Lawmakers name familiar faces in defense to budgeting reform commission

WASHINGTON, DC – Defense committee leaders named their picks to the Commission on Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution Reform. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Correction Feb. 2, 2022 at 3:38 PM ET: This story has been corrected to reflect that Rep. Adam Smith, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, is from Washington.

Update Feb. 2, 2022 at 2:19 PM ET: This story was updated to add that the chairmen and ranking members of the congressional appropriations committees will also name members to the commission.

WASHINGTON: The Congressionally-mandated commission that will review the Pentagon’s arcane defense budgeting process will have a number of familiar faces from Washington defense circles.

Bipartisan leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees announced their picks for the Commission on Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution Reform, which will review a PPBE process that experts warn is too slow to keep up with the pace of technology needed to counter threats coming from Russia and, especially, China.

The PPBE process is the way the Pentagon determines how it will allocate funds across military programs. The commission was mandated by the fiscal 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, and is tasked with analyzing more efficient alternatives to the current PPBE process and develop recommendations that could help the department more quickly field cutting-edge technology to counter near-peer adversaries. They are required to submit a report to Congress and the defense secretary by Sept. 23, 2023.

SASC Chairman Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., named Robert Hale to the committee. Currently a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, from 2009 to 2014 Hale was the comptroller and Chief Financial Officer at the DoD, and also served 12 years as head of the defense group at the Congressional Budget Office.

SASC Ranking Member Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., chose Ellen Lord, who served as the first undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment under President Donald Trump. In that role, she developed the Adaptive Acquisition Framework to help speed up the department’s contracting practices. Before joining the Trump administration, Lord led Textron Systems. .

HASC Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., named Aerospace Industries Association President and CEO Eric Fanning to the commission. Fanning served as the secretary of the Army in the waning months of the Obama administration and previously worked as chief of staff for former Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, who led the stand up of the Defense Innovation Unit-Experimental (DIUx) to try to connect innovative projects with military programs.

HASC Ranking Member Mike Rogers, R-Ala. selected Raj Shah, who ran the DIUx — since rebranded as DIU — under Ash Carter. An F-16 pilot for the Air Force reserve, Shaw is currently a managing partner at Shield Capital, an investment firm focused on dual-use technologies.

The committee isn’t done; eventually it will consist of 14 members. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will choose two members. The majority and minority leaders of in the Senate will choose two. The Speaker of the House and minority leader will add two members, and the chairmen and ranking members of the two congressional appropriations committees will choose one member each.