What The 809 Panel Did not Quite Get Right: Greenwalt & Levine

Abstract

This piece is pretty remarkable. It's penned by two true Washington heavyweights and it's bipartisan. One author, Peter Levine, is a Democrat, long the top staffer on the Senate Armed Services Committee and then Defense undersecretary for personnel and readiness at the Pentagon. The other, Bill Greenwalt, is a Republican, long the top acquisition policy expert on the SASC and then deputy Defense undersecretary for industrial policy. And it's a readable piece about the all-important topic of how the Pentagon should buy from the commercial sector. Every word is worth reading to find out what the 809 Panel did right and what needs to be done to fix some of its missteps."