The budget for the Department of Defense (DOD), the government’s largest discretionary expenditure, accounts for approximately one-sixth of federal spending. Despite the need to spend each dollar effectively to enhance national security, its procurement system is failing to prepare the country for future conflicts and operates well behind the pace of modern warfare, as detailed […]
Longtime readers of the WasteWatcher will be familiar with the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), a poorly designed vessel that has long dogged Pentagon planners while burning taxpayer cash. Unfortunately, two recent examples have demonstrated that the Department of Defense (DOD) has learned nothing from that boondoggle and continues to struggle to build new ships on […]
The Trump administration has taken numerous steps to reform how the Department of Defense (DOD) buys services and equipment. The latest effort was signaled in DOD Secretary Pete Hegseth’s November 7, 2025, speech in which he announced a slew of reforms designed to increase speed and competition in contracting. The new acquisition policy will look […]
Welcome to This Week in Waste, a series by Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) that highlights how taxpayer dollars are being wasted in the federal, state, and local levels of government and efforts to fight back against this spendthrift behavior. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee Hearing is Next Step for 340B Reform The […]
Speeding up the procurement process at the Department of Defense (DOD) has been an immense challenge, but a rare example of success is the M1E3 Abrams tank. The DOD announced on September 6, 2023, that it intends to replace the M1A2SEP with the M1E3, and initially projected that the tank would be fielded sometime in […]
Many view the Memorial Day weekend as the official start of summer, filled with festivals, parades, and of course, sales on a variety of products. But the underlying reason for the holiday is to remember and honor those who fought, served and made the ultimate sacrifice to protect our nation and the freedoms guaranteed by […]
There should be no third bite at the taxpayers’ money for the twice-killed alternate engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). In 2011, following years of opposition from multiple presidential administrations and the Department of Defense (DOD), along with a coalition of taxpayer organizations, the first attempt to provide an alternate engine for the […]
This Week in Waste – May 9, 2025 Welcome to This Week in Waste, a series by Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) that highlights how taxpayer dollars are being wasted in the federal, state and local levels of government, and efforts to fight back against this spendthrift behavior. CAGW Files Comments to Department of Commerce […]
The Department of Defense (DOD) has far from a sterling reputation for financial discipline. It remains the sole federal agency to have not passed a clean audit under the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990. The Marine Corps is the only one of the five DOD branches that has passed an audit, which it accomplished […]
Welcome to This Week in Waste, a series by Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) that highlights how taxpayer dollars are being wasted in the federal, state, and local levels of government, and efforts to fight back against this spendthrift behavior. President Trump’s Budget Proposal Cuts Hundreds of Billions in Spending President Trump sent his […]
