If GiovCon Chatham House Worked for DOGE...

So..this month we asked for government reform suggestions, not silly ones, acitonable ones.

What follows is the summary:

? Here is a bulleted and sub-bulleted list of policy recommendations found in the sources:

? Government Efficiency & Reform

o Establish a "Government Efficiency University" (GEU)

? Democratize Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and process development for efficiency and decision-making.

? Instructors would include RPA experts and adult learning specialists.

? Incentivize process improvement by issuing residuals to individuals based on government savings, potentially with a tiered or capped system.

? The GEU would assess improvements, and residuals would cease upon an individual's death or process update.

o Eliminate the DOGE

o Implement a 1% budget cut across all departments

o Implement a 12-month suspension on restrictions regarding the use of funds, allowing program offices more spending flexibility

o Map the core processes of the executive branch

? Streamline these processes

? Eliminate non-essential steps and bureaucratic red tape

? Provide recommendations to Congress to defund nonessential departments

o DOGE Recommendations

? Require PEOs to annually transition tech from R&D into existing programs (~15% of portfolio value)

? Reward teams for cutting budgets by providing one-time bonuses at 5% of total recurring savings.

o Eliminate the 20-day waiting period for mental health screenings for Veterans who contact the VA

o Run a bounty program that gives 10% of savings to anyone who identifies wasteful spending

o Focus on high-dollar wasteful spending instead of less impactful issues

o Develop an organizational culture change that rewards efficiency and lean, effective performance

? Attract, hire, and retain leaders with a history of leading lean, entrepreneurial organizations

? Incentivize high performance with an integrated performance management system

? Institute training for emerging AI tools that can improve efficiency

? Acquisition & Innovation

o Reduce Redundancy & Streamline Processes

? Eliminate “futures” organizations that lack procurement authority or that develop service-specific concepts

? This includes organizations such as Army Futures Command

? Re-establish an organization similar to JFCM to unify efforts under a joint operational concept and eliminate service-specific projects

? Reduce redundancy of effort in the government

? If branches or commands are solving the same problem, promote a unified approach and the sharing of solutions.

? Consolidate innovation programs and offices

? Connect these programs and offices to budget sources for acquisition.

? Eliminate 90% of DoD innovation organizations

? Each Combatant Command (CCMD) and each service branch would get 1 innovation organization

? The Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) would retain the following:

o OSC

o DIU

o Joint Software Factory

? Eliminate "innovation" funding without defined success metrics for transition, funding, and an identified transition partner

o Increase Accountability & Transparency

? Make responsible acquisition offices cover legal fees for successful protests up to a certain percentage of the award value

? Make middle management accountable for program failures

? Require innovation activities to have defined success metrics for transition and funding, with identified transition partners

? Establish a public-facing scorecard for "innovation" offices, evaluating their engagement with non-traditionals, funding decisions, and commercialization success

? Make supply chain information public

? Map supply chains to reduce overpriced parts

? Bolster small business capability and supply chain resiliency

o Improve Processes

? PPBE Process

? Make the PPBE process more agile to allow organizations to:

o Make strategic investments in novel technologies

o Make divestments in failing solutions

? Kill the "use it or lose it" budget mentality

? Instead, incentivize finding savings by providing more discretionary budget next year.

? Give each service branch half of their current budget and create a joint organization that controls the other half

? This is intended to make joint programs truly joint and cut down on service duplication.

? Remove or simplify the CUI (Controlled Unclassified Information) designation.

? If information truly needs protection, make it Confidential.

? Limit the allowable RFI (Request for Information) response to two pages

? This will force government agencies to only ask questions they care about and make the process less burdensome for contractors.

? Expand a "platform-one" like sandbox capability to accelerate small businesses' ability to comply with DoD cybersecurity standards

? Make most software acquisition Fixed-Price (FFP) unless justified otherwise

? Provide live, in-session feedback and working sessions for requirements, including live RFIs and Reverse Q&As, to streamline the acquisition process

? This will allow industry to provide real-time feedback.

? Streamline incumbent contractor selection

? The government should be able to give preference to incumbent contractors who perform well, potentially based on metrics such as CPAR (Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System) scores.

? Accelerate adoption of authorized AI platforms

? Agencies should utilize existing FedRAMP High solutions and open-source alternatives instead of expensive middleware.

? Consolidate program elements and budget line items

? This would make budget submissions easier and allow PEOs (Program Executive Offices) more flexibility during the year of execution.

? Require leadership executing reorganizations to provide written plans

? These plans must explain the rationale for the reorganization, intended improvements, and metrics for success.

? Make all DoD PM salaries a separate budget line

? This will increase transparency.

