S.Amdt. 5527

SA 5527. Mr. REID (for Mr. Kennedy (for himself, Mr. Biden, Mr. Bayh, and Mrs. McCaskill)) submitted an amendment intended to be proposed Mr. Reid to the bill S. 3001, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2009 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

On page 81, before line 6, insert the following:

SEC. 344. REPORT ON RAPID FIELDING CAPABILITIES.

(a) Report Required.--Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States shall submit to the congressional defense committees a report on each military service's program and any joint programs for rapidly equipping or meeting the needs of forces engaged in ongoing combat operations.

(b) Elements.--The report required under subsection (a) shall include the following:

(1) A description of the process used by each service individually or through a joint program.

(2) An assessment of the ease with which those in combat operations are able to request needed equipment.

(3) An assessment of how quickly each service is able to evaluate requests originated by those in combat operations.

(4) An explanation of any institutional or budgetary pressures that slow down each service's ability to provide the requests that come from those in combat operations.

(5) A cost benefit analysis of unifying the rapid fielding of equipment as a joint program office.

(6) An assessment of the methods used by each military service to evaluate the effectiveness of the service's rapid fielding program.

(7) An assessment of the nature and extent of senior leader visibility and participation in resolving urgent needs requests.

(8) An assessment of the impacts urgent needs acquisitions have on the broader acquisition programs of a service.

(9) An assessment of the speed with which urgent needs requests are evaluated and resolved and the sufficiency of the resolutions.

(10) Recommendations for making improvements and mitigating and resolving issues associated with the matters discussed in paragraphs (1) through (9).

(c) Form.--The report required under subsection (a) shall be submitted in unclassified form to the maximum extent practicable, but may contain a classified annex, if necessary.