Department of Defense Can't Pass An Audit
Floor Speech
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Ms. HOYLE of Oregon. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to state my opposition to the National Defense Authorization Act.
First, let me be clear, I support any funding to keep Americans safe, protect and fairly compensate our troops for their sacrifices, and to improve our national security. I also support some of what is included in this act: pay raises for our servicemembers, expanding access to contraceptives for female servicemembers under TRICARE, and properly funding the replacement of poor and failing military housing and barracks.
However, it is simply irresponsible to give more money to an agency that accounts for half of our discretionary spending but can't pass an audit. This is an agency that spends over half its budget on defense contractors who have no incentive against price gouging, some who overcharge the Department of Defense by 40 to 50 percent with no accountability and no consequences. Year after year, we dump money into defense contractors that grow fatter while our servicemembers and their families struggle to scrape by.
Since the election, we have heard a lot of talk about improving government efficiency and cutting waste, and I agree. It is incumbent upon us to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars, but instead of proposing cuts to Social Security benefits for seniors or cutting veterans' benefits to our servicemembers, benefits that they have earned, let's start where there are clear savings to be had.
In this NDAA, the Pentagon would get $10 billion more than last year. Simply put, the Pentagon just failed its seventh audit, and it is getting nearly $900 billion already. Why should we keep writing blank checks and expecting things to change when there is no incentive to do so?
Without robust accountability, all this is, is a transfer of wealth from hardworking American taxpayers to private defense contractors in the military industrial complex. Without meaningful oversight for how my constituents' taxpayer dollars are spent, I plan on voting no.
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