The Pentagon’s second unfunded priorities list is an accountability travesty, Congress should act
With "unfunded" priorities priced at nearly $50 billion this year, POGO analyst Julia Gledhill says it's past time Congress reined in the Pentagon wish list.
By JULIA GLEDHILL
on December 01, 2022 at 10:43 AM
Beyond the stated budget, it’s become routine that the Pentagon also hands Congress a list of programs it would like to fund but does not explicitly have money for: the unfunded priorities. While the “optional” wish list could seem like a good way to offer lawmakers and the military some flexibility, in the op-ed below, POGO’s Julia Gledhill argues it’s actually become another barrier to DoD transparency when it comes to taxpayer dollars.
Just days after the Department of Defense failed its fifth consecutive financial audit, the Pentagon submitted its second unfunded priorities list to Congress, requesting an additional $25 billion on top of the over $24 billion wish list submitted to Congress earlier this year.
Congress requires military services and commands to produce these wish lists, which outline items that don’t make it into the Pentagon’s official budget request. And while the Department of Defense has submitted these wish lists for decades, publicly available records suggest this is first time the department has sent Congress two in one year.
There are no public indications this list came from an additional request by lawmakers, either. Arriving so late in the congressional budget process, it directly appeals to a select group of decision makers finalizing the annual defense policy bill, rather than to Congress as a whole.
https://breakingdefense.com/2022/12/the-pentagons-second-unfunded-priorities-list-is-an-accountability-travesty-congress-should-act/
