Reporting Wednesday’s markup of the 2011 defense bill by his House Armed Services Committee, chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) noted, “You won’t find any mention of the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT).” The reason, he said, is that he and ranking member Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) “have agreed to support” the request by Pentagon leaders for “time to study the issue.” Earlier this month, Skelton’s counterpart in the Senate, Carl Levin (D-Mich.), asked Defense Secretary Bob Gates to clarify the Pentagon role in the current debate. Levin is a co-sponsor of the bill (S3065) from Sen. Joe Lieberman (ID-Conn.) to repeal DADT. Skelton, so far, has not signed on to a related bill (HR1283) introduced last year in the House by Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.). (Skelton markup remarks)
The Pentagon is readying a slew of reforms to its acquisition practices designed to speed up the military’s process for buying weapons and systems and structure its program offices to prioritize competition and commercial capabilities, according to a draft memo.
