Eli Crane Asks Witness About 'Revolving Door' Of Senior Officials Leaving Department Of Defense

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At a House Oversight Committee Hearing in June, Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ) asked Margaret Boatner about the intel of senior military officers taking jobs for defense contractors.

Transcript

00:00you i now recognize the gentleman from arizona mr crane for five minutes

00:04thank you mr chairman for holding uh this hearing today thank you for our panelists

00:08for coming to testify i know this uh is a very important topic reforming procurement

00:14to accelerate defense innovation it's obviously important because we have a lot of threats around

00:19the world who are developing their weaponry uh very uh very quickly and the battlefield is ever

00:26changing we also have a defense department that has a massive budget we all know that

00:34you know we also have a defense department here that continues to fail audits but i want to start

00:41with you miss boatner you previously served as a deputy deputy assistant secretary of the army for

00:48strategy and acquisition reform is that correct acquisition reforms are important but i'm also

00:54concerned about the revolving door of senior military and procurement offices leaving the dod

00:59and taking jobs at large defense contractors with their influence they are able to leverage military

01:05relationships to negatively influence procurement one example of bad procurement practices

01:12is retired rear admiral james a murdoch a retired and retired captain tony parisi used their influence

01:19to fund the procurement of the navy's infamous littoral combat ship and the defense civilian human resource

01:28management system software development program that was six years behind schedule and more than 280

01:34million that's 780 percent over budget until secretary pete hexeth announced its termination the work of

01:42these former military officers on the lcs ship resulted in the procurement and continued deployment of flawed

01:48ships that cost the taxpayer billions of dollars and put crew members at risk undoubtedly someone

01:54continued to champion the defense civilian human resource management system to otherwise it would have

02:01ended a long time ago my question how do we ensure that the hiring and work reforms for some of the

02:06acquisition officers so u.s taxpayers aren't holding the bill for failed projects like the littoral combat ship

02:13or the defense civilian human resource management system software ma'am absolutely i think it's an

02:20important point there are restrictions in place uh for folks leaving the department and going elsewhere so

02:27that they cannot use kind of their information or relationships uh to to push contracts in any given way i think

02:36you know to the best of my knowledge myself and others comply with those restrictions

02:40uh and and specifically to contracts if you've ever touched a specific contract or even that portfolio

02:47area you are prevented from being involved in any of those discussions with that agency for different

02:53periods of time moving forward what are those time periods ms boner depending on the level of position

02:58that you held they range from two years and and can go higher different presidents have set different

03:04specific uh year-long restrictions cooling off periods based on their administrations do you think

03:09those time periods should be increased i think that's probably not a a call that that i should

03:14make but but should leave it to to congress to to determine in the executive branch if that is the case

03:19how did this example that i just read with the littoral combat ship happen in your estimation ma'am

03:25again i don't know the specific details of that um but potentially um perhaps the right

03:30restrictions were not in place but i'm really not familiar with that uh particular situation miss oakley would

03:34you like to take a stab at that i'm i'm also not familiar how that particular example happened but

03:42the approaches that we're talking about today to advocate for change within the department could play

03:47a role in limiting the ability for something like that to happen so in these new approaches you're not

03:54locking in these long-term contracts on these big mammoth acquisition programs that then you're stuck with one

03:59vendor for in perpetuity these new approaches would enable shorter term contracts that focus on an

04:07initial capability and then be able to open up the aperture for competition through things like

04:12modular open systems etc that would enable other companies to get involved and so i think

04:18you know i'm kind of tangentially answering your question but what we're talking about today would

04:23help to prevent the situations like you're talking about thank you i'd also like to submit for the

04:28record an article from the quincy institute for responsible statecraft it's called march of the

04:34four-star generals the role of retired generals and admirals in the arms industry and i'd like to

04:39read a quick section in another prominent case general without objection so ordered sorry thank you

04:44sir uh in another prominent case general james mattis went to bat for the blood testing firm theronis

04:50while he was serving as commander of the u.s central command then joined the company's board upon

04:55leaving government service mattis pressed the army to buy the utilize theranos equipment as he

05:00acknowledged in an email to theranos ceo elizabeth holmes uncovered by the washington post it basically

05:07goes on to say um that theranos was later charged two of their executives were charged from the securities

05:15and exchange commission described theranos as an elaborate years-long fraud in which holmes exaggerated or

05:21made false statements about the company's technology business and financial performances and on that i yield

05:28back thank you

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