The waste warriors of DOGE were at the Pentagon's door on Tuesday (Feb. 18). The foray into finding worthy targets of waste, fraud, and abuse started with a request for lists of the Defense Department's probationary employees. The thinking behind identifying the military's employees in the probationary period is that cutting them can be immediate and does not carry the right of a termination appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board. Generally, the probation period is a year; however, in some circumstances, the period is two or three years. The longer probation periods apply to certain employees at the Defense Department.
DOGE Sees Cost Savings in Reducing Probationary Employees
Whether going after probationary employees will provide the largest return on effort is questionable. It is the easiest approach, simply culling personnel. Furthermore, not all probationary new hires have the same skill levels or value to the institution. “…[I]t was not clear that all probationary personnel would be let go — instead, some might be exempted due to the critical nature of their work,” the Associated Press observed.
Unlike other departments and agencies, the Defense Department had a net decrease in personnel during the Biden administration, according to Government Executive charts. For example, Biden's State Department, had a nearly 20% growth in personnel, most notably in the discredited US Agency for International Development, which ballooned by almost 30%. That was about twice the growth of any other government agency.
At the White House's direction, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is on the hook for an eight percent reduction in the current defense budget. While Hegseth has openly embraced and values the DOGE efforts in slimming down defense spending, reducing the FY2025 Base Budget of $850 billion by 8% or $68 billion could be a stretch. Nonetheless, Hegseth has accepted the challenge. The sky-is-falling crowd in the media covering defense claim readiness and modernization will be in jeopardy. However, that's unlikely with a defense secretary whose objective is increasing lethality and readiness.
Already addressing cost savings, "Hegseth ordered the proposed cuts to be compiled by Feb. 24. Seventeen categories would be exempt from the budget reductions, including military operations at the southern US border, nuclear weapons and missile defense programs, and acquisition of certain drones and munitions," the Air Force Times reported. Consequently, DOGE is looking for workforce jobs at DOD that are redundant, or the functions aren't needed.
President Trump made his intentions unambiguous. "President Trump signed an executive order Thursday [Feb. 13] seeking to slash the size of the federal government by enabling DOGE to eliminate positions that are not legally required," the Daily Caller explained. The executive order clarified that its purpose was to "further decrease the size of the Federal Government to enhance accountability, reduce waste, and promote innovation." The White House initiative "eliminates or reduces to the minimum level of activity and expenditure required by law unnecessary governmental entities and Federal advisory committees." In the Department of Defense (DOD) FY2025 President's Budget, the funding request for full-time civilian personnel compensation was $59.3 billion with an additional $21.7 billion in benefits, according to the DOD Comptroller Financial Summary Tables. It's clear why defense department civilians would be a target for DOGE out of the starting gate.
Defense Department civilians are by no means the only fertile field for winnowing the defense budget. Secretary Hegseth directed the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment to send a memorandum to Senior Pentagon Leadership, Defense Agencies, and DOD Field Activities Directors to review all contracts for consulting services. The addressees are directed to "Take action to terminate, descope, or forego exercising options for requirements determined to be non-essential as a result of this review." Though consulting contracts with the DOD amount to 100s of millions of dollars, working through the onesies and twosies of the list may not net the successful cost-cutting DOGE wants to see. However, this review will identify the non-value-added contracts which need to be evaluated.
Large Programs Could Be Source of Savings
Others see the big-money opportunities in the multi-billion-dollar procurement programs. The argument is that the acquisition system is fatally broken. Fix the system, and billions could be saved. Fox News reported on such an example. "The next generation intercontinental ballistic missile [ICBM], a key part of the nuclear triad, is $35 billion over budget," Fox explained. Sentinel, the next-generation ICBM, is a critical system and can't be cut or reduced. Fixing the program management can only bring costs under control with no savings. Fixing acquisition programs will make the DOD better stewards of their funding and reduce the potential for waste but will do little to achieve savings that can be used in the near term.
The DOD has the largest discretionary budget and accounts for half of all discretionary spending. Consequently, there is a responsibility to manage defense spending to give the American taxpayer the most capable, effective, and efficient military possible. DOGE will help achieve that end by identifying where savings are possible. Implementing the actions necessary to realize the savings will be the challenge.
The views expressed are those of the author and not of any other affiliate.
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