WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner (D-VA), Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and Jack Reed (D-RI), Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Mark Esper following a report that the Department of Defense (DoD) will reexamine the process for awarding a $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud-computing contract.

 “The integrity of our federal procurement process rests in large part on its insulation from undue political influence, so that sound technical and business judgements can be used to make data- and evidence-based decisions. The importance of political noninterference is especially important in the context of Department of Defense procurements, where procurement decisions must focus on cost, quality, performance and other considerations directly related to promoting our national security in an increasingly complex global environment,” wrote Sens. Warner and Reed to DoD Secretary Mark Esper.    

In their letter to the DoD, the Senators inquired about the possibility that political pressure may have led to DoD’s abrupt decision to pause the process for awarding the contract. Additionally, the Senators called on Secretary Esper to explain the reasoning behind DoD’s decision to reexamine the contract.

“Successful procurement programs foster an open, fair, and competitive process, and are informed by technical and acquisition expertise and an understanding of the planned operational environment. The federal government benefits from being served by a variety of providers, ensuring competition that will deliver the best cost, quality, and performance. There are already built-in mechanisms for independent review of potential conflicts of interest– some of which have already been used in the JEDI initiative,” the Senators continued. “We appreciate your desire to review this initiative as you take on your new role as Secretary, but we urge you to resist political pressures that might negatively affect the implementation of sound acquisition practices and of the cloud strategy.”

A copy of the letter is found here and below.

Dr. Mark T. Esper

Secretary of Defense

U.S. Department of Defense

1000 Defense Pentagon

Washington, D.C. 20301

Dear Secretary Esper:

We urge you to take appropriate steps to ensure that the ongoing Department of Defense initiative to a contract for commercial cloud computing services through the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) program, is pursued in a manner that is consistent with the Department’s cloud strategy and serves the best interests of taxpayers and execution of DoD missions. 

The integrity of our federal procurement process rests in large part on its insulation from undue political influence, so that sound technical and business judgements can be used to make data- and evidence-based decisions. The importance of political noninterference is especially important in the context of Department of Defense procurements, where procurement decisions must focus on cost, quality, performance and other considerations directly related to protecting our national security in an increasingly complex global environment.  In particular, efficiently executing DOD’s cloud strategy, which emphasizes the appropriate evaluation and use of best available commercial services and systems, is extremely important to meeting the goals of the National Defense Strategy.

Successful procurement programs foster an open, fair, and competitive process, and are informed by technical and acquisition expertise and an understanding of the planned operational environment. The federal government benefits from being served by a variety of providers, ensuring competition that will deliver the best cost, quality, and performance. There are already built-in mechanisms for independent review of potential conflicts of interest– some of which have already been used in the JEDI initiative.

It is our understanding that the Department of Defense’s Chief Information Officer is moving towards concluding the competition for the JEDI contract, and appreciate his efforts to keep Congress informed during a lengthy process of protests by competitors and in the development and execution of a very complex and ambitious acquisition plan.  We appreciate your desire to review this initiative as you take on your new role as Secretary, but we urge you to resist political pressures that might negatively affect the implementation of sound acquisition practices and of the cloud strategy.

For these reasons, we request that you respond to the following questions:

Did anyone outside of the Department of Defense direct you to delay or cancel the JEDI program or the award of this contract?

Has the Department of Defense obtained new information relative to the program that was not available to the Inspector General, Government Accountability Office, or U.S. Federal Court of Claims?

What prompted the new examination of the JEDI initiative?

We look forward to receiving your responses within the next week. If you should have any questions or concerns, please contact Caroline Wadhams in Senator Warner’s office at 202-224-2418 and Arun Seraphin in Senator Reed’s office at 202-224-3871.

Sincerely,

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