[1][2] Congress disestablished the CMO position with the passage of the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 effective 1 January 2021.

[4] In 2005, the U.S. Government Accountability Office recommended that DoD create a CMO position to avoid fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement in its reform program.

[12] In November 2020, the Government Accountability Office reported to Congress that CMO’s cost savings estimates were not consistently well documented and did not always reflect its definitions of reform.

In December 2020, responding to language in the proposed FY 2021 NDAA conference report, Lisa Hershman stated, “Congress has given no justification for eliminating the CMO… I’ve never been asked by either the House or the Senate, any subcommittee to make any kind of testimony on the facts.

They need to answer to this.”[15] Congress abolished the CMO position with the passage of the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 effective 1 January 2021.