Congresswoman Lee Condemns FY2018 NDAA, Congressional Failure to Debate Wars
Applauds Passage of Amendment to Audit Pentagon Spending
Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Barbara Lee released the following statement on the passage of the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act:
“The National Defense Authorization Act should be a blueprint for drawing down our military conflicts and reining in bloated Pentagon spending. Instead, in the 2018 NDAA, Republican leadership has chosen to once again dodge any debate or vote on our perpetual wars and funnel billions more into the Pentagon’s coffers. And I’m particularly outraged by the inclusion of $65.7 billion for the Overseas Contingency Operations account – which functions as an off-the-books slush fund for war operations.
“However, I was pleased that the 2018 NDAA includes a critical amendment to help Congress assess the Pentagon’s progress in achieving audit readiness. This bipartisan amendment, championed by Congressman Michael Burgess (R-TX) and myself, will help bring a measure of transparency on how taxpayer dollars are being spent at the Department of Defense. This amendment is critical step towards ending the toxic culture of waste, fraud and abuse at the Pentagon.”
The amendment can be found here.
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