Tester targets wasteful contracts

Senator’s bill protects taxpayers with more accountability

(BIG SANDY, Mont.) – Senator Jon Tester is hot on the heels of defense contractors who wasted billions of taxpayer dollars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Tester helped establish the nonpartisan, independent Commission on Wartime Contracting in 2008.  The commission found that defense contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan potentially wasted as much as $60 billion over the past decade.

Following the commission’s recommendations, Tester is sponsoring a bill to increase oversight and establish clear lines of authority between contractors and the agencies that oversee them in order to protect taxpayer money.

“Wasting billions of taxpayer dollars under the guise of national defense is appalling and a slap in the face to the thousands of American troops who risked their lives overseas,” Tester said.  “Requiring more accountability about how contracts are awarded and how taxpayer dollars are spent on them will help prevent repeating mistakes we can’t afford.”

The bill also shortens the lengths of defense contracts so they can be reviewed for cost-effectiveness more often.

Last October, Tester, Montana’s only member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, urged the Secretaries of State and Defense to more closely examine how taxpayer money was spent in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Tester also recently passed a law requiring the Defense Department to examine the necessity of America’s overseas military bases.   

Tester’s Comprehensive Contingency Contracting Reform Act is available online HERE.