Waste Management

During a Senate Budget Committee hearing this morning on the Pentagon's fiscal year 2013 spending request, Sen. Chuck Grassley gave Defense Secretary Leon Panetta a letter detailing 16 audit reports that "uncovered egregious waste and misconduct" at DOD.

"If I had two words to characterize what I found in those 16 reports, they would be scandalous and disgraceful," Grassley's letter states, adding:

Right now, the findings and recommendations presented in those 16 reports are being processed through the Pentagon meat grinder. Only you can save them from oblivion.

You have indicated that you want to find places in the defense budget to save nearly $500 billion over the next 10 years. Well, I think I have found the perfect place for you to begin your belt-tightening campaign. The IG claims that these and other 2011 reports identified $735 million in potential efficiencies. All this money will be lost unless the findings and recommendations in those reports are somehow converted into concrete action. Right now, they face a most uncertain future.

Click here to view Grassley's letter.