The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) is scrutinizing whether the Department of Defense could achieve efficiencies by reducing the number of information technology systems it uses to write contracts and manage procurement, committee aides said June 26.
DoD agencies and the military services currently use more than 30 different IT systems for such purposes, committee aides told reporters. The HASC version of the fiscal year 2018 defense authorization bill would restrict funding for developing new systems until a review of the situation is completed. 
Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), the HASC’s chairman, believes “there might be some redundancy here and some improvements that could be made [by] relying on more shared systems,” an aide said. “We need more information to justify continued support of service-unique systems.”
The bill, which the committee plans to mark up June 28, would authorize $631.5 billion in base funding, $28.5 billion above the Trump administration’s request. It also would provide $65 billion for contingency operations, matching the request.
Aides said the committee, which has written a provision to create a separate space corps within the Air Force Department (Defense Daily, June 22), is having an “ongoing dialogue” with Air Force leaders, who have criticized the proposal.
Space corps proponents say the new service is needed to streamline the Air Force’s excessive bureaucracy and make space a higher priority. The Air Force counters that a major organizational overhaul would slow its ability to counter growing threats in space.
On the international front, the committee will call for DoD to develop a long-term plan for the European Defense Initiative, formerly the European Reassurance Initiative. DoD will also be asked to provide updated strategies for Afghanistan and Syria.