Support the Audit the Pentagon Act, H.R. 3079

On behalf of our activist community, I urge you to contact your representative and urge him or her to cosponsor the Audit the Pentagon Act, H.R. 3079, introduced by Reps. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and Michael Burgess (R-Texas) and cosponsored by several House conservatives, including Reps. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.). The bill would reduce by one-half of one percent the discretionary budget authority of the Department of Defense (DOD) every fiscal year after every previous year that the department was not audited.

The Pentagon has never received a full audit. This is odd considering the fact that all federal agencies have been required to present a complete audit since 1992. To some level, this seems to be an intentional oversight of federal law since the Pentagon’s chief financial officer, Mike McCord, has said that keeping its finances on record is not its “primary mission.”

Having such a poor handle on the department’s books is a serious concern, especially with requests to increase its appropriations.

Unsurprisingly, there have been accusations of incredibly large amounts of waste as well. The Washington Post reported that the DOD actually buried an internal study that found that it had wasted roughly $125 billion. Other estimates, though, have the department losing track of trillions of dollars.

A full audit of the Pentagon is necessary, and this bill is an excellent step to getting there. This will give the DOD an incentive to get its finances in order and finally provide the audit it is legally obligated to do. For this reason, I urge you to contact your representative and ask him or her to cosponsor the Audit the Pentagon Act, H.R. 3079.

Sincerely,

Adam Brandon, President, FreedomWorks