The Defense Business Board was established in 2001 as a complement to broader transformation efforts in the

Department of Defense Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to: Current departments of defence * Department of Defence (Australia) * Department of National Defence (Canada) * Department of Defence (Ireland) * Department of National Defense (Philipp ...

from an overly burdensome bureaucracy to a more streamlined, effective organization. The Board consists of approximately twenty private sector executives with experience in business management. The purpose of the Board is to provide independent advice, which reflects an outside private sector perspective, on best business practices for application to the Department. The Board’s objective is to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of organizational support to the nation's warfighters. The Board operates under the provisions of the

Federal Advisory Committee Act The Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) (), is a United States federal law which governs the behavior of federal advisory committees. In particular, it has special emphasis on open meetings, chartering, public involvement, and reporting. The U.S. ...

of 1972, as amended, and follows a Secretary of Defense approved charter available at the DoD Defense Business Board website. The Board members, to include the Board’s Chairperson, are appointed annually by the

United States Secretary of Defense The United States secretary of defense (SecDef) is the head of the United States Department of Defense, the executive department of the U.S. Armed Forces, and is a high ranking member of the federal cabinet. DoDD 5100.1: Enclosure 2: a The ...

and do not receive any payments for their services. The Chairs of the

Defense Policy Board The Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee, also referred to as the Defense Policy Board (DPBAC or DPB), is a federal advisory committee to the United States Department of Defense. Their charter is available online through the office of the Dir ...

and the Defense Science Board serve as non-voting ''ex officio'' members of the Board. The Director of the

Office of Management and Budget The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). OMB's most prominent function is to produce the president's budget, but it also examines agency programs, pol ...

and the Comptroller General of the

General Accounting Office The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is a legislative branch government agency that provides auditing, evaluative, and investigative services for the United States Congress. It is the supreme audit institution of the federal gover ...

serve as non-voting observers of the Board. In October 2014, Deputy Secretary Robert O. Work instructed the Board to hire consultants from McKinsey & Company to identify wasteful spending. McKinsey discovered DoD was spending $134 billion, 23% of its total budget, on back-office work, and that the back-office bureaucracy staff of over one million people was nearly as great as the number of active duty troops. On January 22, 2015, the Board then voted to adopt a McKinsey plan to cut $125 billion in waste over five years. After Secretary

Chuck Hagel Charles Timothy Hagel ( born October 4, 1946)Ash Carter Ashton Baldwin Carter (September 24, 1954 – October 24, 2022) was an American government official and academic who served as the 25th United States Secretary of Defense from February 2015 to January 2017. He later served as director of the Be ...

the next month, however, Deputy Secretary Work expressed he was concerned that the gain from any savings achieved would then be removed from the defense budget by Congress. Under Secretary

Frank Kendall III Frank Kendall III (born January 26, 1949) is an American engineer, lawyer and executive who is the 26th and current United States Secretary of the Air Force. He has served in several senior positions in the U.S. Department of Defense. A West Po ...

argued that he could not achieve any efficiencies and, instead, that he needed to hire 1,000 more staff. Secretary Carter then replaced the Board chairman, classified the McKinsey results as secret, and removed the report from public websites. In 2016 the DBB provided the model for the Defense Innovation Advisory Board which was established by Defense Secretary Carter during the 2016 during RSA cyber security conference in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. In December 2020, the outgoing Trump administration replaced the majority of the board with new appointees, including Trump allies

Corey Lewandowski Corey R. Lewandowski (; born September 18, 1973) is an American political operative, lobbyist, political commentator and author who is politically associated primarily with Donald Trump. He was the first campaign manager of Trump's 2016 presi ...

and

David Bossie David Norman Bossie (born November 1, 1965) is an American political activist. Since 2000, he has been president and chairman of conservative advocacy group Citizens United and in 2016, Bossie was the deputy campaign manager to the Donald Trump ...

References

External links

* {{official website, http://dbb.defense.gov United States federal boards, commissions, and committees American advisory organizations