National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2027

Floor Speech

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Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chair, this amendment requires the Department of War to examine options for reducing its civilian workforce by 200,000 positions. For point of reference, at the time that President Trump took office, the number of non-uniformed personnel in the Department of War was about 770,000. There was a buyout situation in which they reduced that number by about 80,000, and since that time, they have felt there were certain positions that they had to refill that they probably shouldn't have let go of, so right now they are sitting around 705,000.

We know that DOGE felt that throughout government they had unnecessary personnel. We have all heard anecdotal evidence of people working in a variety of agencies, but particularly the Department of War, who may not be necessary.

I will point out, since I have kind of looked into this, that I have found shocking anecdotes of people working in the private sector in big companies who manage to get by doing very little work because the companies are just plain too big and people fall between the cracks.

If that is going on in private-sector big companies, Mr. Chair, think how much more likely that is happening in a big organization like the Department of War.

In any event, right now, we are dealing with a situation in which the Department of War is asking for a considerable increase in money, in particular with regard to its authorization bill and also with regard to the other bill that we are going to be trying to pass this week.

Given that, we have to make sure that they are not wasting any money. I think it would be a good exercise for the Department of War to say: We have got at least 705,000 people. What would happen if we had to get rid of 200,000?

Maybe we will find they are all necessary, but I don't think so.

In any event, I think it is good from time to time for big organizations to look and see whether everybody is necessary and what they are doing. For too long, Washington has allowed Federal bureaucracies to grow without regularly asking whether every position is necessary and asking what people are doing.

We can protect national security while also demanding efficiency and accountability. As we know from the proposals that we are going to have to vote on this week, the military certainly needs to find new money and we are broke, so it would be better if they find out whether in their workforce they are wasting money.

In any event, we are going to ask the Department of War to see what would happen if they had to reduce their number of nonuniformed positions by 200,000.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support the amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Chair, just one final comment. We didn't say we were going to reduce the workforce by 200,000. We were going to say what happens if we try to do it. I do believe if you get around here and ask people, they will give you anecdotal evidence of people working for a very short period of time.

As far as already dealing with this, there was a buyout. As I mentioned, they bought out several employees who they shouldn't have bought out. Right now, we have reduced the workforce by about 65,000. Again, I think if you ask people in this town, it will not be hard to find people who feel people working in the Federal agencies are not doing a lot. I know that is true in the private sector. It is certainly more likely to be true here.

Mr. Chair, I am a little bit shocked that we won't even allow the Department to do a study.

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Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Chair, just a final comment. I know somebody who bought a company, and he informs me that he found out that probably half of his white-collar employees were unnecessary.

I think if you get around this town and talk to people, you will certainly find a lot of anecdotal evidence. I think it is kind of amazing that the Democratic Party is afraid of a study. Maybe the study will come back and show it is tight as a drum. I don't think so. I am just kind of shocked that at a time when we are asking for tens of billions--hundreds of billions of dollars more for our Department of War, we are not going to do a study on our civilian employees.

Mr. Chair,

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Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Chair, I yield myself the balance of my time to close.

Mr. Chair, I am just kind of shocked that we have a lot of people who don't want auditors poking around the Department of War and seeing what they will find out. I will point out the Department of War has not passed an audit for, I believe, almost 30 years. They are somewhat alone in that compared to other agencies. I guess one of the reasons, obviously, that you don't want to do an audit is that you are afraid what you might find out.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

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