WASHINGTON — Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday used a Pentagon efficiency study that claimed $125 billion in unrealized savings to attack President Trump's plan to fund a defense hike with domestic cuts.
U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the House oversight committee, was among House Democrats who questioned the wisdom of Trump's planned $54 billion defense add when, according to the Defense Business Board study, there is huge waste in DoD's back-office bureaucracy.
"He proposes boosting defense spending by billions of dollars," Cummings said of Trump, "and he proposes funding this increase by slashing dozens of critical programs that promote our national security and our nation's most vulnerable communities—the elderly, children, and the rural working class."
The comments came at a House Oversight and Government Reform hearing, where Democrats decried the Trump "America First" budget's deep cuts to the State Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, foreign aid and social programs. The budget outline released earlier this month is seen as untenable in Congress and the prelude to a government shutdown—if lawmakers cannot reach a bipartisan deal.
"They should know our national security is paramount, but the Trump administration fails to recognize how these draconian cuts make us less safe," said Florida Rep. Val Demings, the ranking Democrat on the House Subcommittee on Intergovernmental Affairs.
At the hearing — which heard from DoD Acting Deputy Chief Management Officer David Tillotson III, and several architects of the study — several Republicans teed off on Pentagon waste without criticizing the Trump budget request. Some noted that the savings could fund more troops, ships and planes.
Though the perception that DoD suppressed the study fueled the hearing, Tillotson pushed back, saying it was "discussed at the highest levels," and his office is seeking $7.9 billion in efficiencies based on its analytics.
"I think the one thing I would take unequivocal issue with is that the report was in any way suppressed," Tillotson said. "It was actively discussed within the department at the time and it has formed the basis of discussion since that time."
The DBB, a civilian advisory panel of business leaders established to provide senior defense leaders with independent management advice, produced this efficiency report among others.
Those savings could then be pumped back into the force, the board claimed, and would equal the funding it takes to field 50 Army brigades, 10 Navy carrier strike groups or 83 Air Force F-35 fighter wings.
At the hearing, Tillotson conceded that efficiency and audit efforts are an internal struggle, and that there is more for to do, particularly in service contract reviews. But he also pointedly noted DoD needs base closures, a move Congress resists.
"Efficiencies means we take a look at moving money from activities into new activities," Tillotson said, adding: "It's intriguing to me that when we opt to let a leased contract for a building lapse … that we spend three trips to a state delegation to explain why we can't close that contract."
In December 2016, the Washington Post reported the study was covered up and ignored—a charge lawmakers explored at the hearing. Amid lawmaker questions, former DBB chairman Bobby Stein said that his successor as chairman, Michael Bayer, and then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter "did not want to continue" the study after his departure.
Yet DBB member Kenny Klepper, who worked with Stein on the study, said senior military leadership was "extremely supportive" of the work, but did not welcome its timing. (DBB released its findings a week before the 2016 budget request was due to be unveiled.)
On Tuesday, lawmakers vented frustration that the Pentagon had spent $9 million on the study with so little to show for it.
In one tense exchange, committee chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, lashed out at Tillotson over whether the subcontractor studying DoD inefficiency for the DBB — McKinsey & Company — was required to produce a report. Tillotson, earlier in the hearing, had brandished DBB's findings to suggest they had not been squelched.
Email: jgould@defensenews.com
Twitter: @reporterjoe
Joe Gould was the senior Pentagon reporter for Defense News, covering the intersection of national security policy, politics and the defense industry. He had previously served as Congress reporter.
