Pentagon Let $28 Billion Worth of Funds Go to Waste in 2018

The Department of Defense failed to spend billions of dollars appropriated to the Pentagon in fiscal year 2018 and subsequently lost the authority to use the funds, Bloomberg Government reports. An audit from the Defense Department’s Inspector General revealed that the Pentagon apparently had too much money and failed to spend it in the required timeframe, thereby losing the authority to spend $28 billion. The Pentagon was reportedly already well-funded last year before Congress and the White House agreed to allocate $700 billion towards national security—with the majority of that money going to the Pentagon. Task and Purpose reports the untouched $27.7 billion represents 4 percent of the defense budget President Trump signed into law in December 2017. According to Politico, Trump also told then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis late last year to submit a $750 billion budget request for fiscal year 2020.