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Sliding Past Sequestration: $2 Trillion in Common Sense Cuts to Avoid the Fiscal Cliff

In the summer of 2011, Congress sent the President a bill that acknowledged failure. Instead of swallowing hard and coming up with...

Analysis of FY13 Continuing Resolution: Special Carve-outs

H.J. Res. 117 — Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2013 was released this morning (9/11/2012). TCS staff will be posting relevant documents and analysis as we digest this proposal over the coming days....

Zombie Earmarks in Defense Spending Bill

The Fiscal Year 2013 defense spending bill heading to the House floor Wednesday is a lesson in why it’s so hard to cut defense spending...

MOX Misses the Mark

Despite the ever-increasing price tag, incessant delays in progress, and known safety risks, the Department of Energy continues to pour federal subsidies into the Mixed Oxide Fuel (MOX) program year after year. ...

Spending Even Less, Spending Even Smarter

Watchdog Groups Identify Nearly $700 Billion in Wasteful Spending on National Security...

Defense Assets Data

The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) is the largest federal agency in the United States, consuming more than half of discretionary...

FY13 Defense Budget Scorecard

The Defense Department today gave the public a peek behind the cover of its Fiscal Year 2013 budget request, releasing a report and fact...

Common Sense Cuts

Taxpayers for Common Sense has been working hard to meet the challenge of that the so-called Super Committee is facing - $1.2-1.5...

Super Cuts for the Super Committee

Taxpayers for Common Sense has been working hard to meet the challenge of that the so-called Super Committee is facing - $.12-1.5...

After 9/11: A Decade of Watching War on Terror Spending

This week marks the ten-year anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Our national security...

Taxpayer Guide to Pentagon Contracting

Tracking contracts in the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) is daunting. DOD purchases more than $1 billion of goods and services every...

Spending Less, Spending Smarter: Recommendations for National Security Savings FY 2012 to FY 2021

Watchdog Groups Identify Nearly $600 Billion in National Security Spending Cuts WASHINGTON, D.C.—The federal government could save...

HR 1363 FY11 Defense/CR Only Cuts $4.4B

Not that it’s anything to sneeze at, but HR1363 the “Department of Defense and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011” that the...

Common Sense Cuts—$900 billion in savings over 10 years

The time has come for Congress to begin a serious discussion about how it is going to correct the current budgetary path into deeper and...

TCS Budget Cut List for the 112th Congress: National Security

NATIONAL SECURITY Total Cuts: $95 billion Total Achieved Savings: $7 billion For too long, the defense budget was considered...

TCS Recommended Budget Cut List No. 2: Total Cuts $205+ billion

The time has come for Congress to begin a serious discussion about how it is going to correct the current budgetary path into deeper and...

TCS Recommended Budget Cuts for the 112th Congress

The time has come for Congress to begin a serious discussion about how it is going to correct the current budgetary path into deeper and...

Fiscal Commission Defense Cuts: Strong Start, More Can be Done

The draft recommendations released this week by the co-chairs of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform propose...

DOD Still Years Away From Managing its Money

Despite efforts to save billions by improving the way it does business, the Defense Department is not only still years away from being...

DOD Tries to Shave Billions From Contracting Costs

The scent of defense acquisition reform is heavy in the air again. Just don’t call it acquisition reform.  The Defense Department...

UPDATE: Earmarks in Defense Authorization Bill

(June 4, 2010) This week’s Memorial Day Congressional recess gave us a chance to peer under the lid of the House defense authorization...

Department of Defense: Financial Improvement and Audit Readiness Plan Status Report

Read the text of the Department of Defense's Status Report on the Financial Improvement and Audit Readiness (FIAR) Plan  Download the PDF...

2010 Defense Budget Winners and Losers

The day last April when Defense Secretary Robert Gates revealed the Defense Department’s 2010 budget has become known as “Black Monday.”...

Obama to Contractors: Don’t Cheat Uncle Sam

It was payback time for President Obama this week when he threw down the gauntlet to tax-dodging contractors.Taxpayers pay contractors...

UPDATE: 1,720 Earmarks in Final Defense Spending Bill

(December 17) The Senate will soon follow the House in passing a $636.3 billion Fiscal Year 2010 defense appropriations bill, the...

MilCon, VA and State Department Funding in Omnibus

The House of Representatives drove home a $447 billion omnibus spending bill yesterday loaded with six of the seven appropriations bills...

UPDATE: President Signs Defense Authorization Bill with $4 billion in Earmarks

(October 30) President Obama signed a $680 billion defense authorization bill this week—the largest such bill ever—with a declaration...

