Defense Policy

Shanahan on cost-cutting proposal: 'It's not a people issue'

Defense News: Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan agrees with the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee that changes are needed in the Pentagon’s civilian workforce ― but disagreed on the root cause of the department’s infamous high costs and slow speeds.

“It’s not a people issue. People are the solution, not the problem,” Patrick Shanahan said Tuesday. “It’s our processes, not our people.”

On April 17, Rep. Mac Thornberry, the Texas republican who chairs the HASC, unveiled a sweeping proposal targeting the Pentagon’s so-called “fourth estate” agencies, which are supported by 200,000 civilian personnel and 600,000 contractors, at a cost of more than $100 billion per year. That proposal that would eliminate seven agencies inside the department and impose a 25 percent personnel cut in many others, with execution completed by Jan. 1, 2021.

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