End "Spend It Or Lose It"

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Pentagon Restructuring

Stop punishing personnel for saving money

Ostensibly to save unnecessary funds, agencies are required to return unused funds at the end of the year, which can encourage waste and spending sprees at the end of the fiscal year. In recent years, GAO has estimated that "carryover" funds across the government were over $2 trillion across agencies, with several DoD agencies having balances of roughly $7 billion on average per year from 2007-2012. Various options exist for ensuring agencies are not penalized for finding cost savings, including a plan introduced in the Senate in 2016 that would send unused funds to Treasury to pay down deficits while awarding bonuses to employees who find savings. Further action is necessary to ensure full savings are achieved.

SAVINGS

$7 billion+ annually

STATUS

S.1378 - Bonuses for Cost-Cutters Act of 2016 (Sen. Paul, R-KY)

LINKS

“If we are going to effectively tackle the long-term national security threat posed by our national debt, then we need to seriously examine how our defense dollars are being spent. Waste and inefficiency within the Pentagon not only contributes to our nation’s debt and deficit, it also diminishes the effectiveness of our nation’s armed forces."

Dan Caldwell, USMC (ret.)
Concerned Veterans for America

“I'm concerned that our increasing fractious political process, particularly with respect to federal spending, is threatening our ability to properly defend our nation both in the short term and especially in the long term."

Dan Coats
Director of National Intelligence

“This guide is a much-needed first step toward encouraging politicians to consider all available options for substantive Pentagon reform. Our troops deserve better than broken bureaucracy, and politicians shouldn't fool themselves into thinking that throwing money at the problem is the solution."

Capt. Dan Grazier, USMC (ret.)
Project on Government Oversight

Solutions

Pursuing Smart Tradeoffs