The Navy comptroller this week said the Secretary of the Navy directed a new initiative, dubbed Running Fix, to find more ways to increase efficiencies and save money in the Department of the Navy (DoN) ahead of two years of budget caps imposed by the Fiscal Responsibility Act.
“To prepare for these choices our leaders in Congress have signed us up to, the Secretary of the Navy is directing we look within first. He has directed an effort we’re calling Running Fix,” Assistant Secretary of the Navy (ASN) for Financial Management and Comptroller Russell Rumbaugh said during an Atlantic Council event on Sept. 12.
Running fix is a nautical term that allows sailors to gauge where they are as they navigate on the water.
“That is exactly what we are doing. We are going to start by putting out a call across the department for ways we can do what we’re doing better, more efficiently and more effectively. To have a better idea of where we are to make sure we get where the Secretary has charged us to be,” Rumbaugh said.
Rumbaugh said Running Fix is partially an effort to “go look under the sofa cushions” and is also a “classic efficiency drill,” but that the Navy needs to balance finding efficiencies with not just creating churn for department employees.
Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro tasked both Rumbaugh and Acting Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition Jay Stefany to lead this effort, two positions often in disagreement.
He acknowledged that it is understood “the comptrollers and acquisition people are frequently not on the same side of issues. So by us partnering together, we’re already trying to bridge that.”
Rumbaugh noted the Navy Department intends to incentivize the generation and sharing of good ideas by letting the organizations keep any savings they identify. The department is particularly focused on ideas with high levels of savings or effects.
He said he has a few ideas already and this first phase of Running Fix will “scour” high level ideas while low hanging fruit suggested will be forwarded to the appropriate lower levels.
“We’re going to pick some real high value ones that we think we can get at, that we think require somebody like Secretary of the Navy-level attention, two ASNs working on that, right, getting the flag officers getting the general officers to look around and be like, yes, we agree inertia is not the right answer here. Let’s do it differently. Hopefully, that’s pocket some savings, and let’s get better outcomes.”
Rumbaugh argued Running Fix is not just a “cut drill, it’s not a hunting license to just go slashing things. We’re seeking a very wide call for good ideas. But then we will focus on only a select number that have the highest payoffs, both to help us live up to the caps, and do what we do for the nation better.”
He said the Navy and Marine Corps intend for the Running Fix conclusions to ultimately inform the fiscal year 2026 budget request process, which will start this upcoming winter.
“Absolutely the explicit direction is do this right, take your time. So that means we are shooting for the ‘26 [Program Objective Memorandum, POM] build…the ‘26 POM build is just kicking off. It doesn’t actually hit the public world, the president doesn’t submit it until February of 2025.”
Rumbaugh said the Navy Department will take “some time, that’s months, that’s not years” to use working groups to hear various perspectives and find savings and efficiencies but leadership supports the effort and they hope to “turn a crisis into an opportunity.”
“We in the DoN know we always have a responsibility to the taxpayers we serve. And the Fiscal Responsibility Act just made that more acute, which is fine, especially as the comptroller, stability has its own value in budgeting, and I don’t think that can be underestimated.”
Rumbaugh also acknowledged there has been a “constant call for efficiency” across his 20 years of watching defense budgeting and that his team has tallied over $200 billion in savings claimed by the Navy Department over the last 14 budget cycles, largely on costs avoided.