Washington, D.C. – Today, the Senate failed to secure the votes to proceed to consideration of the $1.15 trillion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Cloture on the motion to proceed to the bill required 60 votes. It failed 50-46. In response, Taxpayers for Common Sense President Steve Ellis issued the following statement.
“The Senate just sent a clear signal to the Pentagon that its request for a $250 billion, 28 percent boost in its base budget is not going to fly. Taxpayers deserve a Pentagon budget that invests strategically in the essentials while cutting out outdated, unnecessary, and wasteful programs. Instead, the Pentagon’s request would set a new baseline of unsustainable spending that would add more than $3 trillion to the debt over the next eight years. With the end of the fiscal year looming, lawmakers need to get realistic and work together to pass a bipartisan Pentagon budget aligned with our genuine needs, not this grab bag of ill-advised boondoggles.”
Background:
Earlier this month, Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS) and the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) published a report detailing nearly half a trillion in cuts to the Pentagon’s $1.5 trillion budget request. TCS also sent a letter to the Senate yesterday urging lawmakers to oppose the bill unless the topline was significantly lowered.
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Taxpayers for Common Sense is a nonpartisan budget watchdog committed to eliminating wasteful spending and promoting fiscal transparency and accountability.
