[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 193 (Wednesday, December 6, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S18055-S18056]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
OPERATIONAL TEST AND EVALUATION
Mr. PRYOR. Mr. President, today, I rise in the Senate to voice my
very strong opposition to the actions being considered by the House
Senate conference committee on the Defense authorization bill.
Mr. President, I have been informed, with some of my colleagues, and
I am very sorry I did not get to listen to all of the remarks of my
good friend and colleague and partner in this issue, Senator Roth of
Delaware, we have been informed that the conference committee is now
considering turning back the clock on 12 years of progress in the war
against $600 hammers, $1,000 toilet seats, guns that do not shoot,
bombs that do not explode, and planes that do not fly. I believe what
is at stake are the lives of our men and women who serve this country
in the Armed Forces.
Mr. President, I am speaking today of the very useful and most
critical role of the Office of the Director of Operational Test and
Evaluation in the Pentagon and the effort underway in the conference
committee to totally annihilate and to eliminate this office.
As I address the Senate this afternoon, the conference committee on
the DOD authorization bill is now deliberating over whether to repeal
the bipartisan legislation written by myself, along in 1983 with
Senator Roth, Senator Kassebaum, Senator Grassley, and others, that
created the independent weapons testing office.
This legislation this is now known as section 139 of title X
establishes the Operational Testing Office that currently Mr.
President, oversees, evaluates, and reports on the results of tests
conducted on our new military hardware.
This Office was designed to report directly to the Secretary of
Defense with this independent assessment of the weapons being tested,
procurement, and combat use. The job of this Office has been to help
make good weapons better and to help keep weapons that do not work out
of the hands of our soldiers and sailors.
It has saved the taxpayers billions of dollars by exposing many
troubled systems before they become costly dinosaurs and disasters. The
ultimate contribution, I think, of the Operational Testing Office has
been the lives it has saved by helping to ensure that our Armed Forces
are not sent into combat with weapons that are faulty and do not work
and will fail in an operational environment.
Support for this Office, Mr. President, has always been bipartisan.
For example, former Defense Secretary Dick Cheney said that the
independent weapons testing ``saved more lives" during Operation Desert
Storm than perhaps any other single initiative. Current Defense
Secretary William Perry has recently described this Office as ``The
conscience of the acquisition process.''
Earlier this year, I was extremely shocked to learn that the House
National Security Committee recommended repealing section 139 of title
X, thereby eliminating this Office.
Because of what we consider to be a very irresponsible initiative in
the House of Representatives, Senator Roth and myself sponsored a
bipartisan sense-of-the-Senate resolution voicing the Senate's full
support for the Testing Office and our strong objection to repealing
its charter. This resolution passed the Senate unanimously during
consideration of the defense authorization bill in August in 1995.
We were recently notified that the conference committee apparently is
disregarding the sense-of-the-Senate
[[Page S 18056]]
resolution by refusing to remove from its conference report the
language that would kill operational weapons testing in the Pentagon.
This news is disheartening, indeed, Mr. President. Repealing the law
that established independent weapons testing would be an irresponsible,
unthinkable course, and dangerously shortsighted. If this Office's
charter is revoked, countless American lives will be at risk.
Furthermore, the entire system by which we acquire new weapons will be
pushed back to the dark ages. We will undoubtedly be bringing back the
unthinkable conflict of interest of the students grading their own
exams, when it comes to evaluating the results of critical weapons
testing.
Last Friday, after learning that the Testing Office was, indeed, in
jeopardy and in danger of being eliminated, Senator Roth, Senator
Grassley and myself sent a letter to Chairman Thurmond and to Chairman
Spence, expressing our outrage over the apparent desire to repeal
section 139 of title X. In this letter, Mr. President, we call on the
conferees to maintain our legislation that created the Operational
Testing Office.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that a copy of this letter
that we sent to Chairman Thurmond and to Chairman Spence be printed in
the Record directly following my remarks.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
(See exhibit 1.)