? Replace volunteer SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) evaluator programs with reserve positions for service members with relevant experience

? Reduce or eliminate innovation events and demo days that lack a clear path to funding

? Require technical training for anyone who issues a contract above $500,000

? Eliminate the 1102 job category (Contracting)

? This forces technical leaders to earn their warrant on top of their technical skills.

? Improve the liaison between DoD agencies and new entrants (outside of the Primes) to offer more opportunities for R&D

? Address disconnects between the R&D community, acquisition personnel, and warfighters

? Improve pathways for rapid requirements development, technology invention, and direct transition

? Create a government acquisition "agency" that operates like a GOCO (Government-Owned, Contractor-Operated)

? Employees would not be under the GS scale.

? This would allow for more flexibility in hiring, firing, and compensation.

? Employees would be empowered through acquisition authority to make awards.

? Employees would be incentivized/paid based on their output.

? Kill "innovation" funding unless there are defined success metrics for transition, funding, and an identified transition partner

? Educate startups/investors on adversarial capital tactics

? Personnel

o Reform Hiring & Promotion Processes

? Reform the GS hiring and performance systems

? Eliminate the "all 5s" game in the certification process

? Penalize resumes that are more than 10 pages long

? Speed up the federal hiring process

? Remove obstructive HR staff

? Encourage the use of direct hire authorities

? Reform GS hiring and performance systems

? The current certification process often removes qualified candidates who do not play the "all 5s game."

? Resumes over 10 pages should be penalized.

? Institute performance-based accountability for GOV employees and entities

? Remove individuals who are not performing well.

? Implement performance-based hiring and promotion

? Abandon the old "time-in-rank" model

? Abandon DEI-related methods

? Modernize the hiring process

? Incentivize the right talent to serve

? Institute mandatory return to office for all government workers

? This would force the retirement of non-performing employees and create the opportunity to evaluate telework policies.

? Institute a rigorous evaluation process for government employees heavily biased towards leadership, ethics, and accountability

? Reform the application and hiring process

? It currently takes too long to process and hire someone.

? Performance evaluation criteria should be easily translatable across federal agencies.

? Revisit the Goldwater-Nichols Act

? Reform outdated time-in-grade promotion requirements, which reward tenure over talent.

? Modernize performance reviews

? Make the Chief Performance Officer a powerful position

? Immediately fire civil servants and A&AS staff who have received a low performance rating in the last 3 years.

o Other Recommendations

? Cut out middle management

? Penalize and potentially terminate non-performing civil servants who are not able to adapt

? Implement a two-step process to evaluate government contractors

? Cut contractors whose employees cannot get a positive review from another employee, as Tesla does.

? Redesign the civil service to make the government a more attractive place to work.

? Adopt Tesla's method for evaluating contractors

? Increase standards across the board

? Cut DHA (Defense Health Agency) and healthcare personnel by 75%

? Shift funding to commercial healthcare

? Refocus the remaining DHA personnel on combat care and mass casualty events

? Reduce reliance on contractors and SETA (Systems Engineering and Technical Assistance) support

? Build back SME (Subject Matter Expert) support where needed

? Anyone wishing to enter civil service must pass a difficult test that covers culture and knowledge relevant to the position/department

? Develop a top-down organizational culture change

? Attract, hire, and retain leadership talent with a history of leading lean, entrepreneurial organizations.

? Incentivize high performance with a new, integrated performance management system that includes career path guidance, goals, and incentive bonus pay (pay for performance with efficiency metrics).

? Institute training at the individual contributor level for emerging AI tools that can improve efficiency

? National Security

o Improve Cybersecurity & IT

? Provide free-to-use virtualized sandboxes and industry-leading IDEs (Integrated Development Environments) for users to experiment with

? This will improve automation and codebases.

? Expand secure hybrid work infrastructure

? Leverage existing infrastructure at National Guard and Military Department installations to:

o Allow qualified engineers nationwide to support critical missions remotely.

o Monetize unused facility space

o Enable contractors to access wider talent pools

o Increase the available cleared workforce supporting DoD/IC (Department of Defense/Intelligence Community) operations.

? Accelerate adoption of authorized AI platforms

? Agencies should utilize existing FedRAMP High solutions and open-source alternatives instead of expensive middleware.

? Establish a unified digital workspace standard for all agencies

? This would:

o Reduce interoperability challenges

o Streamline collaboration

o Reduce duplicative infrastructure

o Ensure better data sharing

o Enhance security without increasing costs.

? Reduce the number of niche internet networks to just NIPR, SIPR, and JWICS

? ACCM/SAP (Alternative Compensatory Control Measures/Special Access Program) programs should use credentials to control access.

? Staff a meaningful amount of AOs (Authorizing Officials) whose directive is to get new technology approved for real evaluation/use

? Eliminate FEDRAMP (Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program) and use SOC2 (System and Organization Controls 2) instead

? NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) should make the reasoning for FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standards) public if SOC2 is not sufficient.

