American taxpayers shouldn’t be paying $14,000 for toilet seats, and Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley is introducing a bipartisan bill requiring the Pentagon to pass independent audits or face fines.
Grassley, a Republican, is offering the bill with Senator Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont. Grassley says national security is the primary responsibility of the federal government, and every dollar spent to keep the country safe should be accounted for clearly.
“Out of the dozens and maybe hundreds of federal agencies that get audited every year and get a certified audit, never has the Defense Department had one,” Grassley says, “and our legislation is to get the Defense Department in tune with every other agency.”
The Pentagon consumes more than half of the nation’s discretionary budget and controls more than three-trillion dollars in assets, according to the senator, who says the DOD “has been plagued by wasteful spending for decades.”
Under the bill, any Pentagon component that does not achieve a clean audit opinion would have 2% of its budget withheld, he says, and that percentage would be returned to the federal treasury for deficit reduction.
Grassley and Sanders first introduced the legislation in 2021 and reintroduced it in 2023. Grassley says he’s optimistic the Pentagon brass will comply.
“I’ve had meetings with leaders of the Defense Department now, and I think there’s a real determined effort to have the Department of Defense in line with every other department and have a certified audit,” Grassley says, “but we’re backing it up with legislation.”
Grassley says his support for the bill is not tied to any current military conflicts. In a statement, he says: “Our bipartisan legislation holds the Defense Department accountable by ensuring it meets the same audit standards as other agencies, or it faces a financial penalty. Any dollar lost by the Department of Defense wastes taxpayers’ money and weakens our national security.”