To require the Comptroller General of the United States to assess the competitive effects of mergers and acquisitions of defense contractors, and for other purposes.
Analysis under review: This bill has generated analysis that may be too generic or incomplete. Clause-level evidence remains available below.
Summary
This bill requires the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct a comprehensive review of how mergers and acquisitions among defense contractors over the past decade have affected competition in the defense industry. The GAO must examine four specific areas: (1) whether the remedies imposed on past defense mergers actually preserved competition, (2) how well the DOJ, FTC, and Pentagon share information during merger reviews, (3) how the Defense Department measures the effects of vertical integration (when a contractor buys its own suppliers) on competition and whether it can get enough data from the merging companies, and (4) whether previous recommendations from GAO, the Defense Secretary, and the Defense Science Board to improve competition have been implemented. The report goes to the congressional defense committees.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Requires the Comptroller General (GAO) to assess the competitive effects of defense contractor mergers and acquisitions over the past ten years, examining remedies effectiveness, interagency information sharing, vertical integration impacts, and prior recommendations implementation.
Key Policy Areas
Defense, Antitrust/Competition, Government Oversight
Primary Purpose
Requires the Comptroller General (GAO) to assess the competitive effects of defense contractor mergers and acquisitions over the past ten years, examining remedies effectiveness, interagency information sharing, vertical integration impacts, and prior recommendations implementation.
Policy Domains
Whole Bill -- Defense Contractor M&A Competition Assessment
Identified Gains
- Small and mid-size defense contractors
- Department of Defense (better competition insights)
- Taxpayers (potential cost reduction from competition)
Identified Costs
- Large defense contractors (Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing, etc.)
- Defense industry M&A activity
Legislative Progress
IntroducedMr. Deluzio introduced the following bill; which was referred to …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Large defense contractors (prime contractors), Small and mid-size defense subcontractors
Positive-direction: Small and mid-size defense subcontractors
Negative-direction: Large defense contractors (prime contractors)
Department of Defense procurement, GAO
Positive-direction: Department of Defense procurement
Negative-direction: GAO
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "ftc"
- → Federal Trade Commission
- "attorney_general"
- → Attorney General
- "comptroller_general"
- → Comptroller General of the United States (GAO)
- "secretary_of_defense"
- → Secretary of Defense
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology