Both the House and Senate versions of the annual defense policy bill include sweeping acquisition reforms aimed at changing how the Pentagon does business. While the two chambers focus on similar areas of reform, their differing approaches mean the most significant work is still ahead as lawmakers move to reconcile the two.
At the center of the House’s version of the annual defense bill is the Streamlining Procurement For Effective Execution And Delivery, or the SPEED Act, which focuses on refining the current acquisition system. It formally defines the program executive officer (PEO) role and outlines specific responsibilities for managing programs, cuts red tape and lowers barriers to entry for commercial firms.
“In a time when there’s a lot of executive orders and memos going around, the SPEED Act is kind of our beacon to point to, because a lot of this stuff makes sense. It’s coherent. It’s very well thought out,” Tim Brennan, vice president of government relations at the Professional Services Council, told Federal News Network.
“The SPEED Act does a lot of really great things to streamline how acquisition of DoD works. They have an intention of helping DoD get better solutions faster, and to get rid of solutions that don’t work,” he added.
The Senate’s version of the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act includes major portions of the Fostering Reform and Government Efficiency in Defense, or the FoRGED Act, which seeks a more sweeping overhaul of defense acquisition.
“It seems like around 80 regulations or laws that they wanted to repeal made it into the final version. What they did was they took a very comprehensive step-by-step look at all of the laws that impact acquisition, and they picked those out very methodically to say, ‘Hey, do we need this anymore? Should we keep doing this?’ And I think that’s a really noble effort, and it’s something that’s going to have a good impact on everyone, because Congress just passes laws, and very rarely go back and remove laws that we don’t need anymore,” Brennan said.
“It’s almost like spring cleaning for acquisition,” he added.
Program and portfolio management reforms
The House’s SPEED Act and the Senate’s FoRGED Act both expand the authority of acquisition leaders and direct a move toward portfolio-based management of military capabilities.
The SPEED Act:
Section 1802 formally defines the program executive officer (PEO) role and outlines specific responsibilities for a PEO.
Section 1805 directs the Defense Department to reorganize certain budget materials around major capability activity areas (MCAAs) and find at least two PEOs as pathfinders to manage them. Each pathfinder would also get authority to move up to 40% of the funds within their portfolio between programs, projects and activities.
The FoRGED Act:
Section 801 renames and redefines the role of the PEO as the portfolio acquisition executive (PAE) and provides PAEs with greater authorities and responsibilities for requirements, resourcing and acquisition.
Section 802 directs each military department to establish capstone requirements for acquisition portfolios to “enable greater speed, agility, and innovation in fielding military capabilities.” Each such capstone requirement should be established in consultation with the Joint Requirements Oversight Council.
Section 803 requires PAEs to deliver an acquisition strategy, which outlines how DoD will develop a portfolio of capabilities.
Acquisition reforms
Both SPEED and FORGED contain a range of acquisition reforms aimed at addressing problems plaguing the acquisition process. But while the SPEED Act focuses on streamlining existing acquisition processes by raising thresholds and reducing regulatory burdens, the FoRGED Act concentrates on driving a commercial-first mindset and lowering barriers to bring more commercial firms and nontraditional contractors into the defense space.
The SPEED Act:
Section 1821 adjusts acquisition thresholds to account for inflation and to streamline government contracting processes.
Section 1822 clarifies conditions for payments for commercial products and commercial services.
Section 1823 gives agency heads the authority to use alternative capability-based analysis to decide whether the proposed price or fee for a commercial solution is fair.
Section 1824 requires the defense secretary to identify and implement ways to reduce or eliminate Cost Accounting Standards (CAS) compliance requirements.
Section 1825 directs review of commercial buying practices.
Section 1831 removes limitations on use of Other Transaction Authority based on how a firm is categorized. “With these limitations removed, a covered official would assess demonstrated performance and the alignment of capability with needs of the Department as the primary determinants of the financial structure of an award,” the bill reads.
The FoRGED Act:
Section 829 authorizes consumption-based procurement or pay-as-you-go models.
