Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, has introduced a bill that seeks to encourage the Defense Department to use e-commerce marketplaces to procure commercial-off-the-shelf products as part of efforts to reform DoD’s acquisition process, Federal News Radio reported Thursday.
The bill released Thursday would direct DoD to use at least one private sector marketplace and would help the Defense Contract Audit Agency reduce its backlog of incurred cost audits by increasing the cost threshold for such contracts.
Thornberry’s measure seeks to transition 25 percent of incurred cost contracts from DCAA to private auditors by 2020.
The proposed legislation would also ask the Pentagon to gather and analyze data related to services contracts.
“Tying the services contracting process to the annual budget submission will improve transparency and accountability, while also allowing Congress to exercise better oversight,†according to a factsheet on the legislation.
The report said Thornberry aims to integrate the measure with a defense policy bill for fiscal 2018.