? Mandate PQC-ABAC (Post-Quantum Cryptography - Attribute-Based Access Control) for all national security system access

? This should remove many "air-gapped" network requirements.

? Create a government social network similar to GCCH at scale

? This would be a closed network and a combination of Twitter and Signal.

? All civil servants would be required to participate.

o Military

? Stop mandatory military PCS (Permanent Change of Station) moves

? Allow service members who are performing well to stay in their jobs for longer.

? Cut DHA (Defense Health Agency) and healthcare personnel by 75%

? Shift funding to commercial healthcare

? Refocus the remaining DHA personnel on combat care and mass casualty events

? Eliminate the "end of the year sweep up funds" mentality

? Create a policy/rule that rewards government commands/organizations for returning unobligated cash to their BSO (Budget Submitting Office).

? Advocate for a complete redux and modernization of the Goldwater-Nichols Act and a two-year budget cycle for DoD

? Ensure DoD Science and Technology groups deliver tangible value for the warfighter

? Establish stricter accountability and transition metrics.

? Establish measurable milestones with a focus on real-world applications

? Empower researchers and reduce bureaucracy

? Prioritize clear transition pathways

? Conduct a review of contract language and triggers for shipyard production bonuses

? Increase accountability for late deliveries and incomplete projects.

o Other

? Streamline the National Labs

? Focus spending on the weapons labs

? Privatize some Office of Science activities

? Treat the labs as businesses rather than extensions of DOE (Department of Energy).

? Eliminate the "always small" protection for Alaskan Native Corporations

? This would allow the market to determine their viability.

? Eliminate NGA (National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency), or revert it back to NIMA (National Imagery and Mapping Agency)

? Move FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) funding to the Save Our Allies nonprofit

? Stop all foreign aid

? Build a government-subsidized manufacturing zone near Silicon Valley

? Potential sites:

o Alameda

o The Presidio

o The Naval Weapons Stations (NWS) Concord and the adjoining Military Ocean Terminal Concord (MOTCO)

? This manufacturing zone would compete with China.

? Other Recommendations

o Institute a "Night Court" for all government agencies

? This would consist of a three-pronged review with a maximum of nine people, including the leader of the Congressional committee, the department head, and key customers, with equal votes and publicized proceedings.

o Reintroduce H.R. 1098, the Free Competition in Currency Act of 2011

? Introduce competition in the production of money

? Highlight inefficiencies caused by the Federal Reserve System and fiat money.

? Understand and discuss Mises' logical arguments against bureaucracy and socialism.

o Develop and manage R&D (research and development) on the bio and material science side, with specific AI paradigms in mind

o Focus on improving acquisition and replacing the lost knowledge from the retiring workforce

? Waterfall development does not work for IT.

o Make the US Tax Code 2-3 pages long (the current tax code is 6,871 pages)

o Simplify income taxes and collection

o Start announcing social security cuts for people under 50 years old

o Auto-award any protested contract to the selected winner after 30 days if the contract value is less than $25M

o Promote Officers and Civilians for achieving the same or better results and spending less money to do it, and do not cut their budget the next year for being successful

o Encourage multi-year budget planning at the installation level through improved logistics software to enable multiple block purchases of quality products instead of single purchases of cheap products

o Incentivize PEOs to come in under budget and eliminate the fear many of them have about returning money to the treasury

o Restructure social safety net entitlement programs

? DOGE is in a unique position to take political hits and provide cover for those in government who want to make meaningful change.

o Sell or repurpose underutilized government-owned buildings

o Institute a new rule that bars contractors from bidding for three months if their protest is not sustained

o Turn the VA (Department of Veterans Affairs) into a single-payer benefits administrator

? Veterans could receive care from any provider and use a government checkbook to pay for it.

o Implement aggressive measures to reduce lobbying and corporate influence

? This may involve overturning Citizens United, instituting campaign spending limits, extending the ban on lawmakers accepting lobbying positions, and banning lobbyist fundraising.

o Force real ROI (Return on Investment) evaluation for government programs, including labor, benefits, and infrastructure costs

? Implement accountability and consequences for failure.

o Develop and implement similar metrics for innovation organizations to those used for economic development organizations

o Focus on systemic causes of government inefficiency

? Address perverse incentive structures

? Implement information-age performance eval systems

? Develop more agile ways to hire/fire at speed of relevance (same for organizations - dissolve + create in weeks)

o Federal civilian employment needs more flexibility

? Both hiring and firing should be managed closer to affected teams.

o Revise the tax code

? Make it clear and simple

? Eliminate the necessity for third parties.

? Connect incentives to industry-specific initiatives rather than baking them into the tax code.

o Cut entitlements that build up contractor wrap rates