Pentagon Rescinds Policy Limiting Reports to 10 Pages

Breaking – In a recently released story, Fox News has confirmed that the Defense Department has rescinded its policy of applying an arbitrary page limit to reports to Congress. House Armed Services Committee Republicans called a press conference yesterday to further investigate the report page limit policy and a number of news stories (Fox, Politico, CQ Today) continued to explore the reason behind the policy over the last 24 hours. Chairman Howard P. “Buck” McKeon sent a letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta asking that the policy be halted. 

Today the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, Jim Miller, responded to Chairman McKeon, officially rescinding the policy. In his letter, Secretary Miller said, "The memo was intended to ensure that the approximately 500 reports delivered to Congress each year were as timely and clear as possible, and to maximize their utility to Congress. Unfortunately, it now appears that is what was intended as a guideline for ensuring prompt and useful reports may have been misinterpreted." 

Miller enclosed the revised guidance, which states, "The guidance promulgated last year also stated that 'congressional reports from Policy should not exceed 10 pages in length except when the statutory requirements or specific circumstances dictate otherwise.'… The page limit portion of the preceding guidance is rescinded effective immediately."  >>Read the letter here

Chairman McKeon made the following statement:
"Full and complete information is vital to the Armed Services Committee as we execute our constitutionally mandated oversight role. These reports are an important part of that  process. Reports, as laborious as they may be, are key to transparency and accountability. Since I became Chairman, I have reduced the number of congressionally mandated reports by one third, so that the Department can focus on the most vital issues. I commend Undersecretary Miller for his rapid attention to this matter, and the common sense he has applied to the revised policy." 

Excerpts from the Fox News story: 

The Pentagon has rescinded a year-old policy limiting reports to Congress to as few as 10 pages, after a top House lawmaker complained that the “arbitrary” rule was leading to incomplete assessments. …

The change comes after Republican Rep. Buck McKeon and other members of the House Armed Services Committee made a ruckus over the page limit. 

McKeon, R-Calif., chairman of the committee, on Wednesday cited the most recent military report on China, which totaled just 15 pages of written content on China's military. 

McKeon said he learned of the report-length policy after asking a Pentagon briefer why the China study was so short, considering last year's report was 80 pages. The briefer told him it was the new policy. 

In an email to Fox News, McKeon's office said three sections of the 2012 China report that are required by law were missing and that it failed to mention major developments over the past year, such as the test flight of China's stealth jet, the J-22, and the maiden voyage of its first major aircraft carrier.

HASC Subcommittee Chairmen who participated in the press conference said the following:

“I’m glad to hear that the Pentagon has done an about-face on the issue of the length of reports to Congress. The key functions of Congress are oversight and ensuring that our government is providing for the national defense. Those two functions cannot be carried out if the information Congress receives from senior Pentagon leadership is truncated. At a time when the questions as to the motives of nations such as China, Iran, and North Korea are only intensifying, Congress needs to be fully briefed on the ever-changing dynamics of today’s threat environment.” – Congressman Mike Turner, Chairman of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee

“While I am content that the Secretary of Defense has lifted his arbitrary limit on the length of reports the Department provides to Congress, this administration has a ways to go to improve its transparency. They owe both Congress and ultimately the American people better.” – Congressman Randy Forbes, Chairman of the Readiness Subcommittee 

“I am grateful for our Constitution’s separation of powers among co-equal executive and legislative branches and our First Amendment’s guarantee of a free press. These civil liberties protections undoubtedly expedited today’s retraction of the insulting guidance limiting the page length of reports to the Congress from the Defense Department. I suspect some credit for this common sense and swift resolution is owed to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s distinguished service in the Congress.”
--Congressman Roscoe Bartlett, Chairman of the HASC Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces