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TITLE VIII--ACQUISITION POLICY, ACQUISITION MANAGEMENT, AND RELATED MATTERS

Subtitle D—Provisions Relating to Acquisition Workforce

P. L. 115-

House Conference Report. 115-404

(a) Extension.—Section 1762(g) of title 10, United States Code, is amended by striking “December 31, 2020” and inserting “December 31, 2023”.

(b) Increase In Limit On Number Of Participants.—Section 1762(c) of title 10, United States Code, is amended by striking “the demonstration project under this section may not exceed 120,000” and inserting “at any one time the demonstration project under this section may not exceed 130,000”.

(c) Implementation Strategy For Improvements In Acquisition Demonstration Project.—

(1) STRATEGY REQUIRED.—The Secretary of Defense shall develop an implementation strategy to address areas for improvement in the demonstration project required by section 1762 of title 10, United States Code, as identified in the second assessment of such demonstration project required by section 1762(e) of such title.

(2) ELEMENTS.—The strategy shall include the following elements:

(A) Actions that have been or will be taken to assess whether the flexibility to set starting salaries at different levels is being used appropriately by supervisors and managers to compete effectively for highly skilled and motivated employees.

(B) Actions that have been or will be taken to assess reasons for any disparities in career outcomes across race and gender for employees in the demonstration project.

(C) Actions that have been or will be taken to strengthen the link between employee contribution and compensation for employees in the demonstration project.

(D) Actions that have been or will be taken to enhance the transparency of the pay system for employees in the demonstration project.

(E) A time frame and individual responsible for each action identified under subparagraphs (A) through (D).

(3) BRIEFING REQUIRED.—Not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall provide a briefing to the Committees on Armed Services of the Senate and House of Representatives and the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of the House of Representatives on the implementation strategy required by paragraph (1).

The House bill contained a provision (sec. 823) that would amend section 1762 of title 10, United States Code, to extend, through December 2023, the Acquisition Demonstration (AcqDemo) personnel demonstration project that was established in section 4308 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1996 (Public Law 104-106). This provision also would require the Secretary of Defense to develop an implementation strategy to address potential AcqDemo improvements that were identified in a recent RAND assessment, and to provide a briefing to the Committees on Armed Services of the Senate and the House of Representatives and the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of the House of Representatives on the implementation strategy within 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act.

The Senate amendment contained a similar provision (sec. 1103) that would amend section 1762 of title 10, United States Code, to provide a permanent authority for personnel programs for employees in the Department of Defense civilian acquisition workforce and supporting personnel assigned to work directly with that workforce. The provision would also increase the number of participants from 120,000 to 130,000.

The Senate recedes with an amendment that would increase the number of participants from 120,000 to 130,000 to account for the increasing need to train individuals managing acquisition programs in cyber deterrence, detection, and response.