Arms makers have played a major role in helping to write the new bill that changes how the Department of Defense will buy weapons.
The measure offered by House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry of Texas reforms the weapons acquisition system at the Pentagon, which will benefit defense contractors that make weapons, and the contractors reportedly played a role in crafting the legislation,
according to Politico.
Politico says that it has figured this out by comparing Thornberry's bill to proposals offered by groups in the industry.
For example, the Aerospace Industries Association, a group that represents defense and aerospace firms, proposed giving less power to the weapons inspector in the Defense Department, who reports to the defense secretary about flaws in weapons it is considering, which is a proposal that made its way into the bill.
The aerospace group proposed that the testing office be held "accountable for program delays and cost increases attributable to their actions." And this is exactly what the bill proposes.
This change is reportedly a top concern because the current system is effective in discovering problems in weapons systems such as fighter jets. This testing system was used to detect flaws that existed in the software for the new F-35 fighter jet.
In addition, the weapons bill would make it so the contract bidder with the lowest price was only chosen in "appropriate circumstances," a proposal made by the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA), a trade group representing Defense Department contractors.
Other groups and companies that offered proposals include Boeing, Raytheon, the Professional Service Council and the Information Technology Industry Council.
The weapons groups are not trying to hide the fact that their proposals made its way into Thornberry's bill.
"There were, literally, 10 provisions of Chairman Thornberry’s Agile Acquisition bill that had some kind of direct or indirect lineage from our recommendations," said Will Goodman, vice president of policy at NDIA, who used to work as a Senate aide.
"They were tightly aligned and in some cases were word-for-word adaptations," Goodman said.
However, the Texas lawmaker said it's not the case that weapons groups and companies wrote the bill.
"I don’t think they were writing it at all," Thornberry told Politico. "Obviously if you want to improve a system, you’ve got to get the viewpoint of the people who work in the system every day, and that in this case includes the industry."
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, defense contractors make up a significant share of Thornberry's campaign contributors.
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