Lawmakers' Letter To Gates On DOD Efficiency Initiatives

In a Jan. 24, 2011, letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard "Buck" McKeon (R-CA), tactical air and land forces subcommittee Chairman Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD), emerging threats and capabilities subcommittee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-TX), seapower and projection forces subcommittee Chairman Todd Akin (R-MO), readiness subcommittee Chairman Randy Forbes (R-VA), military personnel subcommittee Chairman Joe Wilson (R-SC), strategic forces subcommittee Chairman Michael Turner (R-OH) and oversight and investigations subcommittee Chairman Rob Wittman (R-VA) request that no "stop-work" order be issued for any of the programs Gates has targeted for cancellation -- including the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle and the SLAMRAAM missile programs -- until the committee has had a chance to further digest the secretary's recommendations.