The DoD Budget Process: The Next Frontier of Acquisition Reform

The budget process is the "master controller" of virtually everything that is done in the Department of Defense, yet it hasn't seen real reform since 1961. The current "waterfall" process from the industrial era requires prediction and control of programs from two years out, and then locks them in for five or more years into the future. Defense acquisition studies have repeatedly asserted the need to move away from program-centric stovepipes and toward portfolio-centric management. Yet half of all Research, Development, Test & Evaluation programs proposed for FY2021 are less than $29 million, with limited flexibility to take advantage of new opportunities.

Center Fellow Eric Lofgren moderates a discussion with our distinguished panelists Bob Daigle, Bill Greenwalt, and Katharina McFarland.