Golden Fleece Award

On Monday, The Washington Post published a report that Pentagon officials buried evidence of $125 billion in bureaucratic waste in 2015. Following the Post’s reporting, Congressman French Hill announced the Department of Defense (DoD) would receive this month’s Golden Fleece Award.

The buried report identified $134 billion of the DoD’s $580 billion budget was spent on overhead and operations including human resources, accounting, and property management, and that DoD employed 1 million people in business operations compared to the 1.3 million active-duty troops serving our country. The report suggested offering early retirement, encouraging attrition, using fewer contractors, and making better use of information technology to save nearly $125 billion, but top DoD officials buried the report, expressing concerns that Congress would seek to cut its budget.

The Post’s report also notes the intransigence of Congress. “We are all too often to blame for blocking even modest attempts to reform the workforce needs at DoD with local, parochial concerns getting in the way of the bigger picture,” said Hill. “I saw this firsthand last year when a plan to consolidate our Air Force C-130J planes for effectiveness and efficiency was defeated. Previously, U.S. Air Force officials had highlighted the transfer of 10 C-130J aircraft from Keesler Air Force Base to Little Rock Air Force Base as a critical cost saving initiative, along with other force structure changes, of $922 million, across the future years defense plan (FYDP), a five-year plan, for savings.”

Last year’s National Defense Authorization Act included language to postpone the transfer of these aircraft, and due to Congressional pressures and the argument for a one-time savings of $24.3 million and a total estimated savings of $751 million over the FYDP, the Air Force rescinded its plan and maintained the more costly unit.

U.S. Air Force officials had argued for years in favor of this transfer, stating that the move to LRAFB “would have integrated all three elements of the Total Force at a single location, eliminating the overhead personnel and logistics support required at a stand-alone unit and enabling formal and informal exchanges of personnel, equipment, and expertise.”

“Despite calls from the Air Force to make this transfer, Congress’s meddling prevented this common-sense, cost-saving initiative,” said Hill. “While I am giving the Golden Fleece Award to the Pentagon, there is no doubt that Congress can do more to address the pressing needs of our country and better allocate federal dollars and resources for the benefit our country and hardworking taxpayers.”

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