Regional business leaders want to make sure government-acquisition reform that could go in the next defense policy bill doesn’t hurt the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division, and they’re asking one of Virginia’s U.S. senators for help.
Representatives of the Fredericksburg Regional Alliance, the Fredericksburg Regional Military Affairs Council and the Fredericksburg Regional Chamber of Commerce met Friday with Sen. Tim Kaine in Fredericksburg. They said that while they like the notion of reform, the manner in which it’s ultimately carried out could inadvertently harm the work at Dahlgren and possibly mean job losses.
Up for discussion was language in a reform proposal by U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Wicker in December unveiled a reform report and corresponding legislation called the FORGED (Fostering Reform and Government Efficiency in Defense) Act. It wasn’t enacted, but the senator has indicated it could be incorporated into the FY 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, which is devoted to military spending and policy.
In particular, the local business executives said two paragraphs in Wicker’s reform paper concerning conflict of interest could be troublesome.
“Sometimes, [Defense Department] labs simultaneously support program office acquisitions and offer products that compete with industry,” reads part of the conflict-of-interest section.
Dahlgren is classified as a “Science and Technology Reinvention Laboratory,” but the executives said they’re not even sure that Wicker means to address such a facility, as there are other kinds of research centers.
“STRLs transfer technology to the private sector and are prohibited from competing with it,” a background memo shared at the meeting said.
Kaine, a Democrat, said work is just beginning on the NDAA, and he and his staff don’t think Wicker has any intention of doing anything that would harm Dahlgren.
“We think Roger is worried about a particular problem, which really shouldn’t apply to you all,” Kaine said. “And so the question might be: Can we not remove the provision he has, but tailor it more to the problem he’s concerned with?”
An attempt to reach Wicker’s staff was made after regular business hours but was unsuccessful.
Susan Spears, the chamber of commerce’s president and CEO, said that any move that causes job losses at Dahlgren would be bad.
“It would just have a chilling effect on the folks that are directly impacted, as well as the businesses and families that are on the exterior of that,” she said.
Joe Caliri, chairman of the Military Affairs Council’s board of directors, said eliminating work that’s done at the King George County operation also could pose a national security risk.
“Dahlgren does very unique, highly technical work that cannot get caught up in a crossfire,” said Caliri, president of SimVentions Inc.
After the meeting, Kaine, a former Virginia governor, addressed another federal matter.
The website for the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency seems to suggest that a lease for the Internal Revenue Service office in Fredericksburg has been terminated. It notes a savings of $153,098 on the annual lease of 6,162 square feet of office space. An IRS spokesman contacted earlier in the week said he couldn’t confirm the news of the closing.
But Kaine said that move doesn’t appear to have been made.
“We are hearing that that is proposed, not yet fait accompli,” the senator said.
Kaine also said that an increase in IRS funding under the previous administration helped the agency to be more customer-friendly to those who had tax questions.
“And if you lay off a whole lot of people and close offices, you’re just going to take it back to where it was before,” he said.
