Arlington, VA, August 16, 2010
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates held a press conference Monday, August 9th, 2010 (full text of Sec. Gates’ remarks available at link below) during which he made public several decisions aimed at reforming the way the Pentagon does business. After analyzing the Secretary’s remarks, Bill Skipper, President and CEO of ABDG, stated, “The Secretary of Defense is clearly taking a strong position on defense spending and identifying cuts. However, what you don’t hear him saying is that he plans to return any of those savings to the U.S. Treasury. The Secretary will take those identified savings and reinvest them back into DoD.” Validating Mr. Skipper’s thoughts are comments Secretary Gates made this past Saturday that appeared in a Los Angeles Time interview. While speaking with the reporter Secretary Gates disclosed that the plan to reduce spending on civilian contractors could free up more than $10 billion over the next four years, and that Gates wants the savings to be spent on new ships, fighters and other weapons systems rather than on reducing the federal budget deficit.
During his press conference last week, Secretary Gates expressed his intent when he said, “the culture of endless money that has taken hold must be replaced by a culture of savings and restraint.” He continued to emphasize that, “the DoD cannot expect America’s elected representatives to approve budget increases each year unless we are doing a great job; indeed, everything possible to make every dollar count.” Some of the Secretary’s targeted areas involve personnel and contractor cuts in various departments as well as the closing of Joint Forces Command. Secretary Gates has also charged each service to “find” $100B in savings over the next five years, while decreasing both General/Flag officers and senior civilians.
Other highlights from Secretary Gates’ remarks include, “[this agenda] is about reforming and reshaping priorities to ensure that, in tough budgetary and economic times, we can focus defense resources where they belong; in America’s fighting forces, investment in future capabilities and, most important, on our men and women in uniform.” He continued to discuss resource allocation by saying, “I intend to continue to move aggressively to achieve the broad goals of making this department more efficient but also ensuring that we put our resources where they are the most needed.”
As the DoD cuts spending, and works with the Administration and Congress to change its processes and procedures, our partnership grows increasingly more important. The ABDG team possesses years of experience in navigating the DoD and Congressional landscapes—both in times of expanding budgets and in times of contracting budgets. Because we’ve seen this before, we understand that as DoD tightens its belt, the requirements will remain and in some cases grow, but the competition will become more fierce. Inherent in the Secretary’s charge to the Department is a challenge to the Department’s private sector partners to continue to meet the urgent requirements of the warfighter while assisting the Department in meeting their goal of financial restraint. As the DoD trims the fat at the top of the bureaucracy this will force those in uniform to assume more responsibility. This action alone will create other opportunities in the DoD community. While there is much uncertainty, many requirements will remain with solutions to be found.
Ensuring you remain a DoD priority and gain resource allocation in your favor are all part of what ABDG does for you. We appreciate your business and look forward to achieving continued success together.
If your firm is interested in growing market share in the U.S. Government market, please contact ABDG’s Business Development Director, Mike Bennis mike.bennis@abdg.com (703) 647-2983.
For the full text of Secretary Gates’ comments, Please Click Here
