Members of the House are looking to prevent future job cuts for certain Department of Defense workers, try out drones for battling wildfires, and establish new leadership positions focused on acquisition talent hunting duties.
These are some of the provisions that would affect DoD personnel most significantly if they’re signed into law as part of the House’s fiscal 2027 defense policy legislation. The chamber is now set to take up the bill following the House Armed Services Committee’s June 5 approval.
Safeguarding the workforce
Several proposed amendments would prevent the Trump administration from downsizing specific DoD workforces, except in situations involving poor performance or misconduct.
Should the bill become law, protected civilian positions would include those within the Department of Defense Education Activity, which runs schools for military and civilian families; workers at child care facilities; medical personnel; and staff at DoD’s government-operated shipyards.
Proposed amendments would also prevent hiring freezes at government-owned shipyards and industrial facilities, public safety workers, and firefighting and security personnel stationed at military bases.
DoD saw nearly 93,000 civilian workers leave between December 2024 and March 2026, based on the department’s quarterly workforce reports. The Department of Government Efficiency’s push to streamline the country’s civil service last year led to hundreds of thousands of cutbacks through layoffs, early retirements, and voluntary departures, stirring worries about consequences for military readiness and administrative delays.
Acquisition workforce
The bill instructs the defense secretary to name a chief acquisition talent officer as a central figure in boosting the military’s procurement workforce. This individual — potentially from the senior executive service or an external specialist — would be responsible for developing a department-wide plan that identifies and tackles gaps within the acquisition staff, evaluates its needs, and evaluates whether existing hiring and development initiatives are effective.
That official would report to the Pentagon’s acquisition chief and could have a deputy if the defense secretary chooses to appoint one. Every military branch would also designate its own chief acquisition talent officer, as outlined in the bill, and the same would apply to the Defense Logistics Agency and the combatant commands managing global day-to-day operations.
Congress is also calling for a new defense acquisition workforce tracking system to inform those talent officers’ strategies. The ideal system would analyze information on the size, demographics, and geographic spread of DoD’s acquisition employees, their qualifications and expertise, vacant positions, hiring methods, and recruitment obstacles.
Lawmakers are looking to hold defense acquisition staff to new performance standards determined by the defense secretary. Those benchmarks might eventually extend to uniformed personnel as well.
The measures seek to make sure DoD’s procurement workforce is equipped with the right skills as the department works on bringing in a new wave of major systems, ranging from HR software to nuclear weapons. They could also help reinforce the diminished acquisition staff after it was slashed by DOGE last year.
Prediction markets
Gambling on certain national security outcomes through increasingly popular prediction platforms like Polymarket would be forbidden for military personnel and DoD civilian staff.
A surge in activity on prediction platforms and energy markets earlier this year has raised alarms among lawmakers, who fear it points to insider trading by individuals with knowledge of sensitive information tied to the Iran war.
“When DoD personnel exploit insider knowledge of planned or ongoing military operations to place trades on prediction markets, it undermines operational security and constitutes an ethical violation and a breach of federal law,” the committee stated.
The provision directs the defense secretary to create rules prohibiting DoD employees from engaging in prediction market transactions if they have or could gain access to nonpublic details related to their position. The department would also establish a spectrum of penalties for those who break the rules.
The bill further requests that the DoD inspector general report on any insider trading allegations tied to Operation Epic Fury, including any operational dangers the alleged behavior may have created, by year’s end.
Pilot initiatives
Defense policy legislation typically features numerous pilot programs. This year’s House draft proposes a three-year trial to deliver push notifications via text message to deployed service members and their adult dependents, keeping them informed about everything from spousal job openings to child care options and TRICARE enrollment dates.
Another three-year pilot would explore the use of drones to combat fires on military bases; a separate provision would mandate that the Navy expand public transit connecting residences, dining areas, offices, and other facilities on its installations.
The bill also proposes that DoD explore a printing cost-recovery program to offset some office supply expenses — a measure that could generate substantial savings in workplaces that still rely on paper documents.
Getting ready for audits
With the clock ticking toward DoD’s clean financial audit deadline at the end of 2028, House lawmakers included several provisions to influence how the process unfolds.
One provision allows the department to assemble a specialized unit called Joint Task Force-Audit to serve as the foundation for that undertaking. Rich Brady, chief executive officer of the Society of Defense Financial Management, mentioned in March that the department had already selected a two-star general to head the task force and was building a team to support the Pentagon comptroller.
Another measure requires the department to bring in an outside company to, essentially, audit its own auditing process. That firm would suggest ways the defense auditing divisions can enhance and streamline their work, ultimately presenting findings to both the defense secretary and DoD’s inspector general.
The bill also proposes forming a skills assessment team to assist with the audit, and recommends that DoD leverage artificial intelligence to “transform” its financial management practices.
“Despite many years of effort and billions spent, the Department of Defense has not yet passed a clean financial audit, and conventional periodic auditing methods have proven inadequate to handle the scale and complexity of defense financial operations,” the committee noted. “The committee believes that continuous transaction verification and asset tracking to boost financial transparency may offer a more viable route to achieving a clean audit.”
The Defense Department remains the only major federal agency that has never passed a comprehensive audit.
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