The Pentagon’s long-delayed and costly effort to create a Web-based travel service has run into its first serious opposition in years.
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., has been an outspoken critic of the Defense Travel Service.
The service was supposed to function like Orbitz or Travelocity: Whenever a Pentagon employee has to travel, he or she is supposed to use the service to find the lowest rates.
But Coburn, who otherwise agrees that the government spends too much on travel, says the service has been an abject failure. It’s four years behind schedule and more than $272 million over budget.
After months of struggle, Coburn finally succeeded in attaching a reform to a defense authorization bill earlier this year. If successful, the measure would require users of the travel system to pay a one-time, $25 fee for use.
Coburn says that the service, run by heavyweight defense contractor Northrop Grumman Corp., has run out of control because it was open-ended. Attaching a fixed fee will help rein in costs.
“The current system has a perverse incentive for the contractor to string it out,” said Coburn’s spokesman, John Har.
But Coburn’s proposal is facing quiet opposition on the House side. Few have directly opposed the measure, but the House version of the authorization bill — sponsored by U.S. Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va. — makes no mention of a fixed fee.
Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman is a major contractor and contributor to federal campaigns. Since 2001, it has given more than $841,000 to federal candidates, according to figures kept by the Center for Responsive Politics.
Northrop’s employee-run political action committee has also been a heavy contributor. The PAC has given $1,000 to Coburn’s campaigns and $23,500 to Davis, according to the Federal Election Commission.
In an e-mail statement, the company defended the program. It said that the system is up and running in 99 percent of the defense department’s “major installations” and is used by more than 40,000 employees daily.
The company also said that the system will save $14 million this year, $54 million next year and $168 million by 2008.
Davis’ spokesman didn’t reply to requests for comment.
The House and Senate bills will be placed before a conference committee later this summer.
