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NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 1997

(Senate - June 28, 1996)

AMENDMENT NO. 4431

Mr. NUNN. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.

The legislative clerk read as follows:

The Senator from Georgia [Mr. Nunn], for Mr. Heflin, for himself and Mr. Shelby, proposes an amendment numbered 4431.

The amendment is as follows:

At the end of subtitle A of title IX add the following:

SEC. 907. ACTIONS TO LIMIT ADVERSE EFFECTS OF ESTABLISHMENT OF NATIONAL MISSILE DEFENSE JOINT PROGRAM OFFICE ON PRIVATE SECTOR EMPLOYMENT.

The Director of the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization shall take such actions as are necessary in connection with the establishment of the National Missile Defense Joint Program Office to ensure that the establishment and execution of the new management structure will not include any planned reductions in Federal Government employees, or Federal Government contractors, supporting the national missile defense development program at any particular location outside the National Capitol Region (as defined in section 2674(f)(2) of Title 10, United States Code).

Mr. HEFLIN. This amendment would help assure that the creation of a new management office within the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization does not result in a centralized bureaucracy at the expense of vital ballistic missile defense capabilities built up over the years across the United States.

Concerns about Pentagon centralization have resulted in the Defense Appropriations Committees limiting funds made available for relocations of DOD organizations, units, activities, or functions into or within the National Capital Region. This has been the case in the past and it is again the case in the pending Defense appropriations bill. Another concern has been the use of support contractor services and consultants to escalate centralization in Washington. In 1992, Senator Pryor found an alarming trend of contractor growth in support of the BMDO predecessor organzation, the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization [SDIO]. His amendment, accepted without opposition, capped the amount of money which could be expended for the procurement of support services for the central SDIO activity. Its intent is still relevant today.

Those concerns about DOD centralization are founded on traditional beliefs that government works best when it is not all collocated in the Capital region. Centralization of government and contractor personnel results in higher costs. Relocation of functions loses unique capabilities now available through military services and thus creates greater inefficiencies and schedule losses due to the necessity to retrain and replace technical and managerial personnel.

The purpose of this amendment is to clearly establish that the implementation of the NMD JPO decision must continue to be consistent with the assurances we are being given by the Pentagon. The Acting BMDO Director, Adm. Dick West, has just met with our staffs and discussed the organizational details of the new Joint Program Office, as it is now planned. He foresees a central organization of 64 or thereabouts, supported by those on-going activities in the field who have been developing such elements as the interceptor and ground-based radar. At present, these are basically all in the Army sphere of responsibility since the Air Force Space and Missile Tracking System Program is an Air Force program and will not be under the new office, and the Navy has no current role in NMD . Admiral West is convincing in his assurances that those activities which have been so beneficial to the progress in ballistic missile defense in the past will not be adversely impacted by this new central office. Concurrently, a BMDO `Point Paper' has included the following assurances:

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The decision to manage NMD using a Joint Program
Office (JPO) does not change the fundamental execution of the program. The basic building blocks remain the same and will be developed by the organization already assigned those responsibilities. Contracts that have been awarded will be executed as planned. The Service organizations that have had responsibility for NMD will continue to play the same role. As the program approaches a deployment decision, the role of the services will increase significantly.

Even with this assurance, I believe this amendment is necessary to clearly reflect the intent of Congress for the benefit of Admiral West's successor and those further down the organizational ladder responsible for the implementation of the various components of the new activity.

These are important times for the National Missile Defense Program, when with additional funding and emphasis, Congress has great expectations that these investments will yield the greatest possible dividends. Continuation of the valuable contributions of the NMD activities in their field locations will be critical to that success.

Mr. NUNN. Mr. President, I believe this has been cleared, and I urge its adoption.

Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, the amendment is cleared. I urge its adoption.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the amendment.

The amendment (No. 4431) was agreed to.

Mr. NUNN. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.

Mr. McCAIN. I move to lay that motion on the table.

The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.