Barriers to Implementing Strategic Purchasing in the Department of Defense

One can argue the Department of Defense has always faced a fiscal crisis. Year after year the DoD engages in a "guns versus butter debate" in competing with other agencies for the defense slice of the budget. The debating then shifts to the internal grappling between the services fighting for their parochial piece of the pie. Simply put, there has never been enough to go around. Subsequently, policymakers have always had to make tough budget decisions. Throughout the 90's following the end of the Cold War, defense budgets were in a steady decline. Between 1990 and 1997 outlays dropped nearly 26% in real terms.