050 National Defense

Since 2001, the total number of civilian employees in the DOD has grown 14 percent. During the same period, the total Active Military was reduced by 5 percent. Today, 36 percent of the DOD workforce is composed of civilians, totaling 782,000 people. The DOD needs to once again “right size” the total DOD workforce. Secretaries … Continue reading Reduce Civilian Overhead in Department of Defense

The Defense Department has the largest research and development budget of the federal government, equaling just under $70 billion a year. While the vast majority of this amount goes toward developing advanced military systems or technologies that have battlefield applications, each year, the DOD spends money on various projects that have no reason to be … Continue reading Cut Funding for Non-Combat Related Research

The DOD currently has an extensive and separate retail network to serve those in the military and their dependents. There are four different retail systems operated by the DOD. One of them, the commissaries, is a network of grocery stores, available to all branches of the military. In addition to commissaries, the military has three … Continue reading Cut Commissary Subsidies

The Pentagon’s DDESS currently operates 63 schools on military bases in the United States, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. The majority of these, 58 schools, are in South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, and North Carolina. These schools were necessary following World War II because, while the military was racially integrated, the school districts in those … Continue reading Close Domestic Dependent Elementary and Secondary Schools

Active-duty soldiers receive compensation for their service in several ways: basic pay, health care, retirement, and additional non-pay benefits, such as education. In the past several decades, the cost for military personnel has grown drastically. From 2001 to 2012, the costs are estimated to have risen by 42 percent. ((Bipartisan Policy Center and American Enterprise … Continue reading Reform Military Compensation

To operate a weapon system, the DOD must pay for the full life-cycle cost of the equipment, which includes the development and procurement of the system, as well as the far more costly maintenance and sustainment of the weapon system. In fact, the DOD spends about $90 billion on maintenance and sustainment of weapon systems … Continue reading Increase Use of Performance-Based Logistics

The Department of Energy (DOE) is responsible for the nuclear reactors and weapons that are operated by the Defense Department. Each year, the DOE is allotted about $16 billion to $17 billion to fund defense-related activities. The recent negative review of U.S. nuclear forces has now driven the Administration to increase spending in the coming … Continue reading Focus the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration Spending on Weapons Programs