Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday — with the stroke of a pen — cut more than $580 million in wasteful contracts and grants funded with U.S. taxpayer money.
Hegseth said in a video statement:
Today, I’m signing a memo directing the termination of over $580 million in DOD contracts, in grants that do not match the priorities of this president or this department. In other words, they are not a good use of taxpayer dollars. Ultimately, that’s who funds us. We owe you transparency and making sure we’re using it well.
Hegseth’s memo directed the termination of:
— A software development program six years behind schedule and more than 780 percent over budget, called the “Defense Civilian Human Resources Management System (DCHRMS),” along with associated active contracts at the Defense Human Resources Activity (DHRA)
According to the memo, the program had at least two more years of development and testing estimated before initial operating capability. It was intended to “streamline a significant portion of the Department’s legacy Human Resources (HR) information technology stack,” which Hegseth noted “was an important mission we still need to achieve.” However, he added that further investment in the DCHRMS project would be “throwing more good taxpayer money after bad.”Therefore, I also direct the DoD Performance Improvement Officer to work with the director of DHRA, DoD Chief lnformation Officer, Military Departments, and HR service providers to develop a new plan within 60 days for achieving this mission,” he wrote.
— Over $360 million in additional grants that fund research efforts and other activities in areas of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE) and related social programs, climate change, social science, Covid-19 pandemic response, and other areas that are not aligned with DoD priorities
Hegseth said a $6 million grant was going towards decarbonizing emissions from Navy ships — “part of the Obama-Biden green agenda.” Another $5.2 million grant would “diversify and engage the Navy by engaging underrepresented [biracial people of color] students and scholars. Another $9 million would have been spent at a university to approach “equitable” AI and machine learning models.
“I need lethal machine learning models, not ‘equitable’ machine learning models,” he said.
— $30 million in contracts with consulting firms Gartner and McKinsey for analysis products not mission-critical to executing Department priorities
Hegseth said in the memo, “This first batch of cancellations is part of a broader effort that my Department leadership is undertaking to eliminate wasteful spending on non-essential consulting services, with more to follow in the weeks ahead.”
He added: “Collectively, these terminations represent over $580 million in wasteful spending that is inconsistent with the priorities of the DoD, and nearly $170 million in estimated savings which we can reallocate to mission-critical priorities.
“I commend Department leadership for identifying these opportunities to cut wasteful spending, and I encourage other leaders across the enterprise to follow this example and identify more opportunities for savings which we can re-invest in critical mission needs.”
Continuing Elimination of Wasteful Spending at the Department of Defense by Kristina Wong on Scribd
Hegseth credited the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with helping identify the grants and contracts, noting that the running total of cuts so far is $800 million in just a few weeks.
“$800 million in wasteful spending canceled over the first few weeks, as DoD partners with DOGE here to make sure that our warfighters have what they need by cutting the waste, fraud and abuse. They’re working hard. We’re working hard with them. We appreciate the work that they’re doing, and we have a lot more coming,” he said.
Follow Breitbart News’s Kristina Wong on ”X”, Truth Social, or on Facebook.
Read the full article here