Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution in Comparative Organizations

📖 The Scoop

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution (PPBE) process is a key enabler for DoD to fulfill its mission. But in light of a dynamic threat environment, increasingly capable adversaries, and rapid technological changes, there has been increasing concern that DoD's resource planning processes are too slow and inflexible to meet warfighter needs. As a result, Congress mandated the formation of a legislative commission in Section 1004 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 to (1) examine the effectiveness of the PPBE process and adjacent DoD practices, particularly with respect to defense modernization; (2) consider potential alternatives to these processes and practices to maximize DoD's ability to respond in a timely manner to current and future threats; and (3) make legislative and policy recommendations to improve such processes and practices for the purposes of fielding the operational capabilities necessary to outpace near-peer competitors, providing data and analytical insight, and supporting an integrated budget that is aligned with strategic defense objectives. To inform this work, the Commission on PPBE Reform asked the RAND Corporation to provide an independent analysis of PPBE-like functions in selected countries and non-DoD federal agencies. This executive summary distills key insights from a series of case studies of budgeting processes across nine comparative organizations, as detailed in three companion volumes.

Genre: History / Military / General (fancy, right?)