Contractor Accountability Legislation in Defense Authorization

One of the most interesting—and neglected—sections of the annual defense authorization bill steers annual contracting policy both for DOD...

UPDATE: Congress Passes Final $42.8 DHS Approps Bill

(October 21) Congress handed off a $42.8 billion appropriations bill funding the Department of Homeland Security through fiscal year 2010...

Hearing: Recovery Act: 160-Day Progress Report for Transporation and Infrastructure Programs

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee held a hearing today entitled: “Recovery Act: 160-Day Progress Report for...

Congress Sends $106 Billion Supplemental to President

(June 26) We found 13 undisclosed earmarks worth $1.35 billion in the supplemental, including $904 million for seven C-130J aircraft,...

Visclosky FY08 & FY09 PMA Client Earmarks

The FBI has subpoenaed various records and documents from Rep. Visclosky’s (D-IN) offices in relation to the previously raided PMA Group...

Fact Sheet: Border Fence Costs Out of Bounds

Congress mandated the constuction of hundreds of miles of fencing along our Southern border in 2006 without any real knowledge of its...

TCS Releases Space Security Database

Space is crucial to our national security, and we’ve got the skyrocketing budgets to prove it. The United States spends billions on...

TCS on Gates Defense Budget Cuts

The boom finally lowered on the Pentagon’s budget today, with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates revealing the major weapons cuts...

F-22: No More Second Helpings

Goodness, the difference an economic crisis can make. A few years ago, advertisements by defense contractors arguing that the U.S. should...

Nuclear Weapons Spending in the Omnibus

A look at the nuclear weapons budget in the omnibus reveals that while Congress is keeping nuke funding on a short leash, a controversial...

National Security Spending in the Stimulus

The axe has fallen on the final version of the stimulus bill, and some national security spending ended up on the cutting room floor....

Senate Supports Nuke Labs, Border Fence in Stimulus

 The House and Senate agree on many of the national security-related agencies that should receive stimulus funding. The Defense...

Report: U.S. Spends Over $52 Billion on Nukes

How much does the United States spend on nuclear weapons? Seems like a simple question that the agency charged with tending our nuclear...

Defense Spending: Change or More of the Same?

President-elect Barack Obama’s new transition web site is pledging to review every major defense program for possible cuts, and...

House Releases Homeland Security Earmark Letters

The House Appropriations Committee has just released the earmark request letters for the 2009 Department of Homeland Security...

FY2009 Appropriations Bills: TCS Analyses and Earmark Databases

The following are links to TCS's analysis and database for each of the FY09 appropriations bills. (Note: With the exception of House...

Senate Adds $5.2 Billion in Earmarks to Defense Authorization Bill

The Senate is expected to pass the 2009 Defense Authorization Bill sometime tonight, but to do so they will have to resolve a raucous...

Cost of War Reports

Below are links to the monthly “Supplemental and Cost of War Execution Reports” compiled by the Defense Accounting Finance Service, DOD’s...

DOD: $13b to Contractors in Afghanistan

The Department of Defense paid contractors $13 billion for operations in Afghanistan between 2003 and 2007, according to documents...

CBO Lowballs Estimate of Iraq Contracts

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) got a lot of jaws dropping this week with a report estimating the U.S. has spent $85 billion on...

Very Little of Iraq Oil Surplus Goes to Rebuilding

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report tabulating U.S. and Iraqi expenditures on rebuilding efforts (click here for...

GAO: Defense Contract Audit Agency Bends to Contractor Pressure

TCS followers know we have argued for increased oversight of defense spending, particularly spending on contracts. The federal...

$197 Million in Homeland Security Earmarks in Senate Spending Bill

The Senate version of the 2009 Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill includes 19 congressional earmarks for a total of...

Emergency Supplemental Bill - Take 1

The supplemental appropriations bill funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan got fast-tracked through the House yesterday in preparation...

Fencing in DHS Spending

Big week on Capitol Hill for the Department of Homeland Security. On Monday, Secretary Michael Chertoff touted his agency's achievements...

House Defense Authorization Earmarks Jump From Last Year

A bill recently passed by the House increases the number of Defense Authorization earmarks by more than 20% from last year, according to...

$9.9 Billion in House Authorization Add-Ons

The 2009 defense authorization bill headed for the House floor this week has already raised a ruckus over earmarks, and there’s a lot to...

$5.2 Billion in Senate Authorization Additions

While the House Armed Services Committee marks up the 2009 National Defense Authorization Act, TCS staff is scouring the report just...

Institutionalizing JIEDDO

As November draws closer, an increasing number of overpriced defense programs are running for cover in the Defense Department budget,...

