Lawmakers seek justification for closing Joint Forces Command

The House Armed Services Committee will not provide any financial or legislative support for several Defense Department cost savings initiatives, including the closure of the Virginia-based Joint Forces Command, unless the Pentagon turns over details justifying its recommendations, according to the panel's chairman.

In a letter sent last week to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and released publicly on Wednesday, Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., said the department failed to turn over relevant documents explaining its decisions to disestablish JFCOM, as well as the Business Transformation Agency and the Office of Network and Information Integration.

Skelton said without the information the committee would be "unable to evaluate the rationale for the decisions. … Previous recommendations of this magnitude included significant documentation to support decisions made by the secretary of Defense."

The Oct. 7 letter was written at the request of Rep. Glenn Nye, D-Va., and was prompted by a contentious Sept. 29 committee hearing on the efficiency initiatives.

Lawmakers from both parties grilled senior Defense Department officials on the plan to close JFCOM, and expressed frustration when witnesses could not provide any written justification for the decision, the plan's estimated cost savings, or any successor organization. The command provides roughly 6,000 jobs in Virginia.

The chairman noted that prior to the hearing, the committee requested Defense share any business case analysis justifying the closure, as well as any guidance related to the decision. While the committee ultimately received a package of documents, it did not include, or even address the existence, of the requested guidance and analysis.

Skelton suggested in the letter that the department has not been forthcoming in responding to his request and it could still be formulating its analysis. On the day of the hearing, for example, the committee obtained from sources outside the department a memo to the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the director of cost assessment and program evaluation on the subject of the Joint Forces Command Disestablishment Working Group.

"Needless to say, the committee is deeply disappointed that it had to obtain this document from sources outside the department," Skelton wrote.

Following the hearing, most of the committee members signed a letter requesting Skelton subpoena Gates to appear before the panel. But Skelton took a different approach, urging the department to comply with the information request or risk losing funding for the plan.

"It is important to note that a number of elements of the efficiency initiative will require changes to statute, the creation of or modification of legal authorities, and funding," he wrote. "The committee will be unable to support any request for legislation or funding resulting from the efficiency initiative until the committee's requests for information have been satisfied."

The closures, announced on Aug. 9, are part of a larger departmentwide effort to reduce overhead spending and redirect $100 billion to needed troops and equipment. A Defense Department spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment on the letter.