[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 16332-16333]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    THE PENTAGON'S WASTEFUL SPENDING

  (Mr. DeSAULNIER asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. DeSAULNIER. Mr. Speaker, I rise to highlight the Pentagon's $125 
billion of wasteful spending exposed this week by The Washington Post.
  Just this week, Congress allocated hundreds of billions of dollars to 
fund a military that is larger than the next seven countries' 
militaries combined while we are providing a comparatively small sum of 
money to increase medical research, to educate our youth, and to 
support our first responders. To then discover that the Pentagon has 
identified $125 billion in waste underscores our Nation's misguided 
priorities.
  If just 10 percent of that waste were redirected to the National 
Institutes of Health, cures could be found and lives

[[Page 16333]]

could be saved. In this year's defense authorization, $1.5 billion is 
spent to upgrade an aircraft carrier that the U.S. Navy recommended to 
retire. Until we press the Pentagon to undergo a rigorous audit, I 
cannot and will not support their bloated budget request.
  I share President Eisenhower's concerns when he said:

       We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted 
     influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-
     industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of 
     misplaced power exists and will persist.

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