[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 194 (Thursday, December 5, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6880-S6881]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         Defense Appropriations

  Mr. President, now to my second and last issue of the day, I want to 
report on the Pentagon's most recent audit. Unfortunately, I don't come 
with tidings of comfort and joy. Instead, I come with tidings of bad 
news. The Department of Defense has flunked another test of fiscal 
fitness yet again.
  Last year, Congress authorized more than $700 billion for the 
Department of Defense. That is a heck of a lot of money. That is why it 
is a big deal that the Pentagon is unable to account for the hundreds 
of billions of taxpayer dollars it spends from one year to the next 
year.
  Every dollar that Congress approves for the Defense Department is 
crucial for our national security. We must ensure that America's sons 
and daughters in uniform are well paid and well equipped to defend our 
great country. That is why I work tirelessly to hold the Pentagon 
accountable.
  The good news is, I am Iowa-stubborn. As a taxpayer watchdog, I won't 
let go of this bone until I see results.
  There is always bad news after you announce good news, so the bad 
news is that the Pentagon's books are a big fiscal mess. In fact, the 
Defense Department is the very last Federal agency to comply with a 
Federal law--decades old--requiring an annual audit.
  It took 28 years after Congress enacted a law requiring every Federal 
agency to conduct an annual audit for the Pentagon to get its ducks in 
a row. Unfortunately, the results are not what they are quacked up to 
be.
  As required by the 1990 Chief Financial Officers Act, the bean 
counters at the Department of Defense disclosed their financial 
assessments for fiscal year 2019 to the Office of Inspector General, 
and then the IG deployed 1,400 auditors to 600 sites around the world. 
These 1,400 auditors at 600 different sites surveyed $2.9 trillion in 
assets and tallied $2.8 trillion in liabilities. After spending $1 
billion to conduct this audit, the Department of Defense inspector 
general was unable to issue a clean opinion, and that is the goal we 
seek.
  Just like other Departments can get clean opinions, why can't the 
Defense Department do so? The case is that year after year, the 
Pentagon is unable to account for tax dollars coming in and tax dollars 
going out.
  Let me clarify for everyone listening just what happens when big 
spenders aren't held accountable. Tax dollars are ripe for wrongdoers 
to harvest, and in the sprawling bureaucracy that we call the Defense 
Department, with bases and contractors stationed around the globe, 
Pentagon spending is vulnerable to waste, fraud, and abuse.
  As a Pentagon watchdog, I have approached this podium nearly 50 times 
over my years of service here in the Senate to continually call 
attention to this wasteful spending by the Department of Defense. At 
the same time, I haven't avoided calling attention to wasteful spending 
in any agency of the Federal Government, but the Department of Defense 
has gotten the majority of my attention. During this period of time, I 
have written countless oversight letters and launched scores of 
investigations. I have encouraged my colleagues to ramp up their 
oversight work so we can work together to fix what is broken.
  The top dogs at the Pentagon have undertaken countless reform 
efforts, so I am not saying they don't recognize it and try to do 
something about it, but after all these decades, they have not 
succeeded.
  At the same time, besides undertaking countless reform efforts, they 
have issued endless promises. They have testified that real solutions 
are underway. Yet the results of the fiscal 2019 audit leaves this Iowa 
Senator underwhelmed. Tax dollars are still leaking through the 
Pentagon ledgers like a sieve. The plumbing is broken. When the fiscal 
faucets are cranked wide open, at full throttle, with no internal 
controls welded in place to prevent leaking, tax dollars are flushed 
down the drain.
  Over many years of oversight, dozens of top dogs at the Defense 
Department and the top brass of U.S. military have come to my office to 
offer explanations for wasteful spending, particularly after the 
Pentagon is on the receiving end of unflattering headlines. They have 
polished their skills when it comes to dodging tough questions posed by 
my oversight letters. They are also well prepared to rationalize 
hundreds of billions of dollars for their budget.
