Arlington, VA – Tonight the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) will hold a hearing on the authorization of the 2018 Department of Defense (DoD) budget. President Trump has requested $639.1 billion in defense spending. The budget request is $52 billion above the defense budget cap in the Budget and Control Act of 2011.
Concerned Veterans for America (CVA) Policy Director Dan Caldwell issued the following statement:
“The Department of Defense has never been audited, even though it’s the largest federal agency and there are clearly mismanaged resources within the department. Our military will be stronger and more efficient if Congress aggressively eliminates Pentagon waste and allocates those funds towards urgent national security needs. Congress should push the Pentagon to prepare for an audit and begin systematically identifying ways to make defense spending more efficient and effective.”
CVA has repeatedly called on government leaders to exercise fiscal responsibility in our national defense budget. Earlier this year, CVA Executive Director Mark Lucas penned an op-ed in the Washington Times calling on President Trump to strengthen America’s military by eliminating wasteful spending.
Last year, CVA launched a campaign called the Target the Debt project aimed at addressing the threat our growing debt poses to national security. The goal of CVA’s project is to build on growing pressure for Washington to finally enact smart reforms to cut the country’s enormous deficit and to start paying off our $19 trillion national debt.
In May, Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, introduced a defense acquisition reform bill called the Defense Acquisition Streamlining and Transparency Act. This legislation would streamline and modernize the acquisition system, allowing the DoD to buy military goods faster and at better prices. CVA has come out in support of this legislation, which will allow the Pentagon to act more like a business, speed up the auditing process, and add oversight to DoD contracts, among other key reforms.
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