DISA comes out on top in Gates efficiency initiative

When tallying winners and losers from Defense Secretary Robert Gates's August 9 speech announcing departmental cutbacks, the Defense Information Systems Agency appears to be a rare winner.

Once the agency that Defense employees loved to hate--until it underwent some much needed reform earlier this decade--DISA will assume the information technology operational responsibilities currently conducted within the office of the assistant secretary of defense for networks & information integration, Gates said during a press conference. ASD-NII is more commonly known as the office of the DoD chief information officer.

Gates said the organizational changes are part of an effort to redirect $100 billion in overhead spending over the next five years into higher-priority warfighting needs and modernization programs; more details will be revealed in September, he added.

Under Gates's overhead efficiency plan, networks and information integration will be entirely eliminated, as will the Joint Chiefs of Staff's Command, Control, Communications and Computer System organization, typically known as the J6. The IT functions of the J6, and also those of the Joint Forces Command--another organization slated for shutdown by Gates--will also go to DISA, according to a presentation from Christine Fox, director of the Defense cost assessment and program evaluation office.

"The U.S.  military has largely embraced jointness as a matter of culture and practice," Gates said of JFCOM. Jointness does "not necessarily require a separate four-star combatant command," he added.

The position of CIO--in any case, a legal requirement for federal agencies under the Clinger-Cohen Act--will not be eliminated, Gates said. Rather, Defense "will stand up a refashioned and strengthened chief information officer," Gates said, "and under its umbrella responsibility for daily operations will be assigned to [DISA]." Fox's presentation refers to a combined "CIO/DISA" organization.

Advance notice of Gates's intentions leaked out earlier this month after a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing for Teri Takai, currently the CIO of the state of California, to become the next ASD-NII was indefinitely postponed. The position is currently filled on an acting basis by Cheryl Roby; President Obama nominated Takai in March.

Also a winner in Gates's speech is increased centralization of IT.

"All of our bases, operational headquarters and Defense agencies have their own IT infrastructures, processes and application ware," Gates said. "This decentralization approach results in large cumulative costs and a patchwork of capabilities that create cyber vulnerabilities and limit our ability to capitalize on the promise of information technology," he also said, adding that he is directing an effort that will result in greater departmental re-use of common functions.

A clear loser is the Business Transformation Agency, which Gates said will be eliminated, its responsibilities shifted mostly to the deputy chief management officer. BTA has overseen the implementation and acquisition of several information technology projects on behalf of other defense agencies. It also produces a regularly updated business enterprise architecture for the department, an effort that some DoD officials criticize on background as a jobs program for consultants with little real-world impact.

For more:
- read a transcript of Secretary Gates's August 9 press conference, and an accompanying press release
- download Christine Fox's presentation (.pdf)
- go to a DoD webpage aggregating all efficiency initiative statements, slides, transcripts, etc.

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