Government Waste

Why the Price of the F-35 Keeps Soaring

By Ciro Scotti

The most costly fighter ever built is getting even more expensive. A new General Accounting Office report says the Pentagon will spend an additional $3.9 billion over the next five years on “...
What a Waste—Senate Health Care Debate Squanders Time and Millions for Nothing

By Rob Garver and Eric Pianin

For Republican leaders in the Senate, watching their first two attempts to pass a health care bill this week fail badly in floor votes must have been extra painful as they plainly knew in advance...
The Pentagon Skips Out on a $10 Billion Debt

By Eric Pianin

By law, the free-spending Defense Department is required to implement a plan to achieve at least $10 billion in administrative cost savings within the next two years. But the Government...
Can Congress Finally Stop Wasting $100 Billion a Year in Erroneous Payments?

By Eric Pianin

In response to repeated prodding by the General Accounting Office and other government watchdogs, the House Budget Committee is calling for creation of a special commission to crack down on...
Homeland Security Did Not Report $3.5 Million Spent on Conferences

By Eric Pianin

The behemoth Department of Homeland Security violated federal rules when they neglected to report nearly two dozen conferences sponsored by the agency in 2014 and 2015 at an overall cost of more than...

The Latest FBI Mess: The $2 Billion Project to Build Its New Headquarters

By Eric Pianin

The FBI’s once imposing fortress-like headquarters in downtown Washington is in shambles today, with netting hanging from the façade to prevent broken concrete from hitting passing tourists. Inside,...
The Navy’s Argument for Building Another $500 Million Combat Ship Doesn’t Hold Water

By Ciro Scotti

Under pressure from the White House, the Navy agreed to add a second Littoral Combat Ship to its 2018 budget despite grave concerns about the capabilities of the vessel. The stated reason was to save...
How a No-Show Worker Scammed the VA Out of $100,000

By Eric Pianin

A former research investigator at a VA health facility in Oklahoma City scammed the government out of more than $100,000 by claiming thousands of hours of work while he was drawing a salary at a...
Ouch! Mylan May Have Overcharged the US More Than $1 Billion for EpiPens

By Rob Garver

The federal government appears to have shelled out more than $1.27 billion in overpayments to the drug company Mylan, which holds the patent on the widely-used EpiPen, an auto-injector for...
How Bad Is Drug Theft at VA Hospitals? Feds Pursue Dozens of New Cases

By Eric Pianin

In the last few months, the VA inspector general’s office opened 36 criminal investigations into alleged drug theft by employees at veterans hospitals, bringing the number of open criminal...

68 Ways Homeland Security Has Wasted Your Tax Dollars

By Brianna Ehley, The Fiscal Times

The sprawling Department of Homeland Security (DHS), created after 9/11 to keep the country safe from terror attacks, has all too often found itself the target of scathing federal audits that have...
Federal Employees Do Union Work on Taxpayers’ Dime

By Eric Katz, Government Executive

The Office of Personnel Management is not properly tracking the amount of time federal employees spend conducting union work on the taxpayers’ dime, which could mean the agency is significantly...
Federal Workers Goof Off, Get Paid When They Don’t Have Enough to Do

By Brianna Ehley, The Fiscal Times

For years federal auditors have called attention to the government’s widespread problem of employees abusing their work from home privileges, known as telework. Though agencies have insisted they’ll...
Keystone XL Pipeline: No Oil, Plenty of Propaganda

By Rob Garver

The Keystone XL pipeline, which the Senate is expected to vote on late today, hasn’t delivered a drop of oil to U.S. refineries yet, but in the five years it has spent in the public spotlight it has...
Billions Saved if Bill to Fix Feds’ IT Costs Passes

By Rob Garver

A plan to revamp the way the federal government purchases some $80 billion in information technology products every year looks as though it might finally make it to the president’s desk.

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