This Week In Waste – September 11, 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.
NTIA Empowers States to Use BEAD Savings for Location “True-Up,” Ensuring Universal Broadband Availability Across America
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) Benefit of the Bargain reduced the $42.45 billion allocated for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program to $21.5 billion. The agency has been considering what to do with the savings. CAGW has suggested that the “BEAD bonus” should be returned to the taxpayers. Former Federal Communications Commissioner Michael O’Rielly agrees with that outcome but added that if some of the excess funds are retained, they should be spent in line with BEAD’s “central mission.” NTIA appears to be heeding that advice, as the agency announced a new funding round that will enable states to use some of their BEAD savings for “newly identified unserved locations that were not previously included in the FCC’s broadband map” and other locations that are now eligible due to changes in other federal and state broadband programs. Read more here.
GAO Releases Report on Actions Needed to Address Costly Attack Submarine Maintenance Challenges
On August 27, 2026, the Government Accountability Office reported that maintenance delays have cost the Navy 15,000 operational days lost. The Navy has been forced to spend $3.4 billion to keep submarines that cannot be deployed fully crewed. Read more here.
California Did Not Report and Return All Medicaid Overpayments for the State’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit Cases
A September 3, 2026, audit by the California Office of Inspector General (OIG) found that the state government failed to properly report and return $113.3 million in Medicaid overpayments identified through fraud-control cases. The OIG recommended that the state return the federal share of $47.8 million in unreported overpayments to the federal government. Read more here.
FCC to vote on NEPA permitting reforms for faster broadband builds
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced its tentative agenda for the September 30, 2026, open meeting. It includes clarification of the extent to which the FCC actions are subject to National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) requirements and to further expedite the review process. CAGW submitted comments to the FCC on April 29, 2025, encouraging the agency to streamline the NEPA permitting process. Read more here.
Governor Gianforte Joins Mountain States Policy Center to Promote Flat Tax
On September 8, 2026, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte (R) announced a statewide initiative to replace the progressive state income tax system with a flat rate of 4.7 percent. According to Mountain States Policy Center CEO Chris Cargill, moving to a flat income tax rate will result in an estimated $286 million increase in wages and more than 2,400 jobs. Read more here.
