The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is cheering the “Defense Spending Oversight Act” from two members of the Florida congressional delegation.
Insisting “it would play a critical step in securing accountability and avoiding waste, fraud, and abuse in defense spending,” last month, two congressmen from Central Florida introduced a proposal to have “Inspectors General to create reports evaluating the net financial benefit of budget oversight investigations to crack down on the billions of unaccounted for taxpayer dollars being given to the DoD and military contractors with insufficient accountability.”
U.S. Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost, D-Fla., introduced the “Defense Spending Oversight Act” with U.S. Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., co-sponsoring it.
“In 2022, the Federal Times reported that the Pentagon officials recovered $13.2 million in just six months from a hotline that helped uncover wrongdoing from private contractors. A figure which underscores the need for Frost and Mills’ bill to further support the critical work of Inspectors General who aid in auditing government agencies and recuperating these funds,” Frost’s office noted.
TPA named the proposal as its “bill of the month” for November and Patrick Hedger, the group’s executive director, cheered the bill.
“TPA strongly commends Reps. Cory Mills and Maxwell Frost for introducing the bipartisan Defense Spending Oversight Act, and we are proud to make it our Bill of the Month for November 2023. Inspectors General at all levels of government must be empowered and equipped to investigate waste, fraud, and abuse. This is particularly the case with the notoriously insulated Pentagon, which has failed five consecutive audits. To understand the scale of operations and provide necessary resources to the Department of Defense Office of the Inspector General, Congress must be kept up to date with all costs associated with investigations,” said Hedger.
“Waste, fraud, and abuse in defense spending is too common,” said Frost. “Congressman Mills and I both know that adequate funding to ensure our national defense is entirely different from writing a blank check at the cost of Florida’s taxpayers. Our bipartisan bill is an important part of cracking down on wasteful spending and recouping our tax dollars to hold bad actors accountable in the long run.”
“The American people have a right to know their hard-earned taxpayer dollars are being used responsibly and effectively,” said Mills. “I’m pleased the Taxpayers Protection Alliance has highlighted this legislation and its goal to bring transparency to government contracting. Ridding the DoD of waste, fraud, and abuse is not a partisan issue, it’s an American issue. I welcome TPA’s promotion of this important piece of legislation.”
The bill was sent to the U.S. House Armed Service Committee. So far, there is no companion bill over in the U.S. Senate.
