The President's Blue Ribbon Commission on Defense Management, informally known as the Packard Commission, was a federal government commission by President Ronald Reagan, created by Executive Order 12526 to study several areas of management functionality within the US Department of Defense. The commission was chaired by David Packard.
Beginning in 1981, Reagan began an expansion in the size and capabilities of the US armed forces, which entailed major new expenditures on weapons procurement. By the mid-1980s, the spending became a scandal when the Project on Government Oversight reported that the Pentagon had vastly overpaid for a wide variety of items, most notoriously by paying $435 for a hammer, [1] $600 for a toilet seat, and $7,000 for an aircraft coffee maker. [2] In fact, these numbers were inaccurate; they were an accounting convenience rather than the actual cost of the materials. [1]
In response to the scandals, Reagan appointed a commission, chaired by Packard, to study government procurement undertaken by the US Department of Defense. The Commission had Packard, Ernest C. Arbuckle, Robert H. Barrow, Nicholas F. Brady, Louis W. Cabot, Frank Carlucci, William P. Clark Jr., Barber Conable, Paul F. Gorman, Carla Anderson Hills, James L. Holloway III, William Perry, Robert T. Marlow, Charles J. Pilliod Jr., Brent Scowcroft, Herbert Stein, and R. James Woolsey Jr. [3] The President tasked the Commission with studying defense management policies and procedures, including
the budget process, the procurement system, legislative oversight, and the organizational and operational arrangements, both formal and informal, among the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Organization of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Unified and Specified Command system, the Military Departments, and the Congress. [4]
Before the 1986 Final Report, 33 competitors of the military industry sector gave life to the Defense Industry Initiative, a pact which planned the adoption of code of ethics, "whistleblower" reporting mechanisms, an increased public accountability, anonymous evaluation questionnaires to be synthesized by the internal audit functions and by external and independent agencies. [5]
The Packard Commission reported that there was "no rational system" governing defense procurement, and it concluded that it was not fraud and abuse that led to massive overexpenditures but rather "the truly costly problems are those of overcomplicated organization and rigid procedure." [6]
The Commission made several recommendations:
On April 1,1986, Reagan signed National Security Decision Directive 219, an executive order that implement the commission recommendations that could be put in place solely by presidential action. [7] Other recommendations which required legislative action were enacted when Congress later reformed the Joint Chiefs of Staff system in 1986 with the Goldwater–Nichols Act.
The FASA of 1994 and the Federal Acquisition Improvement Act of 1995 rewrote the government procurement regulations. [8]
The United States secretary of defense (SecDef) is the head of the United States Department of Defense, the executive department of the U.S. Armed Forces, and is a high ranking member of the federal cabinet. The secretary of defense's position of command and authority over the military is second only to that of the president of the United States, who is the commander-in-chief. This position corresponds to what is generally known as a defense minister in many other countries. The secretary of defense is appointed by the president with the advice and consent of the Senate, and is by custom a member of the Cabinet and by law a member of the National Security Council.
The Executive Office of the President (EOP) comprises the offices and agencies that support the work of the president at the center of the executive branch of the United States federal government. The EOP consists of several offices and agencies, such as the White House Office, the National Security Council, and the Office of Management and Budget.
The deputy secretary of defense is a statutory office and the second-highest-ranking official in the Department of Defense of the United States of America.
David Packard was an American electrical engineer and co-founder, with Bill Hewlett, of Hewlett-Packard (1939), serving as president (1947–64), CEO (1964–68), and chairman of the board of HP. He served as U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense from 1969 to 1971 during the Nixon administration. Packard served as president of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) from 1976 to 1981 and chairman of its board of regents from 1973 to 1982. He was a member of the Trilateral Commission. Packard was the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1988 and is noted for many technological innovations and philanthropic endeavors.
The Goldwater–Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act of October 4, 1986Pub. L. 99–433,, made the most sweeping changes to the United States Department of Defense since the department was established in the National Security Act of 1947 by reworking the command structure of the U.S. military. It increased the powers of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and implemented some of the suggestions from the Packard Commission, commissioned by President Reagan in 1985. Among other changes, Goldwater–Nichols streamlined the military chain of command, which now runs from the president through the secretary of defense directly to combatant commanders, bypassing the service chiefs. The service chiefs were assigned to an advisory role to the president and the secretary of defense, and given the responsibility for training and equipping personnel for the unified combatant commands.
James David Watkins was a United States Navy admiral and former Chief of Naval Operations who served as the United States Secretary of Energy during the George H. W. Bush administration, also chairing U.S. government commissions on HIV/AIDS and ocean policy. Watkins also served on the boards of various companies and other nongovernmental organizations and as the co-chair of the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative.
