CRS releases report on Pentagon R&D spending

The Pentagon, which has been attempting to increase its emphasis on technological innovation under outgoing Defense Secretary Ash Carter, receives nearly half of all federal research and development appropriations, more than twice that of the next largest recipient, the Health and Human Services Department, according to a recent Congressional Research Service report.

The Dec. 13 CRS report, originally obtained by Secrecy News, is intended to serve as a primer for Congress and comes on the heels of the fiscal year 2017 defense authorization bill, which gives the Pentagon one year to disestablish the under secretary for acquisition, technology and logistics and reorganize the office's responsibilities under two new positions -- one focused on innovation and the other tasked with managing acquisition programs.

Meanwhile, the fate of many of Carter's ongoing innovation initiatives is unclear, including the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental.

Michèle Flournoy, the CEO of the Center for a New American Security who was reportedly on Hillary Clinton's shortlist for defense secretary and may be considered by President-elect Donald Trump for deputy defense secretary, recently likened DIUx and other innovation initiatives to "babies" that might be "thrown out with the bathwater."

"I think that would be a grave mistake," she said Wednesday during a CNAS conference in Washington.

Flournoy said that if she had a chance to advise Trump's defense secretary nominee, retired Marine Corpse Gen. James Mattis, she would counsel him to build on Carter's ongoing initiatives.

"I think that in this area it's really important that Secretary Mattis and his team come in [and] give a fair evaluation," she continued. "I think this administration deserves credit for having seeded a lot of good starts in the innovation area."