Summary: The Defense Reform Initiative report, issued in November 1997, outlined a series of initiatives that the Defense Department (DOD) hopes will make its current organization and business practices more agile, responsive, and efficient. GAO strongly endorses DOD's efforts to reform its business processes and reduce its support infrastructure costs. DOD hopes that the Defense Reform Initiative will eventually provide a major source of recurring savings that can be used to increase funding for weapons system modernization. This testimony (1) outlines steps that DOD has taken to provide program direction and give momentum to the Defense Reform Initiative, (2) discusses additional steps that could be taken to facilitate a more comprehensive reform effort, (3) discusses the impact of the current initiatives on DOD's budget process, (4) highlights progress generally being made in implementing the initiative, and (5) provides a more detailed discussion about the status of the competitive sourcing initiative.
