Dr. Will Roper, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, discusses ÒThe Future Air Force, Faster, Smarter: The Next GearÓ during the Air Force Association Air, Space and Cyber Conference in National Harbor, Md., Sept. 16, 2019. The ASC Conference is a professional development forum that offers the opportunity for Department of Defense personnel to participate in forums, speeches, seminars and workshops. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Chad Trujillo)

Will Roper

WASHINGTON: The Air Force hopes to persuade skeptical lawmakers to accept its space acquisition reform plans, promising increased transparency in exchange for more budgetary freedom.

Senior officials are engaging with defense appropriators as they near the end game on the 2021 defense spending bill, Shawn Barnes, deputy assistant secretary for space acquisitions and integration, said today. Both sides of Capitol Hill have stomped on Air Force plans that would, among other reforms, allow broad authority to move money between specific space programs.

“We haven’t yet seen final appropriations. But we certainly have heard from the appropriators that they are concerned about a potential lack of transparency,” he told Via Satellite’s MilSatCom Digital Week conference. “As we think about how to streamline, I’m absolutely committed to ensuring that we provide that transparency to the Hill to both the authorizers and the appropriators. I think that that is necessary to ensure that we’ve got credibility.”

As Breaking D readers know, the Air Force sent a draft proposal to the Hill back in May with nine recommendations for space acquisition reform, three of which would require appropriators’ approval. That draft was almost immediately yanked back due to concerns from the Office of Management and Budget, and a formal report — mandated by the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) with a March due date —  still has not been released.

However, the reform ideas remain in play. The draft’s proposal to allow space acquisition authorities to move some $1 billion in funds between research and development programs without congressional approval was also included in the Air Force’s 2021 budget request. Indeed, that Air Force ask was particularly annoying to lawmakers — who never want to see their oversight powers eroded — and it was rejected outright by both House and Senate appropriators. 

House appropriators have been especially blunt about their “lack of trust” in the Air Force and DoD regarding use of congressionally-provided funds. “The Committee increasingly finds that the Department-wide mantra of increasing speed and accepting greater risk in acquisition programs has not been matched by the necessary discipline when it comes to programming, budgeting, and transparency,” the the House Appropriations defense subcommittee says in report language in its draft 2021 defense spending bill.

Barnes said the Air Force will continue to work with Capitol Hill on space acquisition reform, given that lawmakers are also committed to speeding new satellite systems that traditionally have take decades to develop and put into orbit.

“All of these kinds of big muscle movements with the Hill don’t happen overnight,” he said. “It’s a long game, and it is our responsibility to have the sort of detailed conversations with the Hill about how we believe we should move forward, but also to solicit their thoughts and solicit their help, because I think that we share the same goals. How we get there, we may have different approaches. But I’m confident that that through dialogue, through conversation, and through understanding will come to a good place.”

That said, Barnes conceded that the Trump administration would not be nominating a new Space Force assistant secretary for acquisition with independent authority from Air Force acquisition czar Will Roper, as mandated by the 2020 NDAA. The issue of an independent Space Acquisition Executive remains controversial inside DoD, with Roper strongly opposing the idea.

“I think the fact of the matter is that, given where we are at this point in the administration, it’s unlikely that we would see a nominee for my position — the Assistant Secretary position,” Barnes said. “My expectation, my planning horizon, is to do this job into the kind of May timeframe. If the administration nominates and Senate confirms someone earlier, there will be no one happier than me, and I can move back into the deputy position —  being the deputy, and not be both the deputy and performing the duties of.”