Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says cutting his Pentagon staff by 20 percent will save at least $1 billion over five years. At a Pentagon news conference Wednesday, Hagel laid out details of the plan, which was announced in broad terms last summer. It is part of a larger proposal to reorganize his staff and trim […]
Linda Woodford spent the last 15 years of her career inserting phony numbers in the U.S. Department of Defense’s accounts. Every month until she retired in 2011, she says, the day came when the Navy would start dumping numbers on the Cleveland, Ohio, office of the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, the Pentagon’s main accounting […]
A second, deeper round of automatic federal budget cuts is on its way, and it’s going to hit the Pentagon hard. Already reeling from a $34 billion budget blow this year due to deficit-driven spending reductions known as sequestration, the Defense Department would feel an additional $20 billion punch in 2014. All told, the Pentagon’s […]
A day without pay, the first of 11 through September, comes next week for more than 650,000 people who hold civilian jobs with the Defense Department. Officials worry that the Pentagon will be hit even harder by layoffs in 2014 if automatic budget cuts continue as planned. Roughly 85 percent of the department’s nearly 900,000 […]
Nearly one-fourth of the students who try to join the U.S. Army fail its entrance exam, painting a grim picture of an education system that produces graduates who can’t answer basic math, science and reading questions, according to a new study released Tuesday. The report by The Education Trust bolsters a growing worry among military […]
The Pentagon demanded Thursday that a website that solicits leaked government secrets cancel any plan to publish more classified military documents and pull back tens of thousands of secret Afghan war logs already posted on the Internet. The demand, which the Pentagon has no independent power to enforce, is primarily aimed at preventing release of […]
The Pentagon said on Wednesday it may be forced to take extreme measures — like not paying salaries — if the Democratic-led Congress fails to pass a $37 billion defense spending bill before lawmakers begin an August recess. A senior Democratic aide said lawmakers would find a way to get it done. “We will pass […]
Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the U.S. military on Saturday it must rein in spending that he called out of sync with today’s tough economic times, and said budget woes could be a factor in deciding whether to use force against Iran and others. Promising to play a hands-on role in wringing out savings, Gates […]
As of Tuesday, May 4, 2010, at least 4,397 members of the U.S. military had died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes nine military civilians killed in action. At least 3,484 military personnel died as a result of hostile action, according to […]
To hear Obama administration officials tell it, they’ve been fully engaged on the Gulf Coast oil spill since Day One, bringing every resource to bear and able to ensure without question that taxpayers will be protected. Not quite. Take President Barack Obama‘s repeated claims that BP will be responsible for all the costs associated with […]