  It is entirely reasonable and the responsibility of each of our 
lawmakers, including this one, to expect that they also have the 
ability to show us where the money goes. I have approached dialogue 
with our Nation's military leaders in good faith, but time and again, I 
have been disappointed. The Defense Department's inability or 
unwillingness to make necessary and overdue changes is quite 
unacceptable. The buck stops here, of course. As representatives of the 
American people, we owe it to our constituents.
  The Defense Department is the largest Federal agency. Over time, 
bureaucrats get wrapped up in a culture of go along to get along. Some 
insiders take the brave step to blow the whistle on waste, fraud, and 
abuse; however, many are afraid to follow suit. That is why it is so 
important to inject a dose of reality into that swamp.
  What is really needed is a massive transfusion to change the mindset. 
We have a lot of history, so let me remind my colleagues, Washington is 
an island surrounded by reality, and when it comes to fiscal 
responsibility, the Pentagon operates on its own special fantasy 
island. That is why Congress can't rubberstamp the Defense Department's 
budget with no accountability for how the money is spent.
  Every time a new defense authorization funding bill is due in 
Congress, military leaders speak to the ever-changing threats facing 
our country. Those same military leaders plead for additional funding 
to defend our Nation, fight our enemies, and protect our interests 
abroad. Those military leaders discuss the growing threat of cyber 
attacks, aging and obsolete equipment, and say that cuts to their 
budget would hurt our men and women in uniform.
  National defense, as we all know, is the No. 1 priority of the 
Federal Government under the Constitution, so Congress is 
understandably reluctant to deny money that military leaders say they 
need. That, in turn, is the reason earning a clean audit is shoved to 
the back burner at the Defense Department.
  Congress and the Pentagon need to reach an understanding. Fiscal 
accountability and military readiness are not mutually exclusive. It is 
not an either/or scenario. Earning a clean bill of fiscal health would 
strengthen military readiness and boost support for necessary increases 
to defense spending in Congress and among the American people.
  Money somehow seems to simply get lost at the Defense Department. It 
is unreasonable to concede that it is OK for military inventory to 
vanish into thin air. It boils down to sloppy bookkeeping and 
antiquated accounting

[[Page S6881]]

systems that can't generate reliable transaction data.
  The problem starts at the top and filters down throughout the five 
quarters of the Pentagon. Let's consider the recent debacle with the 
TransDigm Group. In February, the Defense Department's Office of 
Inspector General released a report on spare parts that the Pentagon 
purchased from TransDigm. The result of that report exposed the rinse-
and-repeat fiscal shenanigans corroding the accounting systems at the 
Pentagon. In the report, the IG analyzed 113 contracts between January 
2015 and January 2017. It reviewed 47 spare parts the Defense 
Department purchased from TransDigm. In that window of time of only 2 
years, TransDigm overcharged the Defense Department by more than $16 
million.
  I will go out on a limb and suggest that Americans would rather spend 
$16 million for the Defense Department on our men and women in uniform 
rather than overpaying for spare parts rip-offs to a defense 
contractor.
  Congress can't sign blank checks to the Defense Department. We must 
work to ensure every dollar is present and accounted for. The Nation's 
strongest military in the world is managed by a Defense Department 
where taxpayer dollars seem to vanish without explanation, without 
receipts, and without accountability. Over the years, I have collected 
a laundry list of Pentagon waste, fraud, and abuse from $436 hammers to 
$640 toilet seats, $117 soap dish covers, and $999 pliers. Most 
recently, I have exposed $1,200 reheatable coffee cups and $14,000 
toilet seat lids. The dirty laundry just keeps piling up, and at the 
same time it is piling up, it is soaking the taxpayer.
  These wasteful expenditures represent just the tip of an iceberg. The 
simple truth is the Defense Department can't keep track of or doesn't 
seem to care where tax dollars are spent. Internal controls are weak 
and, in some cases, nonexistent. That has been reinforced by this 
second audit for which the Department of Defense inspector general 
can't give a clean audit.
