The Defense Department has asked House and Senate conferees to reject a House Armed Services Committee proposal for a new process by which individuals, companies and defense agencies could "challenge" existing DOD programs. In its mark of the fiscal year 2002 defense authorization bill, completed in early August, the committee included $40 million to create a "challenge program" designed to allow a new avenue for innovative and cost-saving defense technologies. A panel of scientists and engineers would be set up...
