Lawmaker fumes over DOD effort to trim report length
A new Defense Department rule restricting the length of reports to Congress has raised some ire on Capitol Hill.
A new Defense Department rule restricting the length of reports to Congress has raised some ire on Capitol Hill, reports FCW, a sister publication of Defense Systems.
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), at a Hill press conference held July 11, accused the White House of violating its own transparency policies and said he’s sent a letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta demanding he rescind a policy limiting the reports to 10 pages.
George Little, Pentagon spokesperson, denied that DOD is trying to restrict information from Congress and stressed that a partnership between DOD and Congress is critical to national security. He said the department prepares and sends to Congress over 500 reports annually noted that one component in 2011 issued written guidance on report length, which stated that reports should not exceed 10 pages in length, except when the statutory requirements or specific circumstances dictate.
The news of the cap came out during a closed DOD briefing on Chinese military power. McKeon compared last year’s 70-page DOD report on the issue to this year’s, which was 19 pages despite being the first missive to come out under the new limitation.
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