WASHINGTON — Frank Kendall, the Pentagon's top procurement official, is pushing back at members of Congress who want to eliminate his job — and he's bringing 224 pages of data to back him up.

Kendall today released an annual report on the health of the defense acquisition system, one which doubles as a summation of his tenure as under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics (AT&L).

At its simplest, the report shows that costs for major programs across the department are trending downward, as are major program delays, and Kendall told reporters at an Oct. 21 roundtable that there is a "30-year low" in cost growth among major acquisition programs. Various aspects of the acquisition process, such as sustainment and requirement stability, are given a deep-dive analysis inside the report.

But the details of the data may, in some regard, take a backseat to the political reality that Kendall himself acknowledged to reporters.

"I think abolishing my position in the face of that," Kendall said while gesturing to a chart, "is probably a bad decision."

As part of a wide-ranging plan to reform the acquisition system, the Senate Armed Services Committee put forth a plan to do away with Kendall’s position, splitting those responsibilities between a new undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, or USD(R&E), and the renamed undersecretary of management and support, or USD(M&S).

SASC aides at the time argued that the move was not a shot at Kendall’s work at AT&L but rather a plan that would delegate more responsibilities to the services in order to free up individuals at the Office of the Secretary of Defense level to focus on developing cutting-edge technologies needed for the future.

But both Kendall and Secretary of Defense Ash Carter — himself a former head of AT&L — have expressed concerns over that plan, arguing that a centralized acquisitions chief is needed to make sure costs don’t arise at the service level. The Obama administration has also threatened a veto over the AT&L provisions as well as other aspects of the SASC bill.

"I think it’s fair to say the services don’t always like the fact that I can change their plans, and I think that industry doesn’t always like the fact that I’m setting up incentives to make them work harder to earn the money they want to earn," Kendall said. "But I think at the end of the day, it’s better for the taxpayers and better for the department" to have an office like AT&L with oversight responsibilities.

With negotiations surrounding the NDAA expected to begin shortly after the Nov. 8 election, Kendall is laying the groundwork to argue for his office’s existence. Kendall said he hadn’t "recently" met with Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican who heads the SASC, on the issue.

"There is never in my career been a shortage of ideas for how to make acquisition better," Kendall said. "What there has been is a shortage of data to support whether those ideas are good or not, and that’s why we did the report. I hope it will inform people in the legislature who are drafting provisions."

There are other aspects of the SASC language that Kendall has expressed concerns about, including language to discourage the use of cost-plus contracts. McCain has been vocal in his belief that cost-plus contracts do not do enough to disincentive cost growth from contractors, but Pentagon acquisition experts have warned against Congress creating a one-size-fits-all series of regulations.

Several times during the roundtable, Kendall talked about the need to preserve "flexibility," and the report defended the use of cost-plus contracting vehicles.

"We found that incentive contracts (cost-plus-incentive-fee and fixed-price-incentive) control cost, price, and schedule as well as, or better than, other types — and with generally lower, yet fair, margins," the report read. "Each situation depends on risk, cost knowledge, uncertainty, and a number of other factors — so we should avoid dictating a single approach."

About Aaron Mehta

Aaron Mehta was deputy editor and senior Pentagon correspondent for Defense News, covering policy, strategy and acquisition at the highest levels of the Defense Department and its international partners.

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