House NDAA proposes major acquisition workforce reforms

The fiscal 2026 defense policy bill was touted as a piece of legislation that would deliver “the most significant acquisition reforms in a generation.” And while the bill made some significant changes to defense acquisition processes, it barely addressed the workforce — a gap some experts warned could undermine those reforms.

Plus, the department’s acquisition workforce has long been stretched thin, and recent efforts to reduce the size of its civilian workforce have only exacerbated those challenges. Meanwhile, the Defense Department’s acquisition budgets have grown significantly in recent years. 

Now, House lawmakers are putting forward a number of reforms that could change how the Defense Department recruits, develops, evaluates and manages its acquisition personnel.

The House narrowly passed its version of the defense authorization bill last week, with provisions that would establish a new senior official responsible for acquisition workforce strategy, create departmentwide workforce data analytics capability to improve workforce planning, as well as expand the Defense Department’s acquisition personnel demonstration project.

If passed, the bill would require the under secretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment to create a centralized dashboard or similar data analytics tool that integrates workforce data from across the military services and defense agencies. The system would track the acquisition workforce size, composition, geographic distribution, skills, certifications, vacancy rates and career progression, as well as employee performance. It would also include data on retention, attrition, career progression, retirement eligibility and projected workforce changes in the acquisition workforce.

Lawmakers also want DoD to rely on commercially available data analytics and visualization tools to support the capability, unless the department determines that no commercial product can meet its requirements.

The Defense Department could also get a new senior Pentagon official solely responsible for managing the acquisition workforce. 

Reporting directly to the under secretary for acquisition and sustainment, the chief acquisition talent officer would oversee departmentwide acquisition workforce strategy and lead talent management initiatives, including recruitment and retention, workforce planning, education, training and career development. Lawmakers want DoD to “frequently conduct assessments of the capacity, capability, and performance of the acquisition workforce and develop and submit recommendations for departmentwide acquisition workforce investments under the Defense Acquisition Workforce Development Account.”

The measure would require each military service to designate its own acquisition talent officer responsible for developing and executing acquisition workforce plans aligned with departmentwide priorities.  

In addition, the legislation seeks to expand the Defense Department’s long-running Acquisition Workforce Personnel Demonstration Project, known as AcqDemo, which provides acquisition organizations with greater flexibility to manage their civilian workforce. While AcqDemo has been in place for more than 25 years, Congress has continued to extend the program rather than making it permanent. 

Now, lawmakers want to increase the statutory cap on participation from 130,000 employees to 143,000 and extend the program through Dec. 31, 2035. In addition, lawmakers would require the under secretary for acquisition and sustainment to brief Congress on current participation levels, projected expansion over the next two years, workforce satisfaction and whether additional authorities are needed to support acquisition workforce development.

Another provision would change how DoD evaluates its civilian acquisition workforce — rather than focusing mainly on acquisition professionals’ required training or certifications, Congress wants DoD to evaluate them based on how well they apply innovative acquisition approaches and practices.

Meanwhile, the Senate Armed Services Committee’s version of the defense policy bill seeks to establish performance metrics for acquisition personnel and limit the Army secretary’s travel until the service can certify that all portfolio acquisition executives are certified acquisition officials. 

The House bill is now headed to the Senate floor. The Senate Armed Services Committee passed its version of the measure, but Senate Democrats blocked the must-pass bill from advancing to the floor in June over the bill’s massive price tag, the war with Iran and a provision that would expand military partnership between the United States and Israel.

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