WASHINGTON (TNND) — Among the Pentagon’s most shocking purchases in a single month: $6.9 million on lobster tail, $2 million on King Crab and $15.1 million on ribeye steak.
That’s a lot of beef for an administration that came into office promising to trim the fat.
Despite the Department of Government Efficiency’s Elon Musk showing up with a chainsaw to illustrate his disdain for waste, FY2025 broke records for the amount spent by the Department of Defense on grants and contracts alone. (TNND)
It’s all outlined in a new report from the Government Watchdog Group, Open the Books, called “Pentagon Should Focus on Defense Priorities, not Lavish Dinners, After Historic $93.4B “‘Use-It-or-Lose-It’ September.”
Despite the Department of Government Efficiency’s Elon Musk showing up with a chainsaw to illustrate his disdain for waste, FY2025 broke records for the amount spent by the Department of Defense on grants and contracts alone.
$93.4 billion in September. Of that, $50 billion was spent in the last 5 days of the month.
“At the end of every fiscal year, which is not the calendar year, but the end of September, agencies feel like they have to literally sometimes to shovel money out the door. They’re worried that if they don’t spend that amount down, they’re going to receive less funding next year,” said John Hart, CEO of Open the Books, in an interview with The National News Desk on Wednesday.
The trend has gone like this for decades and is definitely not unique to the D.O.D.
Other big spenders include the Departments of Transportation, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs and the Department of Energy.
They all appear to be adhering to a practice known as “use it or lose it,” the fear that if you don’t spend the money you’re allocated, you’ll get less the following year.
Sen. Rand Paul, R, Kentucky, has been railing against the practice for years, including in a March 2024 speech on the Senate Floor.
“Nothing ever gets smaller around here,” he said, referencing a $100.000 study conducted by the NIH’s National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, which looked at the behavior of Sunfish that drank tequila.
“Everything gets bigger. Everybody that wants something gets it, put it on Uncle Sam’s tab,” he said.
Open the Books CEO John Hart sent Secretary Pete Hegseth a letter in early September last year, reminding him that his actions were being watched.
“What I communicated to Secretary Hegseth in September is, look, this is your moment to shine. This is your moment to make sure that you’re able to refocus the Department’s mission on lethality and warfighting, and not allow these dysfunctional budget practices to continue. And so, unfortunately, that didn’t happen,” Hart said.
Excessive spending by federal agencies, and the Pentagon in particular, is a bipartisan problem, with both Democratic and Republican Administrations seeing a massive spike every September.
Watchdog groups, including Open the Books, are imploring Congress to change the rules and allow these agencies to roll over what they don’t spend, as an incentive to save money.
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