This Week In Waste – June 19, 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.

Congress’s Efforts to Curb Wasteful Spending Are Underway

The House of Representatives passed legislation on June 8 and June 10, 2026, aimed at combating fraud, improper payments, and mismanagement.  Legislators should build on that momentum by tackling larger structural drivers of waste and ensuring that efforts to root out fraud and abuse remain a year-round priority.  Read more here.

F-35 Update: More Money, Less Availability

A June 11, 2026, Government Accountability Office (GAO) report detailed more problems in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program, the most expensive weapons system ever built.  Fleetwide, mission capable rates dropped from 67 percent in FY 2021 to 44 percent in FY 2025.  As a November 2025 CAGW issue brief noted, the Department of Defense has dropped the ball on the JSF and must correct course as it begins to heavily invest in the next generation of aircraft.  Read more here.

Representative Harold Rogers (R-Ky.) Earmarks Money for Nonprofits He Helped Launch

Rep. Rogers, CAGW’s 2010 Porker of the Year and long known as the “Prince of Pork,” has directed more than $30 million in earmarks since 2021 to three nonprofits he helped create, and is seeking another $22.5 million for two of them in the fiscal year 2027 appropriations bills.  According to CAGW’s Congressional Pig Book database, Rep. Rogers steered more than $20 million to the same organizations before the earmark ban.  Read more here.

Report Reveals Uncle Sam Has No Idea If Feds Are Handing Out Taxpayer Dollars to Wrong People

According to Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), a draft GAO report found that federal agencies cannot reliably determine whether recipients of government awards are on the “do not pay list.”  This finding comes as fraudsters are estimated to steal $1.4 billion per day, underscoring the need for stronger safeguards against the ineligible recipients.  Read more here.

Acting Labor Secretary Pressures 53 States and Territories to Tackle Unemployment Insurance Program Fraud

The Department of Labor (DOL) is taking strong action under Acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling crack down on unemployment insurance (UI) fraud and improper payments.  His June 17, 2026, letters to every state and territory stated that the DOL and its inspector general will use its enforcement powers to protect the integrity of UI payments and for the first time consider withholding administrative funds to force compliance.  The action appears highly warranted, given that five states collectively paid more than $2.5 billion in improper payments in 2025, and New York alone is paying more than $2 million daily in such payments.  Read more here.

General Services Administration’s (GSA) Artificial Intelligence (AI) Adoption is Driving Significant Time Savings, Officials Say

During the Government Services Delivery conference on June 11, 2026, GSA Deputy Administrator Michael Lynch announced that the agency has increased its use of AI since President Trump took office.  The use of AI tools by its workforce went from 15 percent, equating to “about 400,000 hours of just automation” unlocked using AI technology.  Read more here.

Europe’s Continued Effort to Undermine American Technology

The European Commission is advancing another “tech sovereignty” regulatory package, which would further restrict American cloud providers, AI systems, software, semiconductors, and data centers from entering European markets.  The proposed policies unfairly target U.S. companies by imposing on them an estimated $4.4 billion in general data protection and regulation fines.  Read more here.

“Moderate” Democrat Abigail Spanberger’s Decision to Reenter Virginia into Controversial Green Energy Program Could Increase Virginians’ Electric Bills by $1.2 Billion

According to Dominion Energy, Virginia’s biggest electricity provider, Gov. Spanberger’s decision to rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative is projected to cost Virginians nearly $1.2 billion over the next two years, with the average household bearing a $13 monthly increase in electric bills.  Read more here.