Mr. PRYOR. I gladly join my good friends from the other side of the
aisle in voting our strong bipartisan support for independent weapons
testing. This Office has always enjoyed support from each side of the
aisle. I hope it always will. It was created in this spirit. I
certainly hope that it does not die under a cloud of partisanship.
I would like my views to be known clearly and publicly before the
conferees conclude their deliberations on the Defense authorization
bill. I know they will take heed of the remarks of my colleague and
good friend, Senator Roth, who just delivered his eloquent speech on
the floor of the Senate with regard to this issue.
If this conference report comes to the Senate, Mr. President, with
language that revokes the charter of our weapons testing office, I will
strongly oppose the conference report and I will ask it be rejected by
the entire U.S. Senate.
As we prepare to send American troops into Bosnia, it would be
wrong--absolutely, totally wrong--to eliminate the most important
checks and balances in the military procurement chain that has proven
to save time, money, and most importantly, the lives of our fighting
forces. The American taxpayers, the American men and women in uniform,
deserve much better.
I thank the Chair for recognizing me. I yield the floor.
Exhibit 1
U.S. Senate,
Washington, DC, December 1, 1995.
Hon. Strom Thurmond,
Chairman, Senate Armed Services Committee, SR 228,
Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Chairman: We are writing to voice our strenuous
objection to an action the defense authorization conference
committee is considering that would jeopardize independent
operational and live-fire weapons testing in the Department
of Defense. We believe that what is at stake are the lives of
our men and women who serve in the armed forces.
As you know, the conference committee is currently
discussing various measures to streamline the Office of the
Secretary of Defense (OSD). We are aware that the conference
committee is considering repealing section 139 of Title 10.
Repealing Section 139 would eliminate the authority of the
Director, Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) to oversee,
evaluate, and report on the operational worth of weapons
prior to their production and procurement by the U.S.
government.
The DOT&E office was created 12 years ago with strong
bipartisan support. Its existence has been critical to
Congressional and Pentagon efforts to promote a ``fly-before-
you-buy'' approach to the multi-billion dollar arena of
military acquisitions.
Section 139 of Title 10 is the foundation upon which this
important contribution to DOD procurement is based. Since its
enactment, this provision has saved time, money, and most
importantly, the lives of our soldiers and sailors who must
rely on tested, proven weapons. We truly believe that any
decision by the conference committee to repeal section 139
would result in many unintended consequences.
Eliminating this office would not eliminate the requirement
to conduct testing under realistic operational conditions.
However, it would raise the question as to who would be
responsible for approving test plans and for providing
independent evaluations of testing. This uncertainty would be
costly indeed.
We appreciate the conferees' desire to streamline the
Office of the Secretary of Defense. However, the Federal
Acquisition Streamlining Act recently enacted by Congress
merged live-fire testing with the operational testing
function. Thus, independent testing oversight has already
been streamlined. Furthermore, the DOT&E office is already
one of the smallest in the Pentagon bureaucracy.
This directorate has proven itself as one of the most
important checks and balances in the DOD procurement system.
Its value has been lauded by our two most recent Secretaries
of Defense. After Operation Desert Storm, former Defense
Secretary Dick Cheney said that the vigorous, independent
testing oversight put in place by Congress ``saved more
lives'' than perhaps any other single initiative. Current
Defense Secretary Perry recently described the DOT&E as ``the
conscience of the acquisition process.''
In August, the U.S. Senate unanimously approved a Sense of
the Senate resolution that stated clearly the Senate's
opposition to repealing section 139 of Title 10. We continue
to believe that repealing the law that guides independent
weapons testing is wrong and dangerously shortsighted.
Clearly the question facing Congress is do we care more
about reducing the size of OSD or protecting the lives of our
service men and women. We firmly believe that if the
provisions repealing section 139 are not removed, Congress
will be putting countless lives at risk in the name of
reducing a handful of billets.
We urge you to continue the bipartisan Congressional
support for independent testing by deleting from your
conference report any provisions that would repeal section
139 of Title 10.
Thank you for your consideration of this urgent matter.
Sincerely,
William V. Roth, Jr.
Charles E. Grassley.
David Pryor.
Mr. PRYOR. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Campbell). Without objection, it is so
ordered.
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