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COMMISSION ON WARTIME CONTRACTING
The unprecedented level of privatization of U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan left billions of taxpayer dollars exposed to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement. Since taking office in 2007, I have been successful in placing new oversight mechanisms into place to fix the systemic deficiencies that exist in inter-agency wartime contracting, thus achieving greater accountability and oversight in the way contractors support U.S. military operations.
In January 2008, Congress and the White House approved one such measure that I introduced with Senator Claire McCaskill to establish a Commission on Wartime Contracting. Modeled after the Truman Committee of World War II, which oversaw government waste, the mission of the Commission is to examine U.S. wartime contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan. More recently, Congress approved an amendment that Senator McCaskill and I introduced to the Fiscal Year 2010 National Defense Authorization Act to extend the Commission’s charter by one year to 2011.
Currently, the Commission is studying and investigating the impact of the government’s growing reliance on civilian contractors to perform wartime functions. It is assessing the extent of waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement of wartime contracts to ensure that those responsible are held accountable.
The Commission held its first public hearings in 2009 and published an interim report on June 10, 2009—identifying major areas of emphasis in need of significant reform and critical issues of more immediate concern that require prompt action by the Department of Defense. The Secretary of Defense took appropriate steps to address these time-sensitive concerns as quickly as possible.
The Commission continues to hold hearings and investigate contracting issues involving both the Department of Defense and the Department of State, including the transfer of responsibility for U.S. operations in Iraq by the end of 2011.
The Commission on Wartime Contracting will significantly increase transparency and accountability and generate important recommendations for systemic contracting problems, with the potential for saving taxpayers billions of dollars. The Commission is moving forward in a number of important ways to satisfy its three-year mandate. It has issued three Special Reports to date and will provide a final report to Congress in 2011.
MATERIALS & RESOURCES
Official website of the Commission on Wartime ContractingBackground Information and Chronology Summary
Audio of Webb/McCaskill Conference Call on Legislation
Audio of Senator Webb’s floor speech after Passage