Policy issues that matter to industry.

• Author: Farrell, Lawrence P. Jr.
• Position: President's Perspective - National Defense Industrial Association - Brief Article

As a non-profit, non-partisan organization, NDIA advocates legislation, regulations and policies that are essential to a strong and ready defense industrial base. We work closely with Congress and the Executive Branch as an industry voice to ensure our government policymakers and lawmakers know where we stand on specific issues.

In this President's Perspective, I would like to highlight some of the key policy issues that we--together with other partner associations--have been working on this past year. These issues all have significant impact on the defense industrial base, and, hopefully, you will be pleased with the results to date.

NDIA always has opposed legislation that was designed to limit the federal government's flexibility in outsourcing work to the private sector. One such piece of legislation offered last year was the Truthfulness, Responsibility and Accountability in Contracting Act, which would impose a moratorium on future outsourcing, as well as mandate the use of the Office of Management and Budget A-76 Circular as the basis for all future outsourcing determinations.

When the bill was introduced, we provided our corporate members with background information and sample letters for use in contacting members of Congress. In addition, NDIA coordinated our work with other associations through our affiliation with the Coalition for Outsourcing and Privatization (COP). So far, we have been successful in keeping the proposed legislation from moving forward. However, it is still an active bill, which could be brought up again this year. Consequently, we intend to play offense instead of defense in the months to come.

Along the same lines, we successfully opposed a provision in the House version of the fiscal year 2002 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The provision, as reported by the House Armed Services Committee, would have greatly expanded the government functions required to undergo the lengthy A-76 process in order to be outsourced, and would have forced the Pentagon to open up contractor jobs to competition from public-sector workers. Fortunately, it was deleted in the House-Senate conference that preceded final passage of the Act. Again, NDIA activities on this issue were coordinated with other associations through COP.

Another issue that has generated controversy over the years is the mandate requiring the use of the Federal Prison Industries (FPI) as a preferred Defense contractor. Several federal agencies have...