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entitled 'Warfighter Support: DOD Policy and Implementation Plan for 
Reconstitution of Forces' which was released on April 23, 2014. 

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GAO-14-530R: 

United States Government Accountability Office: 
GAO:
441 G St. N.W. 
Washington, DC 20548: 

April 23, 2014: 

Congressional Committees: 

Warfighter Support: DOD Policy and Implementation Plan for 
Reconstitution of Forces: 

This report summarizes our work to date in response to the National 
Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014, Pub. L. No. 113-66. 
Section 324 of this act requires GAO to review the Department of 
Defense (DOD) Strategic Policy and Implementation Plan for the 
Retrograde, Reconstitution, and Replacement of Operating Forces. The 
law further requires that not later than 120 days after the enactment 
of the act, GAO is to submit a report to the defense committees 
describing the findings of such a review and describing the progress 
DOD has made toward meeting the goals of the plan.

Our objectives were to describe the extent to which DOD has (1) 
established a policy for retrograde, reconstitution, and replacement 
of operating forces as described in Section 324, and (2) established 
an implementation plan for that policy as described in Section 324.

To conduct this work, we reviewed previous GAO work concerning 
retrograde, reconstitution, and replacement of operating forces. We 
also reviewed relevant DOD documents and service guidance. We 
contacted the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel 
and Readiness, designated by DOD as responsible for the submission of 
the Strategic Policy and Implementation Plan for the Retrograde, 
Reconstitution, and Replacement of Operating Forces to the 
congressional defense committees, to discuss DOD's progress in 
developing the policy and plan.

We conducted this performance audit from March 2014 through April 2014 
in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. 
Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain 
sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our 
findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe 
that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our 
findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives.

We found that, as of April 15, 2014, DOD has not established a policy 
or submitted an implementation plan to congressional committees as 
mandated by Public Law 113-66. According to a senior DOD official, DOD 
is in the process of developing the strategic policy and 
implementation plan. DOD estimates completion of the policy and plan 
on or about November 15, 2014.

Because the policy and plan have not been finalized, we cannot yet 
review these documents as mandated. However, we will continue to 
monitor DOD's progress and will review the policy and implementation 
plan as mandated by Public Law 113-66 when they are available. We will 
work with your staff on the timing of our final report.

We provided a draft of this report to DOD for advance review and 
comment. DOD provided technical comments, which we have incorporated 
as appropriate.

We are sending copies of this report to the appropriate congressional 
committees and to the Secretary of Defense. The report is also 
available at no charge on the GAO website at [hyperlink, 
http://www.gao.gov].

If you or your staff have any questions about this report, please 
contact me at (202) 512-5431 or russellc@gao.gov. Contact points for 
our Offices of Congressional Relations and Public Affairs may be found 
on the last page of this letter. 

Signed by: 

Cary Russell: 
Director: 
Defense Capabilities and Management: 

List of Committees: 

The Honorable Carl Levin: 
Chairman: 
The Honorable James M. Inhofe: 
Ranking Member: 
Committee on Armed Services: 
United States Senate: 

The Honorable Richard J. Durbin: 
Chairman: 
The Honorable Thad Cochran: 
Ranking Member: 
Subcommittee on Defense: 
Committee on Appropriations: 
United States Senate: 

The Honorable Howard P. "Buck" McKeon: 
Chairman: 
The Honorable Adam Smith: 
Ranking Member: 
Committee on Armed Services: 
House of Representatives: 

The Honorable Rodney Frelinghuysen: 
Chairman: 
The Honorable Pete Visclosky: 
Ranking Member: 
Subcommittee on Defense: 
Committee on Appropriations: 
House of Representative: 

[End of section] 

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[End of document]