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Air and Land Forces Subcommittee Chairman Neil Abercrombie Opening Statement Hearing on the Air Force Tanker Program

July 10, 2008

"Today the Air and Land Forces Subcommittee meets to receive testimony from Government Accountability Office (GAO) and Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) officials on the Air Force's aerial tanker program.

"We will have two panels, the first panel includes Government Accountability Office witnesses: Mr. Daniel Gordon, Deputy General Counsel for GAO and Mr. Michael Golden, Managing Associate General Counsel, GAO Procurement Law Division.

"The second panel witness will be the Honorable John J. Young, Jr., Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics.

"I don't have to tell anyone in this room how important the tanker program is, how important the integrity of the DOD acquisition process is, how important the integrity of the GAO protest review process is, or how important our constitutional role is in overseeing these processes.

"Secretary Young, when you were with us back in March you commented that your OSD staff was more involved in observing the tanker source selection 'because it is so important to the nation that we successfully conduct these source selections.'

"I couldn't agree more, yet with all the effort and oversight that went into this particular source selection, the acquisition system failed. And unfortunately this isn't the first time in the recent past that the acquisition system has failed us.

"We had been assured by the most senior Office of the Secretary of Defense and Air Force acquisition officials that the tanker source selection was handled fairly, openly, and 'well executed.' That does not appear to have been the case, resulting in huge expense to the taxpayers, endless delays, and personnel flying very old tanker aircraft that have become increasingly expensive to maintain.

"It is not an infrequent occurrence that we read about tanker aircraft experiencing in-flight emergencies and having to abort their missions for emergency landings -- the most recent ones being in Afghanistan two weeks ago and at the former Pease Air Force Base in New Hampshire, last week. These tankers are old and getting older. We have little experience with flying 45 year old aircraft and no experience flying 70 to 80 year old aircraft, which our constituents are going to have to do.

"The acquisition process has to be fixed. Is it too complex? Do we have the right people? Do they have the right training? Does it consider the right factors? Are those factors too subjective, providing such latitude to Pentagon and GAO reviewers, that in close competitions, well-intentioned professionals can come to opposite conclusions? Is the integrity of the process on all sides being confirmed?

"This is the start of trying to get complete answers. We must act promptly. We must act properly. We must fix the system.

"We have asked Mr. Gordon and Mr. Golden from the GAO to provide some context of the GAO decision relative to other protests, the GAO protest consideration process, and the details of their decision on the specific tanker protest. We will want to also hear their views on what needs to be done to fix the acquisition process.

"We have asked Secretary Young to tell us about how he will proceed and what will be done differently in the new source selection to have a satisfactory acquisition outcome."