Galen Bruce Jackman is a retired United States Army Major General. His last assignment in the Army was serving in the Pentagon as the Army's Chief Legislative Liaison. The Office of the Chief Legislative Liaison (OCLL) operates directly under the Office of the Secretary of the Army. Its mission is to coordinate efforts between the US Army and Congress. Prior to his assignment with the OCLL, he was the first commanding general of the Joint Force Headquarters National Capital Region (JFHQ-NCR), a dual-hatted role combined with commanding the Military District of Washington (MDW).
The Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) is a headquarters-level staff of the United States Department of Defense. It is the principal civilian staff element of the U.S. Secretary of Defense, and it assists the Secretary in carrying out authority, direction and control of the Department of Defense in the exercise of policy development, planning, resource management, fiscal, and program evaluation responsibilities. OSD is the Secretary of Defense's support staff for managing the Department of Defense, and it corresponds to what the Executive Office of the President of the U.S. is to the U.S. president for managing the whole of the Executive branch of the federal government.
Congressional oversight is oversight by the United States Congress over the Executive Branch, including the numerous U.S. federal agencies. Congressional oversight includes the review, monitoring, and supervision of federal agencies, programs, activities, and policy implementation. Congress exercises this power largely through its congressional committee system. Oversight also occurs in a wide variety of congressional activities and contexts. These include authorization, appropriations, investigative, and legislative hearings by standing committees; which is specialized investigations by select committees; and reviews and studies by congressional support agencies and staff.
The Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group (CASG) is an organisation within the Australian Department of Defence, responsible for acquisition and supply chain management of military equipment and materiel including aircraft, ships, vehicles, electronic systems, uniforms and rations for the Australian Defence Force. CASG employs more than 7000 military, civilian and contracted staff in more than 70 locations around Australia and internationally.
The United States Department of Defense is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national security and the United States Armed Forces. The DoD is the largest employer in the world, with over 1.34 million active-duty service members as of June 2022. The DoD also maintains over 778,000 National Guard and reservists, and over 747,000 civilians bringing the total to over 2.87 million employees. Headquartered at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C., the DoD's stated mission is to provide "the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our nation's security".
Located at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center is a direct reporting unit of Headquarters, United States Air Force. It is the Air Force independent test agency responsible for testing, under operationally realistic conditions, new systems being developed for Air Force and multi-service use.
The Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, or USD(A&S), is the Principal Staff Assistant (PSA) and advisor to the Secretary of Defense for all matters relating to acquisition and sustainment in the Department of Defense. This includes the DoD Acquisition System; system design and development; production; logistics and distribution; installation maintenance, management, and resilience; military construction; procurement of goods and services; material readiness; maintenance; environment and energy resilience ; utilities; business management modernization; International Armaments Cooperation, Cooperative Acquisition and International Agreements, Promoting exportability of military components to allies and partners; nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs; and nuclear command, control, and communications.
United States Intelligence Community Oversight duties are shared by both the executive and legislative branches of the government. Oversight, in this case, is the supervision of intelligence agencies, and making them accountable for their actions. Generally oversight bodies look at the following general issues: following policymaker needs, the quality of analysis, operations, and legality of actions.
The Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (SAF/AQ) is a civilian position in the Department of the Air Force that is appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the United States Senate. This position is established under Title 10 US Code Section 9016 and is one of five Assistant Secretary positions under the Secretary of the Air Force. The Assistant Secretary reports to the Secretary of the Air Force.
The Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Management is a high level civilian official in the United States Department of Homeland Security. The Under Secretary, as head of the Management Directorate at DHS, is the principal staff assistant and adviser to both the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security for all aspects of DHS administration, finance, and personnel issues.
The Department of Defense Inspector General (DoDIG) is an independent, objective agency that provides oversight related to the programs and operations of the United States Department of Defense (DoD). DoD IG was created in 1982 as an amendment to the Inspector General Act of 1978.
The Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act made changes to the ways the U.S. federal government buys and manages computer technology. It became law as a part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 (Title VIII, Subtitle D, H.R. 3979.
Richard Philip Godwin also known as Dick, was born in Clifton, New Jersey, but raised in New Britain, Connecticut. Served in the United States Navy during WWII, enlisted July 1, 1943, and discharged June 21, 1946. Received a bachelor's degree in Engineering from Yale in 1945. He worked at New Britain Machine Company in grade school and went on to become chief metallurgist and machine tool designer. He worked for the Atomic Energy Commission and was a Nuclear Engineer and Project Director for the NS Savannah, the world's first nuclear-powered merchant vessel. In 1961, Richard started his career at Bechtel, where he would serve in many positions. He was elected vice president of Bechtel in 1971 and director in 1976. Godwin left Bechtel in 1986 serve as the first Under Secretary for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics at The Pentagon. In 1988, he resigned unsatisfied with what he was capable of doing. In the 90’s he dabbled in Broadway, producing two successful musicals “Crazy For You” (1992) and “Kiss Me, Kate” (1999). He opened a Vineyard in Northern California where he retired producing award-winning ‘Godwin’ wine.
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