Washington, D.C. — Taxpayers for Common Sense released a report today titled “Backdoor Earmarks in the FY2026 Pentagon Budget.” Along with the report, TCS updated its database tracking congressional increases to the Pentagon budget to include the increases in the final FY2026 Defense Appropriations Act, enacted February 3, 2026.

The report reveals that the funding tables accompanying the bill include 1,090 separate program increases in the Pentagon’s Procurement and Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (RDT&E) accounts, totaling $33,973,694,000, nearly $34 billion—a 60 percent increase since FY2024. The report argues that the lack of transparency and accountability surrounding these increases invites conflicts of interest and waste, allowing lawmakers to steer funds to specific recipients to benefit their states, districts, and campaign contributors.

“These program increases are basically earmarks with less red tape,” said Steve Ellis, president of Taxpayers for Common Sense. “Formal earmarks require lawmakers to identify themselves as the sponsor, detail their purpose, and certify they have no financial stake. Program increases are almost entirely anonymous and come with no meaningful requirements.”

The report highlights that over half of the cost and number of these increases were for projects the Pentagon did not request. Most increases were proposed behind closed doors, with no indication of who proposed them, why they were included, or what they will cost over time.

“Program increases are the Wild West of the Pentagon budgeting process,” Ellis said. “The Pentagon produces thousands of pages of justification books to explain its funding needs. Meanwhile, lawmakers throw money at favored projects with as few as two words of explanation. Most of these increases are for relatively small projects, $5 million here, $10 million there. But together they add up to tens of billions of dollars injected into the Pentagon budget with virtually no transparency or public debate.”

The report also details examples of lawmakers taking credit for program increases that will likely benefit their campaign contributors. Despite claims that these funds are competitively awarded, some lawmakers name the recipients before passage of the final bill, let alone before contract awards are made.

“We’ve shown year after year that some lawmakers are funneling money to their campaign contributors,” said Ellis. “I suppose they’d have us believe that’s just a coincidence.”

The report includes a case study on program increases that led to contract awards for a quantum computing company called IonQ. A recent report by Wolfpack Research, an investment research firm that has shorted the company, argues that IonQ misled investors by reporting bookings for multi-year contracts that depended on ongoing earmarked appropriations from Congress. When those anticipated program increases fell through in FY2025, company executives sold or made plans to sell nearly $400 million in stock shortly before the news became public, giving the appearance of insider trading. TCS’s report traces the sequence of events, describing how a small group of lawmakers effectively earmarked funds for a questionable quantum computing project the Pentagon later rejected when it held a genuine competition.

“The IonQ case study offers a clear example of lawmakers targeting funds to a specific company in their state for a project with dubious value to national security,” Ellis said. “This isn’t just about some corporate bad actors misleading investors. Lawmakers squandered taxpayer dollars on a project that couldn’t stand up to the scrutiny of competition. The opacity of the process enables this kind of budgetary malpractice, not just in this case, but across the board.”

The report recommends a variety of transparency and accountability reforms to strengthen oversight of these program increases.

“Taxpayers deserve to know why Congress is adding tens of billions of dollars to the Pentagon budget each year, and which lawmakers are responsible,” concluded Ellis. “Reforms for formal earmarks created meaningful oversight, but they didn’t finish the job. Congress needs to close this $34 billion loophole.”

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Taxpayers for Common Sense is a nonpartisan budget watchdog calling out wasteful spending and advocating for transparency.