  For a second time, I would suggest that what the law of 28 years ago 
tries to accomplish is that every Department get a clean audit--a clean 
opinion on their audit. Let me repeat for a second time that the 
Defense Department is the only agency of the Federal Government that 
can't do that. The Defense Department, repeating again, is the only 
agency that hasn't been able to deliver a clean audit, despite spending 
billions of dollars to modernize its accounting system. All of that 
investment hasn't produced better systems.
  No one except me and a few others ever talk about this, but it needs 
to be talked about and talked about a lot more, and it needs to be 
talked about in a deliberate way and very often. Congress can't allow 
the Defense Department to sweep this issue under the rug year after 
year.
  The TransDigm fiasco is just one very small example, even though it 
cost the taxpayers a lot of wasted dollars. Price gouging has been 
going on for years at the expense of the taxpayer and military 
readiness. Top-level managers know all about what I am talking about, 
but they aren't doing a doggone thing to fix it. People must be held 
accountable for missing receipts, for lost financial information, for 
wasteful spending approvals, for questionable contracting agreements, 
and every other abuse of power that leads to more taxpayer dollars 
being squandered.
  American households across the country scrutinize their spending and 
keep tabs on their bills. The Defense Department should approach 
spending no differently. That is why I pushed for an amendment to the 
latest Defense authorization bill that would have required the Pentagon 
to keep better track of its contracts and to make sure they do make 
reports to the Congress. While this amendment was ultimately not 
included in the bill, I want my colleagues to know that I am going to 
continue to push for more accountability.
  Throughout my years of oversight, the Pentagon officials have claimed 
they want to reverse the cycle of cost overruns; they want to clean up 
their books; and they want to hold people responsible. Yet it never 
seems to happen. Although I am encouraged by the conversations I have 
had so far with new Defense Secretary Esper, the proof is in the 
pudding. From one administration to the next, it has been the same 
story. Business goes on as usual.
  From the top of the chain of command to the rank and file, there is a 
pervasive mindset that assumes no one is watching over them and that no 
one cares. For four decades, this Senator has been watching, and this 
Senator cares. I am disgusted each time I discover another example of 
wasteful spending.
  So I am here this very day, as I have been dozens of times before in 
my service in the Senate, to ask my colleagues in both the Senate and 
House of Representatives to join me in a crusade to stop wasteful 
spending at the Defense Department. There is a saying that goes 
something like this: no guts, no glory. Well, wasteful spending is 
gutting our military readiness and goring the taxpayers. There is no 
glory in that, and people might wonder then, why does this Senator 
bother?
  I have fought fiscal mismanagement at the Defense Department for 
these many decades. I have launched investigation after investigation 
and come to the floor of the Senate to talk until I am blue in the 
face. Billions of dollars have been poured into a decades-long effort 
to right the fiscal ship at the Defense Department. The Pentagon has 
shelled out billions for several hundred partial orders, two complete 
audits, and endless technology updates to modernize its IT and 
accounting systems. Yet no one can tell us when, if ever, a clean audit 
might be possible. How can that be? After nearly 30 years of effort, 
there is no solution.
  The Department of Defense can develop the most advanced weapons 
systems in the world, but it can't seem to deploy something as simple 
and common as an accounting system that is capable of capturing payment 
transactions and generating reliable fiscal and financial data. That is 
why it is a cakewalk for crooks to rip into the Pentagon's money sack 
from both ends and use a front end loader to freeload their way through 
this money pit.
  Without a clean audit on the foreseeable horizon, there is no 
evidence to catch anyone's hands in the Pentagon cookie jar. The only 
way we will root out fraud and wasteful spending is by knowing where 
the money is being spent.
  That brings me back to square one as I finish. We need a clean audit 
and a reliable accounting system. As I mentioned earlier, I am Iowa 
stubborn, and, by God, I am willing to work with my colleagues and go 
toe-to-toe with any administration, Republican or Democrat. I will work 
as long as it takes for us to see eye to eye to hold the Defense 
Department accountable once and for all.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Braun). The Senator from Maryland.