Reps. Burgess, Lee introduce legislation incentivizing a full DOD audit

U.S. Reps. Michael Burgess (R-TX) and Barbara Lee (D-CA) recently introduced a bill to address defense budget transparency and accountability, ensuring the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) achieves a clean audit opinion on its financial statements.

The Audit the Pentagon Act of 2021 will seek to administer a 0.5 percent budget reduction of any Pentagon office not receiving an audit for the first year of the legislation’s enactment while increasing to 1.0 percent in subsequent years.

“While Congress is going through the appropriations process, we have a responsibility to demand transparency,” Burgess said. “It is astonishing that the DOD has not accounted for its taxpayer-funded resources and is the only major agency that has never been able to complete an audit of its full financial statements.”

According to the bill text, funding for personnel, families, and military healthcare would be exempt from the reductions.

“I am encouraged by the progress made by the DOD in the last few years, but it is not yet enough,” Burgess said. “Incentivizing a full audit will bring the DOD into compliance with current law and correct a crucial missing piece that allows Congress to perform a chief governmental function: oversight.”

Win Without War, Public Citizen, Taxpayers for Common Sense, FreedomWorks, and R Street are among the organization’s supporting bill passage, per officials.