12.2 billion to “program increases” for hill-favored projects
FEATUREDWIB WEAPONS May 25, 2023 Staff Writer 0
John M. Donnelly
CQ-Roll Call
(TNS)
WASHINGTON — Congress directed the Pentagon to spend $12.2 billion in the current fiscal year on nearly 1,000 different “program increases” in the Defense spending bill’s research account alone, projects pushed by lawmakers that the Defense Department did not publicly request, according to a previously unpublicized database.
As spending on the overall defense budget grew in the last several years, the number of these lawmaker-inserted projects has ballooned from 600 in fiscal 2021 to 996 today, a 66 percent hike, according to the database, compiled by Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan group that monitors government spending.
The initiatives, which average $12 million apiece, are each tiny when considered separately, at least in the massive Pentagon budget, which is more than $800 billion. For that reason, the individual projects, like the larger phenomenon of surging congressional additions to the defense research budget, have received virtually no attention in the press.
https://warisboring.com/12-2-billion-to-program-increases-for-hill-favored-projects/
