Chairwoman Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) speaks during a House Oversight Committee on Oversight and Reform hearing at the U.S. Capitol on October 7, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Bill Clark-Pool/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON: Four top Democrats on the House’s oversight committee are calling for the Defense Department to release some of the “controlled unclassified information” that it restricted from its annual weapons report, according to a letter sent to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin today and obtained by Breaking Defense.

The prevalent and unprecedented redactions effectively hid information on the status of multi-billion-dollar weapons programs from US taxpayers footing the bill, says the letter, which cites Breaking Defense reporting.

In a departure from previous years, the Pentagon’s director of operational test and evaluation (DOT&E) in January released two versions of its 2021 report, which documents the performance, and flaws, of major weapon programs. Along with a public version, the department also released a new “controlled unclassified version” with more information available only inside the department and to Congress.

The Pentagon’s top tester said the change was due to security concerns, but Rep. Carolyn Maloney, who leads the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, and three other lawmakers on the panel wrote today they are concerned that the Pentagon may have “inappropriately limited access” to information that is typically released to the public by watering down the public report.

“While we recognize the importance of protecting sensitive information, DOD and DOT&E appear to have applied this concern too broadly,” the lawmakers stated in the letter. “As a result, information on military weapon systems that was previously available to the public is now marked CUI in multiple instances, hiding it from the view of U.S. taxpayers.”

Maloney, a New York Democrat, was joined on the letter by Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., who leads the committee’s subpanel on national security; Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va., who leads the committee’s subpanel on government operations; and committee member Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif.

The lawmakers called on Austin to review the information in the report that was marked CUI and “publicly release the greatest amount of information possible about these systems, consistent with the continued protection of sensitive information.”

They also gave the Pentagon a March 9 deadline to hand over information that justifies why information was marked CUI for each weapon system evaluated in the report, and what entity was responsible for making that determination.

Throughout the letter, Maloney and the other lawmakers cited reporting from Breaking Defense, which found that “controlled” information had been redacted in at least 22 weapons programs evaluated by the office.

These redactions included information pertaining to some of the Pentagon’s most expensive and troubled programs. For instance, the section on the Marine Corps’ CH-53K helicopter contained no data about the performance of the aircraft during tests, whereas previous reports included detailed information about deficiencies encountered in testing, as well as where the aircraft had made improvements compared to previous years.

The lawmakers also raised their own concerns about the section of the public DOT&E report on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which they stated excluded many details that had been disclosed in previous reports, such as reliability and availability metrics, information on hardware and software deficiencies, and details about how the F135 engine shortage is impacting readiness.

“Excessively marking information as CUI withholds important details about the performance of military weapon systems, such as critical design deficiencies, safety issues, and capability shortfalls,” the lawmakers stated.

“It also limits broader oversight of military weapon systems, restricting the ability of U.S. taxpayers to evaluate the viability of weapon systems they are paying for and hindering Congress’ ability to address problems with these systems. In the long term, this could limit the government’s ability to procure effective and safe weapon systems and lead to lower-performing weapon systems.”

The House Oversight letter is the second to raise alarms about the latest version of the report. Earlier this month, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., slammed the department’s decision to restrict unclassified information about weapons testing, stating that it reduces accountability and increases the risk that weapon systems are fielded with flaws that put troops’ safety at risk.

“This unjustified restriction of public access will not serve to protect national security information, but will instead be abused to avoid disclosure of failures in our major weapons programs,” wrote Warren, who is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, in letters to Austin and DOT&E head Nickolas Guertin. “I urge you to reverse the decision to classify these reports.”

Pentagon spokeswoman Jessica Maxwell declined to comment on the new letter from the House Oversight members, saying, “As with all Congressional correspondence, we will respond directly to the authors of the letter.”

However, the Pentagon has stood by DOT&E’s decision to publish two versions of the report.

In a statement to Breaking Defense earlier this month, Maxwell said that DOT&E opted to release a CUI version of the report after reviewing the department’s latest security classification guidance and concluding that Congress would not have “the level of detail they were used to receiving” unless controlled technical information was included.

“In consultation with Congress they expressed the desire that DOT&E also publish an edition of the report to maximize the information available to the public while ensuring the control of sensitive unclassified information is not released,” Maxwell said, adding that DOT&E was not responsible for approving the department’s classification guidelines or deciding which information is considered “controlled.”