Boeingﾒs Tanker Tariffs

Boeing’s loss of the tanker aircraft contract to Northrop Grumman and EADS North America last week represents much more than the contract’s...

Border Security Under Scrutiny

SBInet, the DHS program tasked with providing the fence’s technological elements such as cameras and sensors, received $775 million. Though...

Global Nuclear Energy Partnership/Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative

Feb. 4, 4:50 p.m. -- The administration is proposing $123 million more than Congress enacted in FY2008 for the Global Nuclear Energy...

Golden Fleece Award

From surfing subsidies to the Great Wall of Bedford, Indiana, Wisconsin Senator William Proxmire’s Golden Fleece Award protected...

Disclosure Double-Talk

  Lawmakers are not generally shy about taking credit for the presents they bring home to their districts at the end of the year. That’s...

Finding War Funding

The specter of war supplementals hovered over the Capitol this week, given weight by threats from Defense Secretary Robert Gates that...

Congress and the Contractors

While databasing the earmarks that made it into the 2008 defense appropriations bill signed by President Bush last weekwe discovered that,...

Funding a Sinking Ship?

While members of Congress hashed out the conference agreement on the Fiscal Year 2008 defense appropriations bill, the Navy was apparently...

The Snowballing Supplemental

Washington, D.C. (October 26, 2007) - Since President Bush released his latest addition to the burgeoning FY2008 war supplemental on...

Justifying the Supplemental

The documents released this week by the White House and Department of Defense explaining how they will spend the new $42.3 billion addition...

Oppose Waste in Space Stop Funding for the Space Test Bed in FY 2008

Dear Senator, Taxpayers for Common Sense urges you to reject an amendment to the FY09 Defense Appropriations bill proposed by Sens. Kyl,...

Support Webb-McCaskill Wartime Contract Commission Amendment to FY08 Defense Authorization

Dear Senator: Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS) urges you to support Sens. James Webb (D-VA) and Claire McCaskill’s (D-MO) Wartime Contract...

Oppose Amendments to Defense Authorization Bill Allowing Long-Term Coal-to-Liquid Contracts

 Dear Senator: Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS) Action urges you to oppose amendments to the Defense Authorization Bill (H.R.1585) that...

Oppose Proposals to Include Coal-to Liquids Subsidies in the House Energy Bill

Dear Representative: Taxpayers for Common Sense Action urges you to oppose any measures adding mandates, loan guarantees or other...

Donﾒt Fund Unnecessary Nukes Oppose Funding for the Reliable Replacement Warhead in FY 2008

The Honorable Byron Dorgan  Chairman Senate Appropriations Committee The Capitol, S-131 Washington, DC 20510   Dear Chairman...

TCS Analysis of the House FY2008 Homeland Security Bill

For Immediate Release June 11, 2007 Contact: Steve Ellis 202-546-8500 x126 TCS ANALYSIS OF THE HOUSE FY2008 DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND...

50 Defense Earmarks Not Disclosed by House Defense Committe

 Posted by Laura Peterson, June 8, 2007   Additional Information...

Appellate Jurisdiction Custer Battles

Appellate Jurisdiction Custer Battles    

50 Defense Earmarks Not Disclosed by House Defense Committe

When the House of Representatives passed new rules just a few days into the new Congress requiring lawmakers to disclose the earmarks...

House Armed Services Committee Releases Defense Authorization Earmarks

posted by Laura Peterson, May 23, 2007 With little fanfare, defense earmarks made their public debut in the House Armed Services Committee...

Support Deepwater Reform

Dear Member of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee: Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS) urges you to reform the Coast...

TCS Statement on Final Passage of FY07 Department of Defense Appropriations Bill

Washington, D.C. - The following is a statement from Steve Ellis, Vice President for Programs at Taxpayers for Common Sense, on the Defense...

Testimony Before Democratic Policy Committee Oversight Hearing on Post-Katrina Reconstruction

TCS applauds you for looking more closely at certain contracting mishaps in the wake of Katrina, both because of the sizable federal...

TCS Statement on Inspector General Tanker Report

Washington, D.C. – The following is a written statement by Keith Ashdown, Vice-President of Policy of Taxpayers for Common Sense on the IG...

Still Fighting the Cold War: No Mission for Nuclear Bunker Busters in the 21st Century

Convinced that we require a broader range of nuclear options to ensure a credible deterrence threat, the National Nuclear Security...

The Modern Pit Facility: A $4 Billion Boondoggle Being Sold on Alarmist Rhetoric and Dated Data

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is currently designing a $2-4 billion Modern Pit Facility (MPF)i that will cost...

