This Week In Waste – July 31, 2026
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 Names California Governor Gavin Newsom July 2026 Porker of the Month
California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) is CAGW’s July 2026 Porker of the Month for spending $19.9 million over two years to provide “free” diapers for every new baby born in the state regardless of the parents’ income, including a no-bid contract for the first $6.2 million given to a company with ties to the governor’s wife. Each taxpayer-subsidized diaper cost 18.5 cents, 75 percent more than the 10.5 cents for a diaper from the nation’s largest retailer. Read more here.
340B Purchases Exceeded $100 Billion in 2025
The 340B Drug Discount Program started in 1992 with the laudable intention of helping federally funded hospitals that serve a large uninsured population cover the costs of drugs and provide discounts to patients. However, due to the lack of a clear definition of an eligible patient and poor oversight, the program has drifted from its mission and been exploited by hospitals and covered entities to generate millions of dollars of profit and is now the second largest government prescription drug program behind Medicare Part D. In 2025, 340B purchases exceeded $100 billion. Read more here.
Record Defense Budget Requires Greater Oversight
The Department of Defense (DOD) is likely to receive a substantial 43 percent budget increase for fiscal year 2027. This comes at a time when the DOD has been funding several procurement disasters, including the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the most expensive weapons system ever made that will in the end cost more than $2 trillion, and the M10 Booker, a cancelled tank that demonstrated the Pentagon’s lack of critical thinking. The Pentagon’s finances are also a mess, as the DOD remains the sole federal agency that has yet to pass a clean audit. Read more here.
Welcome to the People’s Republic of New York City
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s (D) first seven months in office have shown that he is well on the way to changing America’s financial capital to the People’s Republic of New York City. His 100 promises include making city buses fare-free, building five government-run grocery stores with “lower prices,” freezing rents for more than two million stabilized apartments, and constructing 200,000 publicly subsidized affordable housing units by 2036. Read more here.
President Trump’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge Secures American AI Dominance, Protects Consumers
On July 23, 2026, President Donald Trump announced that his voluntary Ratepayer Protection Pledge has expanded to more than 200 additional utilities, governors, and power providers, covering nearly 80 percent of the electricity consumed by American households and businesses. The pledge ensures that large data center operators, not taxpayers or ratepayers, pay for the new power infrastructure they require. Read more here.
Republicans Aren’t Stopping: GOP to Unleash Another ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ with a New Target
After passing Reconciliation 3.0 out of the House of Representatives on July 22, 2026, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) is looking ahead to a fourth budget reconciliation bill that will focus on rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse of federal dollars, with the goal of returning savings to taxpayers. Reconciliation 3.0, which focused on affordability issues, is currently pending in the U.S. Senate. Reconciliation 4.0 is expected to target improper payments among other longstanding examples of wasteful spending. Read more here.
FCC Blocks Lifeline Provider from Enrolling Any New Customers
On July 27, 2026, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) barred IM Telecom from enrolling any new subscribers into the Universal Service Fund’s Lifeline program, while the agency continues its investigation into potential violations by the company. The Lifeline program is intended to help low-income households obtain either telephone services or broadband services at lower rates. CAGW has long been concerned about abuses in the program and is heartened to see the FCC act against those who would use it to defraud taxpayers. Read more here.
