Congress Wants To Keep Funding a Pentagon That Won't Account for Its Spending
The only federal agency that has never passed an audit could soon get another $60 billion, even as it buries reports on the spiraling costs of its programs.
President Donald Trump might soon be getting a cash infusion for his "new" war in Iran.
On Wednesday, House Republicans shared the text of their budget reconciliation bill, which directs the House Armed Services Committee—which oversees the Department of Defense (DOD)—to "submit changes in laws within its jurisdiction that increase the deficit by not more than" $60 billion. This money will presumably go toward replenishing the Pentagon's spent accounts and financing the administration's campaign in Iran.
In recent months, the Trump administration has asked Congress for varying sums to fund its war in Iran. After Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's $200 billion request in March, the White House asked for $1.5 trillion as part of its FY 2027 budget in April. The $60 billion proposed by House Republicans is close to the administration's most recent request of $67 billion for the DOD, made in June by Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought.
Thanks to its notoriously poor accounting records, it's unclear how much the department has spent on the war in Iran. The Pentagon has failed eight straight financial audits. It remains the only major federal agency that has never received a passing grade, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
In May, as Hegseth and Jules Hurst, the assistant secretary for the Army and the Pentagon's former comptroller, argued for the $1.5 trillion request before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, Hurst told lawmakers that the war had cost about $29 billion. But a month earlier, U.S. officials "familiar with internal assessments" placed the cost at about $50 billion, according to CBS News.
During that May hearing, Hurst also characterized the $1.5 trillion requested this year as a "one-time plus-up for catch-up," even though the department intends to ask for $1.23 trillion next year. These are worryingly large sums of money for an agency the government's watchdog admits has "pervasive deficiencies" and "long-standing financial management problems." Despite its track record, the agency has shown no signs of changing.
While House Republicans were preparing to send the department an additional $60 billion, the DOD was working to hide the latest report critical of its spending practices. On Wednesday, the Pentagon "barred the release" of a GAO report on the F-35 fighter plane. This program has dealt with spiraling costs and critical deficiencies since its inception, according to The Hill.
The current fleet is only capable of performing "all of its missions" 25 percent of the time, according to a June GAO report. With a price tag of $62.2 million to $77.2 million per plane—and the cost to sustain "the fleet of aircraft through 2088" estimated at $1.6 trillion—it seems the program may be more trouble than it's worth.
Somehow, a depleted budget hasn't stopped the Pentagon from frivolously spending cash on overseas intervention and buying equity stakes in private companies.
In April, the agency closed on a $1 billion investment in defense contractor L3Harris Technologies that converts into equity when the company goes public. The department also owns $400 million in preferred stock of the critical-mineral company MP Materials and a 10 percent stake in another critical-mineral company, Trilogy Metals—alongside stakes in several other companies.
The Senate, in its FY 2027 National Defense Authorization Act, which passed out of the Armed Services Committee in June, seemingly approved the administration's socialist policies. Rather than banning the DOD from purchasing shares in private companies, the Senate set guardrails on this spending: equity stakes can't exceed 40 percent of a company's valuation, and the Pentagon must cap investments in private companies at $500 million.
The Pentagon's leash could soon be shortened thanks to the FY 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, which requires the DOD to receive a clean audit opinion on its financial statements by no later than December 31, 2028.
Still, even if the agency fails to meet this requirement, it's unlikely to change anything, given Congress' propensity for writing blank checks whenever the department utters the phrase "national security."
