News release: “Today, Congressman John F. Tierney (D-MA), Chairman of the Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs, issued the following statement about a newly-released Government Accountability Office (GAO) report he requested as part of his sustained oversight of U.S. defense procurement waste: The GAO report identifies an area of weapon systems procurement that still goes unchecked—analysis of alternatives (AOA). The AOA process is designed to ensure that the Department of Defense and military services consider the range of options before committing to a specific defense weapons system. The GAO identifies numerous cases in which the Department of Defense made little or no effort to conduct such analyses at the start of these procurements. As such, the Department of Defense initiated procurement of these systems without confidence that the right solution was being pursued given all options available. In each case, the programs launched without a credible AOA process were delayed, over-budget, or both.”