Given that the Pentagon failed its sixth consecutive financial audit on November 16, 2023—passing only 7 of 29 sub-audits—and that Congress inserted $25.7 billion in unrequested program increases for FY 2024 procurement and RDT&E, how does Executive Order 14344, signed September 5, 2025 to rebrand the Department of Defense as the "Department of War," address these accountability failures?

Question

Given that the Pentagon failed its sixth consecutive financial audit on November 16, 2023—passing only 7 of 29 sub-audits—and that Congress inserted $25.7 billion in unrequested program increases for FY 2024 procurement and RDT&E, how does Executive Order 14344, signed September 5, 2025 to rebrand the Department of Defense as the "Department of War," address these accountability failures?

Accepted Answer

Executive Order 14344, signed September 5, 2025, allows the Pentagon to use “Department of War” as a secondary title and authorizes Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to adopt “Secretary of War” in ceremonial contexts—but imposes no new controls over fiscal management or audit compliance ). The Pentagon’s FY 2023 audit, released November 16, 2023, failed for the sixth year in a row—with only 7 of 29 sub-audits receiving clean opinions and the remaining 22 rated qualified or failing—revealing longstanding deficiencies in tracking $3.8 trillion in assets and $4 trillion in liabilities ). Meanwhile, Congress added $25.7 billion in over 1,100 “program increases” to the FY 2024 request—funding projects the Pentagon did not seek, often without sponsor attribution or justification—underscoring the lack of transparency in contracting and procurement decisions ). Renaming the department neither addresses untracked spending nor accelerates remediation of the material weaknesses identified by auditors. It creates costly signage and stationery updates across hundreds of installations without tackling the root causes of budgetary mismanagement.

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