Lawmakers: Defense bill would give Congress more oversight on DFAS workers in Rome

A defense bill under consideration on Capitol Hill includes language that could alleviate the concerns of hundreds of people who work for the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) in Rome.

The proposed National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) includes a measure that would help provide additional Congressional protections for DFAS.

U.S. Senators Charles Schumer (D–N.Y.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D–N.Y.) and U.S. Representative Richard Hanna (R–Barneveld) announced the provision’s inclusion in a news release that Gillibrand’s office distributed on Wednesday.

More than 950 DFAS employees in Rome earlier this year became concerned that their largest customer, the U.S. Army, would be restructuring and handling a large portion of DFAS’s functions in-house.

The concerns are related to the Army’s new enterprise-management system that is intended to make financial management more auditable and efficient, the lawmakers said.

The lawmakers in November called on the chairs and ranking members of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees to preserve language from the already-passed House version of the NDAA and include it in the measure’s final version.

The House bill, approved in May, includes language that requires a DoD briefing regarding any process that could alter DFAS activities.

In today’s news release, the lawmakers say the language included in NDAA for fiscal year 2015 requires the deputy chief management officer to conduct an independent review of the U.S. Army pilot program that threatens to harm DFAS.

The bill also requires the under secretary of defense (comptroller) to conduct an independent review of any initiative proposed, or pilot initiated, in this fiscal year that would permanently transfer functions away from DFAS to other areas in the Department of Defense (DoD), the lawmakers said.

Such a review would assess, at a minimum, the impacts on cost, auditability, DFAS capabilities, and the ability of DFAS to maintain DOD-wide services, they added.

The findings of these analyses would have to be reported to the Congressional defense committees before implementing any proposed transfer.

The leadership of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees negotiated the proposed NDAA and both chambers still need to approve the measure, according to the news release.

The provision ensures “more protections” for the Rome DFAS employees, Gillibrand said in the news release.

“Congress deserves more oversight over any process that could change the structure of DFAS and I am pleased that the final NDAA provision will ensure Congressional oversight on DFAS’s role. DFAS has remained a critical component in ensuring the transparency of DoD’s accounting and financial management. We will continue to monitor any developments that could impact DFAS and the hundreds of employees that work at DFAS in Rome,” said Gillibrand.

The federal government created the Defense Finance and Accounting Service in 1991 to standardize and improve accounting and financial operations for DoD.

It provides payroll services for DoD military and civilian personnel, retirees and other major contractors and vendors.

DFAS operates as a separate and unique entity in DoD, to ensure “transparency and accountability” on behalf of DoD financing and accounting, according to the lawmakers’ news release.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com