Legislative and Administrative Constraints―Breaking Down the Barriers to Effectiveness and Efficiency

摘要

Each year the Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of the Air Force request the submission of legislative proposals for possible inclusion in our annual National Defense Authorization Act. The call for proposals is initiated with call letters from the OSD Legislative Reference Service (OSD-LRS) and from the Secretary of the Air Force Legislative Liaison (SAF/LL). This legislative cycle started off just like any other with a list of proposals developed and coordinated through Secretariat/Air Staff and vetted through the corporate Air Force process. The task, however, took a turn when the Secretary of Defense, Donald H. Rumsfeld, determined the Services weren't thinking bold enough. In response, OSD set up five working groups to identify and submit bold initiatives for the FY04 National Defense Authorization Act as well as identify statutory and administrative constraints imposed by OMB, Congress, and the DoD. This drill was separate from the existing FY04 proposals we would normally submit through the corporate Air Force process. This drill directed the Services to identify proposals from a global perspective that began with the President's Management Agenda and included the themes of Freedom to Manage and Secretary Rumsfeld's Bureaucracy to Battlefield. It appeared OSD had chosen this moment in time to change the way DoD would conduct business. We were directed to look at any bureaucratic and legislative constraint that prevented us from doing our job more efficiently and effectively and craft the legislation to disarm those constraints.