Section 825 establishes a process that would require DoD to start with commercial products and services and only move to defense-unique development after proving that the commercial market can’t deliver what’s needed.
Section 822 allows reimbursement of certain financing costs when those costs are tied to activities like managing an inventory of completed products, improving inventory management of products or components necessary for sustainment or maintenance, or expanding production capacity.
Section 821 broadens the legal definition of nontraditional defense contractors.
Section 823 lowers the barrier to entry for nontraditional defense contractors.
Section 824 modifies treatment of certain products and services as commercial.
Section 826 expands the use of Commercial Solutions Openings (CSOs).
Section 827 speeds up congressional notification for certain OTAs and allows DoD to use an OTA for production without the use of competitive procedures.
Section 831 clarifies and limits which defense-specific rules apply when DoD buys commercial products and services, either directly or through subcontractors.
Section 832 puts limitations on required flowdown of contract clauses to subcontractors providing commercial products or services.
“I’d like to see some hybrid consensus ideas go through. I know the House did a lot of stuff that we actually advocated for last year and this year with the FIT Procurement Act, which is increasing micro-purchase thresholds, increasing simplified acquisition thresholds. And the reason I bring up those ideas is the administration has said that they’re very interested in deregulating and making it easier to contract with traditionals and with commercial companies doing things like that will help. The House included removing cost accounting standards on a lot of DoD acquisitions. It’s a big deal,” Brennan said.
“We also hope to see that for a lot of civilian agencies too. Hopefully there’s some amendments that come up on the floor in September that introduce those things, because you don’t want to have a bifurcated system where it’s easier to work with DoD than it is the civilian agencies. You want it to be a standard playing field so companies don’t have to have two different systems set up,” he added.
Innovation
The SPEED Act:
Section 1832, titled Data-as-a-Service Solutions for Weapon System Contracts, requires the Defense Department to negotiate access to the technical data and software needed before signing a contract.
Section 1842 requires the Defense Department to establish the Defense Industrial Resilience Consortium to “enhance the resilience, innovation and competitiveness of the U.S. defense industrial base.”
The FoRGED Act:
Section 807 gives the combatant commands the authority to conduct experimentation, prototyping and technology demonstrations to “support the development and testing of innovative technologies and capability solutions to address operational needs identified by the combatant command.”
Additionally, section 803 of the Senate version of the defense policy bill mandates the use of Modular Open Systems Architecture (MOSA) in major defense programs.
Workforce development
The SPEED Act:
Section 821 loosens post-employment restrictions for people who come into DoD through the public-private talent exchange program.
Section 823 requires the under secretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment to set up a program to appoint members of the Defense Civilian Training Corps to civil service positions in DoD.
Section 824 requires the Government Accountability Office to review career development policies for the defense acquisition workforce and section 825 requires the comptroller general to examine the management, training and development of the acquisition workforce.
Section 826 requires the defense secretary to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the Defense Acquisition University.
The Forged Act:
Section 862 requires DoD to conduct an independent study of the department’s acquisition workforce.
“One of the really great things about the SPEED Act is that it includes training for the acquisition workforce too on implementing these things. I can’t emphasize enough having a well-trained acquisition workforce, how important that is for the government and for contractors,” Brennan said.
The House and Senate will have to reconcile their separate versions before they pass the annual legislation.
“There’s still a lot of work to be done on the floor in September as far as what gets included, what language they choose. The negotiations, I feel like, are just beginning. I think HASC did a really great job including their SPEED Act untouched right now, but to make this into a law, you need all four corners to agree. I think they both have great ideas that approach things from different angles,” Brennan said.
“What’s going to be even more important than what’s in there now is how folks advocate on what they want that to look like as the final version. This is a generational change, this is everything that everybody has been talking about for seven months. These bills will make it different, and it is a wonderful down payment on making things better in acquisition,” he added.
The post Key SPEED and FoRGED Act reforms moving forward in 2026 defense bill first appeared on Federal News Network.