(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The non-profit Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft released an eye-opening report Tuesday on the Pentagon embedding officers in U.S. corporations.
Quincy’s report focused on the Defense Department’s Secretary of Defense Executive Fellows program, which entails military officers to working for major corporations. The program is aimed at giving participating military officers the ability to learn how private companies work, and to take what they learn back to the military.
But in practice, the SDEF program has served as corporate welfare and a revolving door for careerists, according to the Quincy Institute.
“Looking at a large sample of former SDEF fellows, we found that 43% have worked for a government contractor since leaving the program,” wrote policy researcher Brett Heinz, who helped draft the Quincy report, which said that figure suggests that SDEF fellows work for large government contractors at more than twice the rate of other Pentagon personnel.
“In some cases, fellows even go on to work for the exact same companies where they had been assigned, essentially using this government program as a launching pad for a lucrative career in the private sector,” the think tank reported.
Quincy also found that the SDEF program serves as a lobbying tool for U.S. corporations.
“We documented numerous examples of fellows making policy recommendations that would specifically benefit the company they worked for. Fellows at companies who export billions in weapons each year called for the government to loosen arms trade regulations. A fellow at a railroad company suggested that the DOD consider using railroads more, a fellow at a machinery rental company suggested the DOD rent more machinery, and a fellow at a private utility suggested the DOD continue buying energy from private utilities.
Quincy added that perhaps the most glaring example it found was of a fellow who recommended that the DOD to modify its outsourcing rules and make it easier for the fellow’s company to work with DOD. That company was Enron, and the recommendations were made just six months before the company imploded, according to Quincy.
Heinz concluded that the SDEF program has primarily benefited corporate interests at the expense of the American taxpayer.
“When given the opportunity, firms will push for policy reforms that have little to do with an effective defense strategy, but everything to do with their bottom line,” he said. “Allowing big businesses such a privileged opportunity to influence military policymakers serves to benefit shareholders and executives, not the American people.”
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