Letter to Congress: Support Senator Dorganﾒs Amendment to Authorize a Special Commission on War and Reconstruction Contracting

  Dear Senator: Taxpayers for Common Sense Action (TCS Action), a non-partisan budget watchdog, urges you to support Senator Byron...

Support Senator Dorganﾒs Amendment to Authorize a Special Commission on Way and Reconstruction Contracting

Dear Representative: On behalf of our members, the undersigned groups urge you to oppose the Energy Policy Act of 2005. We strongly...

Oppose Amendment to Prevent Cancellation of C-130J

Dear Senator: On behalf of the undersigned organizations, we urge you to oppose Senator Saxby Chambliss’s (R-GA) amendment to the Emergency...

TCS Statement on Emergency Supplemental Bill

Washington, D.C. – The following is a written statement by Keith Ashdown, Vice-President of Policy at Taxpayers for Common Sense on the...

TCS Statement on Mike Searﾒs Sentencing

Washington, D.C. – Washington, D.C. - The following is a prepared statement by Keith Ashdown, Vice-President of Policy at Taxpayers for...

TCS Testimony: Waste, Fraud and Abuse in U.S. Government Contracting in Iraq

Oral Statement of Steve Ellis, Vice President of Programs, Taxpayers for Common Sense before Senate Democratic Policy Committee Oversight...

Boeing/Druyun Dragnet Expands

Washington, D.C. – The following is a written statement by Keith Ashdown, Vice President of Policy at Taxpayers for Common Sense regarding...

Cut Funding for the Nuclear Bunker Buster:

Dear Senator: The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) tries to defend its work on RNEP on the grounds that they are only doing...

Department of Defense Defers Tanker Lease Decision

Washington, D.C. - The following is a statement by Keith Ashdown, Vice President at Taxpayers for Common Sense on the Department of...

TCS Statement on Boeing IG Report

Washington, D.C. - The following is a written statement from Keith Ashdown, Vice President at Taxpayers for Common Sense: The tanker lease...

TCS Statement on F/A-22ﾒs Skyrocketing Costs

Washington, D.C. - The following is a written statement by Keith Ashdown, Vice President of Policy at Taxpayers for Common Sense on the new...

TCS Statement on the Elimination of the Comanche Program

Washington, D.C. - The following is a written statement by Keith Ashdown, Vice-President of Policy at Taxpayers for Common Sense on the...

TCS Statement on the Boeing Tanker Announcement

Washington, D.C. - The following is a written statement by Keith Ashdown, Vice-President at Taxpayers for Common Sense on Boeing US Air...

Phil Condit Resigns as CEO of Boeing

Washington, D.C. - The following is a written statement by Steve Ellis, Vice President for Programs on Phillip M. Condit's resignation as...

CBO Slams Boeing Tanker Lease

Washington, D.C. - The following is a written statement by Keith Ashdown, Vice-President of Policy at Taxpayers for Common Sense on the...

TCS Statement on Boeing Lease Deal

Washington, D.C. - The following is a written statement by Keith Ashdown, Vice-President of Policy at Taxpayers for Common Sense following...

More Review Needed of Boeing Refueling Aircraft Program

Dear Congressman: We are writing to express our concern over the recent Department of Defense approval to lease 100 Boeing 767 "tanker...

Lawmakers Add Shipbuilding Subsidies to Wartime Spending Bill

Washington, D.C. - Defying President Bush’s request to keep the Wartime Emergency Supplemental bill clean from extraneous and wasteful...

TCS Report: The Cost of War

War has always been expensive and the war in Iraq is no different. The United States has already spent $1 billion dollars on cruise...

Terrorism Insurance Giveaway

Following the airline industry's lead, insurance executives have been lobbying Congress for terrorism insurance legislation that will...

Billions Could be Saved From Nuclear Weapons Reductions

Washington, D.C. - President George W. Bush tomorrow is expected to announce a sizable reduction of the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal. A...

Four Criteria for Making Missile Defense Decisions

Secretary Rumsfeld: Several months into your bottom-up review of the current status of national security, you have likely reached the...

TCS Commends F-22 Cuts

Washington, DC – The House of Representatives voted today to deny the Air Force money to purchase six costly and unproven F-22 fighters....

Army Extends THAAD Deadlines, Signs Agreement to Possibly Rescind Lockheed-Martin Fines

  The Pentagon has announced an extension of the THAAD intercept deadlines in its agreement with Lockheed-Martin from July 16, 1999 until...

Pentagon Follies

How the Department of Defense Is Wasting Your Tax Dollars...

Engineering Boondoggles

While Washington is wringing its hands about the automatic across-the-board budget cuts known as...