Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller)

The Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller)/Chief Financial Officer, abbreviated USD(C)/CFO, is a high level civilian official in the United States Department of Defense. The Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) is the principal staff assistant and adviser to both the Secretary of Defense and the Deputy Secretary of Defense for all budgetary and fiscal matters, including the development and execution of the Defense Department's annual budget.

Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) /Chief Financial Officer
Under Secretary of Defense flag
Incumbent Thomas Harker Acting since 26 June 2020[1]
Department of Defense Office of the Secretary of Defense
Style	The Honorable
Reports to	Secretary of Defense Deputy Secretary of Defense
Seat	The Pentagon, Arlington County, Virginia, United States
Appointer	The President with Senate advice and consent
Term length	No fixed term
Constituting instrument	10 U.S.C. § 135
Formation	1994
First holder	John J. Hamre
Succession	7th in SecDef succession
Salary	Executive Schedule, level III[2]
Website	comptroller.defense.gov

The Under Secretary is appointed by the President and confirmed by the United States Senate to serve at the pleasure of the President.[3]

The position of Defense Department Comptroller was originally at the rank of Assistant Secretary until the National Defense Authorization Act of 1995 upgraded the position to its current rank of Under Secretary.[4]

Overview

The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller)/CFO is the principal staff office for the Defense Department on all budgetary and fiscal matters, including the development and execution of the Defense Department's annual budget of more than $700 billion. As Chief Financial Officer, the Under Secretary's Office also oversees the Department's financial policy, financial management systems, and business modernization efforts.[5]

The Under Secretary is chair of the Financial Management Modernization Executive Committee, which has the goal of making sure that each of the Department of Defense's critical accounting, financial, and data feeder systems are compliant with applicable federal financial management and reporting requirements.[6] The Comptroller is also a member of the Defense Business System Management Committee.[7]

With the rank of Under Secretary, the USD(C) is a Level III position within the Executive Schedule. Since January 2019, the annual rate of pay for Level III is $176,900.

Reporting officials

Officials reporting to the USD(C) include:

• Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller)
• Director, Defense Contract Audit Agency
• Director, Defense Finance and Accounting Service
• Director, Resource Issues
• Deputy Comptroller (Budget and Appropriation Affairs)
• Deputy Comptroller (Program/Budget)
• Deputy Chief Financial Officer
• Director, Human Capital and Resource Management

The Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller), abbreviated DUSD(C), is the USD(C)'s chief deputy and assumes the duties of the USD(C) in his or her absence. Pursuant to Public Law 111-84, the DUSD(C) is appointed from civilian life by the President of the United States with the consent of the Senate.

Budget

Budget totals

The annual budget for the USD(C) is contained in the Office of the Secretary of Defense's (OSD) budget, under the Defense-Wide Operation and Maintenance (O&M) account.

USD Comptroller Budget, FY 10-12 ($ in thousands)[8]

Line Item	FY10 Actual	FY11 Estimate	FY12 Request
Core OSD Operating Program[9]
Civilian Pay and Benefits, USD (C)	26,567	33,680	28,213
Program Structure[10]
Comptroller Initiatives	17,467	23,403	18,554
Future Years Defense Program Improvement	3,408	3,510	3,562
Administrative Support	1,420	1,283	1,164
Capabilities Portfolio Management	4,495	20,000	0
Next Generation Resource Management System	0	0	3,991
Enterprise Funds Distribution System Support	0	0	2,992
Travel	258	456	272
Overseas Contingency Operations[11]
OCO OUSD (Comptroller)	0	0	0
Totals
Total Budget	53,615	82,332	58,748

Budget features

• Comptroller Initiatives - Support for producing and providing senior Department leadership with authoritative, accurate, and timely financial statements and support Department-wide business transformation efforts by improving financial management processes, systems, and financial reporting. This funding appears to support the programs of the Defense Contract Audit Agency and the Defense Finance and Accounting Service.
• Future Years Defense Program (FYDP) Improvement - Maintain the FYDP information system used to collect, transform, disseminate, build reports, and provide analytical displays for planning, programming, budgeting, and execution activities
• Administrative Support - Funds services including general office support, data administration, records management, workflow and correspondence tracking, and other administrative tasks
• Capabilities Portfolio Management (CPM) - Funds OSD and Joint programs used to advise senior Department leadership and support strategic decision making to optimize investments and minimize risks in providing capabilities to the Warfighter. CPM includes programs such as Command & Control, Joint Logistics, Net Centric Operations, Corporate Management Support, and Battlespace Awareness
• Next Generation Resource Management System (NGRMS) - Maintain IT system used to formulate, justify, present, and defend the DoD budget, including equipment maintenance support, software upgrades, and software licenses
• Enterprise Funds Distribution System Support (EFDSS) - Maintain IT system used for controlling and distributing funds, including equipment maintenance support, software upgrades, and software licenses
• Travel - Funds employee travel in support of the OUSD(C) mission

Office holders

The table below includes both the various titles of this post over time, as well as all the holders of those offices.

Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller/Chief Financial Officer)[12]

Portrait	Name	Tenure	SecDef(s) served under	President(s) served under
Assistant Secretary of Defense (Comptroller)
	Wilfred J. McNeil	12 September 1949 – 1 November 1959	Louis A. Johnson George C. Marshall Robert A. Lovett Charles E. Wilson Neil H. McElroy	Harry Truman Dwight Eisenhower
	Franklin B. Lincoln	2 December 1959 – 20 January 1961	Thomas S. Gates	Dwight Eisenhower
	Charles J. Hitch	17 February 1961 – 31 July 1965	Robert S. McNamara	John F. Kennedy Lyndon Johnson
	Robert N. Anthony	10 September 1965 – 31 July 1968	Robert S. McNamara Clark M. Clifford	Lyndon Johnson
	Robert C. Moot	1 August 1968 – 9 January 1973	Clark M. Clifford Melvin R. Laird	Lyndon Johnson Richard Nixon
	Don R. Brazier (Acting)	10 January 1973 – 20 January 1973	Melvin R. Laird	Richard Nixon
	Terence E. McClary	21 June 1973 – 31 August 1976	James R. Schlesinger Donald H. Rumsfeld	Richard Nixon Gerald Ford
	Fred P. Wacker	1 September 1976 – 29 February 1980	Donald H. Rumsfeld Harold Brown	Gerald Ford Jimmy Carter
	Jack R. Borsting	12 August 1980 – 31 December 1982	Harold Brown Caspar W. Weinberger	Jimmy Carter Ronald Reagan
	John R. Quetsch (Acting)	1 January 1983 – 23 February 1983	Caspar W. Weinberger	Ronald Reagan
	Vincent Puritano	24 February 1983 – 30 May 1984
	John R. Quetsch (acting)	31 May 1984–14 August 1984
	Robert W. Helm	16 August 1984 – 1 October 1986
Department of Defense Comptroller
	Robert W. Helm	1 October 1986 – 1 September 1988	Caspar W. Weinberger Frank C. Carlucci III	Ronald Reagan
	Clyde O. Glaister	17 October 1988 – 22 May 1989	Frank C. Carlucci III William H. Taft IV (Acting) Richard B. Cheney	Ronald Reagan George H. W. Bush
	Sean O'Keefe	22 May 1989 – 7 July 1992	Richard B. Cheney	George H. W. Bush
	Donald B. Shycoff (Acting)	8 July 1992 – 2 April 1993	Richard B. Cheney Leslie Aspin, Jr.	George H. W. Bush William Clinton
	Alice C. Maroni (Acting)	6 May 1993 – 26 October 1993	Leslie Aspin, Jr.	William Clinton
	John J. Hamre	26 October 1993 – 5 September 1994	Leslie Aspin, Jr. William J. Perry
Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller/Chief Financial Officer)
	John J. Hamre	5 September 1994 – 29 July 1997	William J. Perry	William Clinton
			William S. Cohen
	William J. Lynn	19 November 1997 – 19 January 2001	William S. Cohen
	Dov S. Zakheim	3 May 2001 – 15 April 2004	Donald H. Rumsfeld	George W. Bush
	Lawrence J. Lanzillotta (Acting)	15 April 2004 – 27 July 2004
	Tina Jonas	27 July 2004 - 26 September 2008[13]
			Robert M. Gates
	Robert F. Hale	9 February 2009[14] – 27 June 2014		Barack Obama
			Leon Panetta
			Chuck Hagel
	Michael J. McCord	27 June 2014 – 20 January 2017[15]
			Ash Carter
	John P. Roth (Acting)	20 January 2017 – 1 June 2017[12]	James Mattis	Donald Trump
	David Norquist	2 June 2017[12] – 31 July 2019
			Patrick M. Shanahan (Acting)
	Elaine McCusker (Acting)	31 July 2019 – 26 June 2020	Mark Esper
	Thomas Harker (Acting)	26 June 2020[16] – present

References

1. Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller), Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller)/CFO, August 1, 2019
2. 5 U.S.C. § 5314
3. "US CODE: Title 10,135. Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller)". Retrieved 23 September 2007.
4. "Search Results - THOMAS (Library of Congress)". Retrieved 23 September 2007.
5. "Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) > About OUSD(C) > OUSD(C) Top Leaders". comptroller.defense.gov. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
6. "US CODE: Title 10,185. Financial Management Modernization Executive Committee". Retrieved 23 September 2007.
7. "US CODE: Title 10,186. Defense Business System Management Committee". Retrieved 23 September 2007.
8. "Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 Budget Estimates, Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD)" (PDF). Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller), OSD. 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 October 2011. Retrieved 29 August 2011.
9. Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 Budget Estimates, Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), p.664
10. Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 Budget Estimates, Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), p.688-90
11. Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 Budget Estimates, Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), p.714
12. "Department of Defense Key Officials September 1947–February 2019" (PDF). history.defense.gov. Historical Office Office of the Secretary of Defense. 30 January 2019. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
13. "Defense comptroller leaves for industry job". Retrieved 21 September 2016.
14. "Head Count | Tracking Obama's Appointments | The Washington Post". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 23 March 2010.
15. "Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) > About OUSD(C) > comptroller_Bio". comptroller.defense.gov. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
16. Mehta, Aaron (6 July 2020). "Harker takes over as acting Pentagon comptroller". defensenews.com. Defense News.

External links

• comptroller.defense.gov