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February 12, 2025

Defense Secretary Hegseth's contractor ties affect $816 billion Pentagon budget

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Pentagon procurement decisions questioned over official financial relationships

The Department of Defense’s annual budget for FY2025 is $816 billion, representing 54% of all discretionary federal spending and equaling the combined military budgets of the next ten largest spenders (Department of Defense Budget FY2025: https://comptroller.defense.gov/Budget-Materials/Budget2025/).

The F-35 Lightning II program is $183 billion over its original budget, seven years behind schedule, with a projected total cost of $1.7 trillion and ongoing performance limitations such as inability to fly in lightning (GAO-24-106154: https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-24-106154).

The top five defense contractors—Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman—receive approximately 40% of all Pentagon contract dollars, concentrating nearly half of procurement in a handful of firms (Pentagon Contractor Concentration Analysis: https://www.pogo.org/analysis/2023/06/pentagon-contractor-concentration).

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Q1

Defense contractors must publicly report all lobbying contacts with Pentagon officials.

Q2

What is the most expensive weapon system in U.S. history?

Q3

What federal department spends the most money annually?

Q4

Defense contractors are required to publicly disclose all payments to government officials.

Q5

What is the approximate size of the Pentagon's annual budget that Defense Secretary Hegseth oversees?

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People, bills, and sources

Pete Hegseth (Secretary of Defense)

oversees the $816 billion annual Pentagon budget and has disclosed financial relationships with defense contractors now under scrutiny (Topic

What you can do

1

Review the Department of Defense Budget FY2025 on the Office of the Comptroller website (https://comptroller.defense.gov/Budget-Materials/Budget2025/) to confirm the full $816 billion in annual spending overseen by the Secretary of Defense.

2

Examine ethics disclosure requirements and recusal filings for Defense Department officials at the U.S. Office of Government Ethics (https://www.oge.gov/web/oge.nsf/Resources/Ethics+Rules+for+DoD+Officials) to identify any consulting fees, speaking engagements or board positions with defense contractors.

3

Query the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS) at https://www.fpds.gov/ezsearch/FEEDS/ATOM?FEEDNAME=PUBLIC&q=AGENCY_CODE%3A%2297%22 to track the proportion of competitive awards (65%) versus sole-source awards (35%) in Pentagon contracting.