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Steve Womack for Congress: Womack, Stewart Demand DOD Release JEDI Investigation Information

Arkansas

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Continuing their oversight responsibilities, Congressman Steve Womack (AR-3) and Congressman Chris Stewart (UT-2) sent a letter to U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) Secretary Lloyd Austin and DOD Acting Inspector General Sean O’Donnell seeking documentation and information regarding the findings of an investigation into the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) program. Though the potential 10-year, $10 billion contract has been rife with ethical and procurement issues, the DOD has failed to deliver full responses regarding these serious concerns.

Congressman Womack said, “This is the largest government cloud contract to a single vendor in history. Yet, we don’t have answers to serious ethical and procurement concerns. The Pentagon has failed to adequately address previous oversight requests, and we must ensure any future enterprise cloud procurement actions enable best-in-class capabilities. We need transparency. Our warfighters require the strongest tools, and American taxpayers deserve accountability.”

Congressman Stewart said, “The Department of Defense needs to take this issue more seriously. A contract of this magnitude regarding an issue of this significance demands immediate attention, particularly when it’s surrounded by ethical concerns. This problem isn’t going to solve itself, and the DOD can’t keep ignoring Congressional requests. Until then, it will continue to impact the warfighter and taxpaying Americans.”

In the letter, the lawmakers call for immediate access to the entire JEDI investigation file, including all collected e-mails, interview notes, and any memos. The additional request for information follows continued nonresponse from DOD regarding concerns of conflicts of interest, allegations of the procurement process being tailored to match a specific vendor, and anti-competition concerns.

Womack has been a leader on the issue and continually pushed to ensure the JEDI structure is secure, effective, and of the highest standard. He believes the best way to achieve that objective is to follow industry best practices and implement a multi-cloud environment that supports innovation and competition. He has raised concerns about the structure of this program and highlighted ethical concerns with the contract since 2018.

Original source can be found here.

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