The U.S. Senate yesterday struck down an amendment that sought to kill funding for the Department of Defense's Defense Travel System. The 65-32 vote keeps alive the online-based end-to-end DTS, which just last week came under attack by critics who during testimony before a Senate subcommittee painted a picture of an inefficient system that for years has been over budget and off schedule.
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) led the ill-fated charge to drop funding this week, joining such other critics as the DOD inspector general, the Government Accountability Office, the Corporate Solutions Group and Citizens Against Government Waste.
Although DTS contractor Northrop Grumman last week was absent from the roster of those providing testimony-most of whom railed against DTS efficiencies and benefits
(BTNonline, Sept. 30)-the company yesterday released a statement defending DTS and maintained its value proposition. "DTS is projected to save $178 million in productivity costs and $56 million in real dollars each year when fully deployed in 2007," Northrop Grumman said.
The Defense Travel System is intended to streamline the travel process for 3.2 million DOD users, but since the first phase of its launch in 1998 the system has reached only 685,000 DOD employees. After several timetable adjustments, DOD is slating a department-wide launch for 2007.