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...

U.S. Spent $1 Billion on a Watchdog That Didn’t Bark

By Brianna Ehley, The Fiscal Times

For the better part of the last two years, a federal inspector general tasked with overseeing a tiny, obscure agency in Alaska, did next to nothing—while raking in a government salary from his remote...
Gov Buys $17M in Luxury Homes for Border Agents

By Brianna Ehley, The Fiscal Times

The federal government has a bad habit of overspending on items it could get at much lower rates. The Justice Department buys $16 muffins for a breakfast meeting; the Pentagon pays contractors $1,000...
Congressional Deal May Doom Export-Import Bank to Slow Death

By Rob Garver

The deal being floated in Congress to approve a Continuing Resolution to fund the government and avoid another shutdown came with moderately good news for the Export-Import Bank of the United States...
Auditors Still Finding Misused FEMA Katrina Funds

By Brianna Ehley, The Fiscal Times

Federal auditors are still ferretting out the misuse of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal disaster relief disbursed to victims of Hurricane Katrina roughly nine years after the disastrous...
Food Stamps Program Gets Boost from Lower Error Rate

By Jake Grovum, Stateline

Despite a Great Recession-fueled expansion in food stamp rolls, the percentage of Americans mistakenly receiving too much or too little under the program is at an all-time low. In 37 states, error...

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