WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today Congressman Steve Austria (R – Beavercreek), a member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, spoke on the House floor, urging his colleagues to pass Amendment #197 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 (H.R. 1540), that asks the Air Force to do a cost-benefit analysis before merging ELS and EIS.

Video of the speech can be found on Congressman Austria’s YouTube page here: www.youtube.com/CongressmanAustria.

The full text of Congressman Austria’s remarks as prepared for delivery are below:

“Thank you Mr. Speaker.  I want to thank Mr. Turner for yielding and offering this very important amendment.  It is especially critical, as we continue our work in the House of cutting unnecessary spending, bringing transparency and accountability for taxpayer dollars. That we have an amendment like this in place.

 

“This amendment simply asks that the Department of Defense and the Air Force to provide that provide that same transparency.

 

“The Air Force is merging two important areas of logistics with the Enterprise Logistics Systems (ELS) and the Enterprise Information Systems (EIS) into a new portfolio known as the Business Enterprise Systems portfolio. This amendment simply asks that the Air Force do a cost-benefit analysis of the move.

 

“EIS which includes activities such as ECSS and JRBs/IESGs have been shown to be cost efficient and much needed to modernize the Air Force’s logistics and information technology system and services. ELS currently manage some very large programs at WPAFB and Gunter Annex. There are approximately 1000 jobs, including military, civilians and contractor employees within the Enterprise Logistics Directorate.

 

“Asking the Department of Defense to provide a cost benefit analysis and analysis of their decision to combine these portfolios makes sense. It will provide Congress the same transparency and accountability of taxpayer dollars that we here in Congress are being asked.

 

“I support the Air Force’s plan to become more efficient, but we need to make sure that there is a good business case and that these moves actually are efficient and are in the best interest of taxpayers. 

 

I yield back my time.”

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