[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 47 (Tuesday, April 19, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E689]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       RECOGNIZING PETER F. BROWN

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JAMES P. MORAN

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 19, 2005

  Mr. MORAN of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize an 
outstanding public servant, Peter F. Brown, as he completes more than 
24 years of continuous service within the civilian leadership of the 
Department of Defense, DoD. He began his public service life as a naval 
architect at the Naval Sea Systems Command, NAVSEA, and is ending it as 
NAVSEA's Executive Director. Throughout his career, he worked 
tirelessly to serve America and our Navy and Marine Corps.
  Mr. Brown joined NAVSEA in 1981 as Ship Project Manager and then 
Branch Head for Command and Amphibious ships. In 1987, he was appointed 
to the Senior Executive Service and assigned as Deputy Program Manager 
for Amphibious and Combat Support Ships where he directed maintenance 
and modernization for over 175 surface ships and over 40 intermediate 
maintenance activities.
  Over the next decade, Mr. Brown provided exceptional service to the 
Navy in a succession of complex and demanding assignments as NAVSEA's 
corporate planner, civilian manpower manager, Deputy Commander for 
Fleet Logistics Support, Chief Information Officer, and Executive 
Director of the Logistics, Maintenance and Industrial Operations 
Directorate. He was instrumental in supporting the command's 
restructuring under the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Act and 
its headquarters move to the Washington Navy Yard.
  In July 1998, Mr. Brown assumed his current position as the Executive 
Director of NAVSEA. In this role as the Command's senior civilian 
executive, he quickly implemented strategic changes in the Navy's 
largest systems command, comprised of 49,000 civilian and military 
personnel at 36 geographically dispersed activities with an annual 
budget of approximately $20 billion. A number of these changes are 
being widely adopted across the Department of the Navy and DoD.
  Mr. Brown was the Program Team Chair and Product Integrator for a 
comprehensive DoD team that recommended the creation of a National 
Security Personnel System, NSPS, Program Executive Office to design and 
implement the new civilian human resources management system. Based on 
his team's design, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld agreed to 
establish the NSPS Program Executive Office, with Mr. Brown assuming 
the role of interim Program Executive Officer. He was the driving force 
behind the successful launch of the NSPS program structure. Mr. Brown 
was instrumental in advancing the One Shipyard concept, which 
revolutionized the nation's entire ship industrial base to better meet 
the Navy's Fleet Response Plan requirements in response to the 
challenge of the Global War on Terror and the dynamic world situation.
  Mr. Brown's visionary leadership included the identification of 
proven private sector programs and processes and their rapid 
deployment. His active endorsement of the Occupational Safety and 
Health Administration's Voluntary Protection Program, VPP, led to 
Portsmouth Naval Shipyard's recent designation as a STAR VPP site, the 
highest ranking available and the second DoD site to achieve this 
status and the first Navy site to do so. Mr. Brown is recognized 
throughout the shipbuilding industry as a leader who can be trusted and 
is the Navy's sole representative on the Executive Committee of the 
National Shipbuilding Research Program Advanced Shipbuilding 
Enterprise.
  Mr. Brown has been an exceptional innovator of strategies to solve 
the most difficult challenges in personnel downsizing, work force 
renewal, and to reduce costs in acquisition and support of ships, 
submarines and systems. He provided executive leadership for several 
initiatives aimed at improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the 
Navy's five systems commands under the auspices of the Virtual System 
Command. He led the migration to common processes, streamlining 
responsibilities and systems and instituting the adoption of best 
practices in many key areas. Additionally, these efforts have created a 
single Fleet distance support solution that provides a conduit for 
virtually all of the technical and logistics support. These efforts 
collectively represent over $6 billion in savings across the Navy over 
the Future Years Defense Program.
  Within NAVSEA, Mr. Brown established a formal control structure for 
over 166 technical authority areas that are key to the engineering 
performance and safety of ships, systems, and the sailors who operate 
them. Nationally recognized individuals known for their professional 
expertise were assigned as the technical authorities in each area. Not 
only do these individuals represent the ultimate technical authority 
for their field of expertise, they are responsible to oversee the 
technical health of the Government, academia, and private sector 
network that supports that expertise. This approach has been recognized 
across the Navy for its clarity, effectiveness, and efficiency and has 
been adopted by other Navy systems commands.
  Mr. Brown's visionary approach to challenges allows for the 
transformation from a ``business as usual'' mentality into actions that 
permit innovative improvements in the way the Government and its 
private industry partners achieve best value products and services. It 
is, therefore, a pleasure to recognize Mr. Peter F. Brown for his many 
contributions in a life devoted to our nation's security as he leaves 
the Department of the Navy. I know my colleagues join me in wishing he 
and his wife Terri much happiness and fair winds and following seas as 
they begin a new chapter in their lives.

                          ____________________