House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) has proposed a bill that aims to eliminate seven agencies within the Defense Department in an effort to achieve over $25 billion in savings, Federal News Radio reported Tuesday.
“All of the savings and efficiency have to stay within DoD to get more capability in the hands of the warfighter faster,†Thornberry said Tuesday.
DoD agencies that Thornberry’s proposal aims to shut down are:
- Defense Human Resources Activity
- Defense Information Systems Agency
- Defense Technical Information Center
- Defense Technology Security Administration
- Office of Economic Adjustment
- Test Resource Management Center
- Washington Headquarters Service
The report said the bill proposes a 25 percent reduction in DoD’s “Fourth Estate†agencies by 2021.
The Fourth Estate is composed of 28 DoD agencies that employ approximately 600,000 contractors and 200,000 civilian employees and are not part of a service branch.
Defense News reported the proposed measure would direct the Pentagon’s chief management officer to have a plan in place by March 1, 2020 and implement the 25 percent cut by Jan. 1, 2021.
The bill would integrate DISA into the Cyber Command and exempt several intelligence and combat-support agencies from the proposed cuts, including the Defense Intelligence Agency, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, Defense Health Agency and the National Security Agency.
Thornberry introduced the bill as a draft language for the fiscal year 2019 National Defense Authorization Act slated for a full-committe markup in May.