Secretary of Defense says he's canceling $580 million in DoD contracts and grants

Metatube

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth unveiled another round of cuts to programs Thursday worth $580 million that he claimed were either “wasteful” or didn’t align with the administration’s agenda. With those cuts, Hegseth estimated that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has found roughly $800 million in savings so far at the Pentagon.  “They are not a good use of taxpayer dollars — ultimately that’s who funds us and we owe you transparency and make sure we’re using it well,” Hegseth explained in an X video while briefly ticking through a few of the savings.  Read more at https://nypost.com/2025/03/20/us-news/defense-secretary-pete-hegseth-reveals-another-580-million-in-doge-savings-from-bloated-pentagon-budget/  #doge #hegseth #government #pentagon   The New York Post is your source for breaking news, news about New York, sports, business, entertainment, opinion, real estate, culture, fashion, and more.  Subscribe to New York Post Sports: https://www.youtube.com/c/nypostsports  Catch the latest news here: https://nypost.com/ Follow The New York Post on: Twitter - https://twitter.com/nypost Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/NYPost

Transcript

00:00We're back with another quick update on our efforts to cut wasteful spending and cut it

00:04quickly at the Department of Defense so we get the dollars to the things that the warfighters need.

00:10So today, I'm signing a memo directing the termination of over $580 million in DOD

00:17contracts and grants that do not match the priorities of this president or this department.

00:23In other words, they are not a good use of taxpayer dollars. Ultimately, that's who funds us.

00:29We owe you transparency and making sure we're using it well.

00:32So here's quickly what we're canceling today. There's an HR software effort

00:38that was supposed to take a year and cost $36 million, but instead it's taken eight years

00:45and is currently $280 million over budget, not delivering what it was supposed to.

00:51So that's 780% over budget. We're not doing that anymore.

00:56Number two, another batch of DOD grants, $360 million worth this time,

01:03decarbonizing emissions from Navy ships, part of the Obama-Biden green agenda. That's $6 million.

01:09$5.2 million on something that would diversify and engage the Navy by engaging underrepresented

01:18BIPOC students and scholars. Another $9 million at a university to approach equitable AI and

01:26machine learning models. I need lethal machine learning models, not equitable machine learning

01:31models. And number three, in our ongoing effort to cut wasteful spending on external consulting

01:37services, $30 million in contracts with Gartner and McKinsey. That's IT purchasing unused licenses.

01:45So when you add it all up, $580 million in DOD contracts and grants. DOJ is helping us cut

01:52today. What does that bring our total number up? Total cuts, running total, $800 million in

01:59wasteful spending canceled over the first few weeks as DOD partners with DOJ here to make sure

02:06that our warfighters have what they need by cutting the waste, fraud, and abuse. They're

02:10working hard. We're working hard with them. We appreciate the work that they're doing,

02:14and we have a lot more coming. So stay tuned. So if you might as well not waste any more time

02:18right now, just sign this thing. How about that? So this makes it official.

02:29We're going to keep going for you guys.

Category

Transcript

Recommended