In fact, his father and former President Harry Truman were friends, and the 17-year-old Skelton attended the 33rd president’s inauguration in 1949.

Now, with a new president in office, Skelton sees a window of opportunity to reform the Pentagon’s acquisition process and implement a new strategy for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Reforming that process has been at the top of Skelton’s agenda for many years, and after reports that major weapons programs experienced nearly $300 billion in cost overruns last year, Skelton realized legislation was needed soon. Along with Armed Services ranking member John McHugh (R-N.Y.), Skelton introduced a sweeping bill to overhaul the acquisition process. The committee hopes to move quickly on the legislation later this spring.

Skelton spoke last week with CongressNow staff writer Eugene Mulero for Roll Call about the legislation, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ proposed weapons cuts.

CONGRESSNOW REPORTER EUGENE MULERO: I wanted to start with the pending [Weapons Acquisition System Reform Through Enhancing Technical Knowledge and Oversight] Act. A lot was said by you and your colleagues when you unveiled the bill that the time was right for it; that you are optimistic this legislation will [pass]. I wanted to ask you, what exactly about the current political climate gives you such confidence?

HOUSE ARMED SERVICES CHAIRMAN IKE SKELTON: I think basically there’s an attitude of addressing problems that carry over from the campaign — a thing called change. We all know that the acquisition system, at best, is a maze and difficult to work. So rather than rush to judgment and put in legislation immediately, I appointed a panel with Rep. Rob Andrews [D-N.J.] as chairman and Rep. Mike Conaway [R-Texas] as ranking member. And they have held hearings and had briefings. We announced it [April 23; we introduced it April 27]. That will tackle the acquisition of major weapon systems. But it really constitutes about 20 percent of the acquisition necessary for military. We are tackling major weapons systems. And what we did is, I think, was a major step in the right direction. It goes much further than the legislation that the Senate introduced [S. 454]. And we will be holding a markup on it in the very, very near future.

The panel will continue to exist and work on other aspects of acquisition. Probably they will be more structural in nature, as opposed to concentrate on weapons. And that’s what we intend to do. This is what we want to do.

ROLL CALL: Any sense of the timeline you expect to have the markup and when it could reach the floor?

SKELTON: We expect it soon. And we hope to get it on the floor in a reasonable time thereafter. With this acquisition bill we need to pay attention to cost delays, acquisition and so on, and [put the] spotlight on greater accountability in the legislation.

ROLL CALL: You mentioned there would be no amendments during the markup. Why are you so confident about that?

SKELTON: I didn’t say there would be no amendments. I said the panel has done such a thorough job. People are on the panel because they are keenly interested in this. I think the bill will move, basically, in the current form that it is now. We welcome good amendments. I think the major thinking has already gone into it, from the panel.

ROLL CALL: Did the panel ever express to you, or did you have any concerns with the [pending] Levin-McCain legislation [in the Senate]?

SKELTON: It wasn’t strong enough. Without going into details, 25 percent of our legislation goes beyond the Levin-McCain proposals. We actually will have, as a result, people who will be independent from the process. For example, we will designate a person who will work as an expert in performance assessment in the acquisition field. We require certain programs to be put in “intensive care.” Some of them are behind or over budget. They are sick programs and require intensive oversight and reviews and the service systems have to track the cost in the schedule.