Groups Urge White House and Pentagon To Right-Size Pentagon Workforce

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Dear Mr. President, Director Mulvaney, and Secretary Mattis:

As you consider options to increase the efficiency of the federal workforce,¹ the undersigned organizations strongly urge you to avoid any hasty decisions that would further increase staffing at the Department of Defense. The Pentagon is the largest federal employer,² and numerous studies across the political spectrum have identified reforms to the size and structure of its workforce as an opportunity to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of its operations.

Specifically, some of the calls for reforms and appropriate reductions to the size and structure of the Pentagon workforce have included:

• A Defense Business Board study that identified $125 billion in potential savings from administrative waste, including excessive federal and contractor staffing.³
• A letter signed by 38 defense experts that identified the size and structure of the Department’s workforce as an “area in need of urgent examination and restructuring” since both the civilian and contractor workforce “is now out of proportion to need."⁴
• A Heritage Foundation study that estimated there was $29 billion to be found in efficiencies in the Department’s civilian workforce.⁵
• A Congressional Budget Office study that found the Department could save $14 billion by replacing some military personnel with civilian employees.⁶
• A joint study by the National Taxpayers Union and R Street Institute that estimated billions could be saved by reducing excess contractors and civilian employees.⁷

Service contracting has also contributed to an ever-expanding “shadow government” that costs over a hundred billion dollars annually.⁸ While often justified as increasing efficiency and savings, shifting services from federal employees to contractors can significantly increase costs. A study by the Project On Government Oversight found the average annual contractor billable rate was much more than the average annual full compensation for federal employees performing comparable services.⁹ Judicious cuts to service contracts would also increase the efficiency and the effectiveness of the Department. Despite these opportunities for savings, the Government Accountability Office found DoD lacked “critical” information on contractor costs needed to make workforce decisions.¹⁰

We appreciate this Administration’s willingness to examine costs and effectiveness across the federal government. The Pentagon’s staffing is ripe for a strategic review of the most appropriate and cost-effective workforce.