On Tuesday afternoon, Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-CA), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, and Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-WA) announced the formation of a special bipartisan panel to address the ongoing challenge of financial management in the Pentagon, naming Rep. Todd Young (R-IN) as a member.

“In an environment where resources are diminishing and more scrutiny is given to where our federal tax dollars go, we must ensure that the money we use for national security is being spent wisely,” said Young. “Over my first six months in Congress, I’ve advocated for a more streamlined process to review our military objectives, to define mission priorities and ultimately to spend defense dollars more efficiently.  I’m excited to help take steps towards doing so as a member of this panel.”

The panel will address broad issues surrounding Defense Department financial management including:

• The extent to which financial management systems deliver timely, reliable, and useful information for decision making and reporting;
• The ability of the Department to identify efficiencies and waste utilizing financial management systems;
• The proficiency of financial management personnel in financial and budgetary accounting in order to manage defense resources;
• And the effectiveness of the Financial Improvement and Audit Readiness (FIAR) plan.

The first meeting of the panel will be held the morning of Wednesday, July 13.