Arlington, VA – Today the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) held a hearing on the posture of the 2018 Department of Defense (DoD) budget. President Trump has requested $639.1 billion in defense spending. Defense Secretary James Mattis and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Donford testified.
Concerned Veterans for America (CVA) Policy Director Dan Caldwell issued the following statement:
“The Department of Defense has never been audited, despite being the largest federal agency and having clearly struggled to manage resources efficiently. Our military readiness will improve if Congress can identify and eliminate waste at the Pentagon so those funds can be focused toward urgent needs. For the sake of national security, bringing fiscal responsibility to defense spending should be a top 2018 priority.”
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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