Rob Andrews: “I, in fact, support this amendment. I think it not only adds important tools to the bill before the body today but to…”

“I, in fact, support this amendment. I think it not only adds important tools to the bill before the body today but to the law that was enacted last year. Both today's bill and last year's law require the Department of Defense to make early decisions about whether a product or service it is buying or a system that it is buying is on track or not. If it is not on track, the idea is to either get it on track or to not buy it. This is how we can eliminate some of the $296 billion in cost overruns in weapons systems that the Government Accountability Office found in its report of 2 years ago. What Mr. Quigley has done is to say that the cost estimators on whom we are relying need to be truly independent and competent. If that estimator has a vested interest in buying the product or building the system, then he or she is not going to give us an accurate or honest judgment about whether to go forward. So this amendment assures that there will be both independence and competence in those cost estimators. I think it's an excellent addition to the bill.”