The annual defense policy bill proposed by House Republicans would temporarily bar the spending of half the money designated for a cloud-based computing contract.
The Oracle-led effort relies on a loose coalition of technology companies also seeking a slice of the Pentagon's cloud-based work, including Microsoft Corp. and IBM.
Lawmakers have asked the Defense Department to justify why the agency is planning to give a single company a multi-year contract for cloud services worth billions of dollars.
The department already has difficulty moving information, particularly to the battlefield, and using multiple clouds would 'exponentially increase the complexity,' a spokesperson said.
The Pentagon will outline its plans for the procurement to IT vendors at an industry event that more than 100 companies are expected to attend in Northern Virginia today.
The reductions are part of a broader reorganization at the company, but some see the moves as a shift toward using more robots and computers for functions once performed by humans.
The firm unveiled new artificial intelligence tools, including algorithms that automate decisions and speech recognition, seeking to solidify its dominant position.
