Pentagon aims to cut 14 defense advisory boards, including DACOWITS

The Pentagon is proposing to terminate 14 completely different protection advisory teams following a 45-day overview, with the lower listing together with the 74-year-old Protection Advisory Committee on Ladies within the Companies, Army Occasions has realized.

An e-mail despatched earlier this month by Pentagon Deputy Director of Washington Companies Bob Salesses and reviewed by Army Occasions asks members of the Senior Govt Service to overview suggestions forward of a sign-off by Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth.

“The Division took a tough look through the overview to make sure boards and commissions present worth and meet the priorities of the president and secretary of protection,” Salesses, who briefly served as performing protection secretary earlier this yr, wrote. “The outcomes of this overview really helpful retention and elimination of specific boards or commissions. … If the secretary of protection helps this overview’s suggestion to terminate a board or fee that’s required by statute, that board or fee will stay non-operational and depopulated whereas the division pursues legislative change with Congress.”

The 14 committees and boards really helpful for termination characterize about one-third of all Protection Division advisory boards. They embrace:

Division of Protection Board of Actuaries Division of Protection Medicare-Eligible Retiree Well being Care Board of Actuaries Protection Advisory Committee on Army Personnel Testing Protection Advisory Committee on Ladies within the Companies Tribal and Economically Deprived Communities Advisory Committee Strategic Environmental Analysis and Improvement Program Advisory Board  Non-Federal Curiosity Advisory Committee Board on Coastal Engineering Analysis U.S. Strategic Command Strategic Advisory Group Board of Guests for the Western Hemisphere Institute for Safety Cooperation Desk Rock Lake Oversight Committee Nationwide Reconnaissance Workplace Advisory Board  Advisory Board for Nationwide Geospatial Intelligence Company Nationwide Safety Company Rising Applied sciences Board 

Eleven of these committees have been established by statute and would require legislative change to terminate, the e-mail notes. Moreover, two committees have been really helpful for merger: the Protection Advisory Committee for the Prevention of Sexual Misconduct and the Protection Advisory Committee on the Investigation Prosecution and Protection of Sexual Assault within the Armed Forces.

Pentagon spokesperson Sue Gough declined to substantiate the authenticity of the e-mail.

“As famous beforehand, the Division has been reviewing all DOD advisory committees and boards to make sure their efforts align with our most urgent strategic priorities and the president’s targets,” she mentioned. “The outcomes of the overview are nonetheless being thought of and we have now nothing to announce at the moment.”

Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth introduced his overview of advisory committees March 7, pausing all committee operations and purging all members whereas a 45-day overview was accomplished.

Previous to the overview’s announcement, workers of committees have been directed to show in reviews on working prices, membership, arguments for retention and a one-page abstract that demonstrated how the group benefited the Protection Division and its “warrior ethos.”

The Protection Advisory Committee on Ladies within the Companies, or DACOWITS, was established in 1951 and has run an aggressive quarterly assembly schedule whereas bringing collectively service leaders and personnel administrators to handle challenges starting from ill-fitting uniforms and physique armor to parental depart and childcare.

The transfer to topic the committee to overview and potential closure raised alarm bells in Congress.

On Could 13, a bunch of three U.S. Senators and three members of Congress, all ladies who’d served within the Armed Forces, wrote to Hegseth urging the retention of DACOWITS in addition to the sexual assault prevention and prosecution boards. The letter-writers included Sens. Tammy Duckworth, D-Unwell., Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii; and Reps. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Penn., Mikie Sherill, D-N.J., and Maggie Goodlander, D-N.H.

“All through its seventy-year historical past, roughly ninety-four % (94%) of DACOWITS’ suggestions have both been absolutely or partially adopted by DOD,” the lawmakers wrote. “Most notably, we’re involved the disassembly of DACOWITS will exacerbate the hole within the assortment of knowledge concerning key insurance policies to enhance situations for service ladies and cut back obstacles to the recruitment and retention of girls.”

A bipartisan group of feminine vets in Congress moved efficiently to spare DACOWITS from the chopping block in 2021, amid then-Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin’s zero-based overview of advisory committees.

Notably, that overview had the other targets of the present advisory board purge. Austin was assessing whether or not committees sufficiently contributed to the purpose of variety, fairness and inclusion throughout the Protection Division, whereas Hegseth has been a vocal opponent of DEI in all its kinds contained in the navy.

All through the political reversals, nonetheless, these near DACOWITS have maintained the committee exists to not serve any political agenda or particular curiosity group, however to advertise navy readiness by shedding gentle on obstacles that in any other case could be missed.

Retired Rear Adm. Cari Thomas, who served on the committee from 2017 to 2021, mentioned in an interview the problems she labored on — a lot of which, like childcare and household depart, additionally have an effect on male service members — proceed to be challenges for the Protection Division.

“The navy can’t at all times do all the pieces, as a result of there’s not limitless assets; there’s not limitless time,” she mentioned. “So, for me the lack of DACOWITS will affect the readiness of the navy companies, as a result of these unbiased advisory committees gained’t have the power to then give the secretary of protection and the commandant of the Coast Guard exterior opinions as to what they might want to work on, with the intention to be sure that the distinctive wants of no matter inhabitants it’s that these advisor committees are taking a look at are addressed, to make the navy as prepared because it may very well be.”

The second-oldest board on the listing, the Military Corps of Engineers’ Board on Coastal Engineering Analysis, was established in 1963 and not too long ago celebrated its a centesimal assembly.

Lewis Hyperlink, a senior engineer on the College of Maryland and member of the board till the latest purge, famous that the board, which had tackled challenges like flood modeling and nature-based infrastructure options, had till not too long ago been engaged on tasking supplied by Lt. Gen. William “Butch” Graham — now the chief of engineers — on issues like compound flooding, a probably disastrous problem illustrated by Hurricane Harvey in 2017.

Hyperlink famous that the members of the board have been volunteers and prices to take care of advisory committees, resembling journey stipends, have been minimal.

“There seems to be a bent of not wanting exterior recommendation,” Hyperlink mentioned. “That’s my opinion, and no one else’s essentially, however it seems that the worth of the exterior advisors shouldn’t be thought of vital sufficient for the federal government.”