Audit the Pentagon Act of 2026
Summary
What This Bill Does
This bill uses budget reductions to pressure Department of Defense components to achieve clean financial audits. If the DOD Comptroller cannot certify to Congress that a department, agency, or other DOD element has achieved an unqualified opinion on full financial statements in a fiscal year after fiscal year 2025, that element's available amount is reduced by 0.5 percent in the first fiscal year and 1 percent in subsequent fiscal years with the same failure. The reduction is applied pro rata across each program, project, and activity, deposited in the General Fund of the Treasury, and available for deficit reduction. Military personnel, reserve personnel, National Guard personnel, and Defense Health Program accounts are excluded. The President can waive reductions for national security, deployed servicemember, or Defense Health reasons with a report to appropriations and budget committees. OMB must report within 60 days after a reduction specifying affected elements and amounts.
Who Benefits and How
Congressional defense committees, budget committees, federal taxpayers, and audit oversight officials benefit from a concrete budget consequence tied to DOD audit performance and public reporting by OMB.
Who Bears the Burden and How
DOD departments, DOD agencies, DOD components, the DOD Comptroller, OMB, and the President must track audit opinions, calculate reductions, apply pro rata cuts, exclude protected accounts, justify waivers, and report affected amounts to Congress.
Key Provisions
- Requires 0.5 percent funding reductions for DOD elements failing to obtain an unqualified audit opinion after fiscal year 2025.
- Increases the reduction to 1 percent for subsequent fiscal years with the same audit failure.
- Excludes military personnel, reserve personnel, National Guard personnel, and Defense Health Program accounts from reductions.
- Authorizes presidential waivers for national-security or deployed-servicemember harms and requires OMB reporting within 60 days.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Reduces funding for DOD departments, agencies, or elements that fail to obtain an unqualified audit opinion after fiscal year 2025, while excluding personnel and Defense Health accounts and allowing national-security waivers.
Key Policy Areas
Defense, Budget, Oversight
Primary Purpose
Reduces funding for DOD departments, agencies, or elements that fail to obtain an unqualified audit opinion after fiscal year 2025, while excluding personnel and Defense Health accounts and allowing national-security waivers.
Policy Domains
Substantive provisions
Identified Gains
- Congressional defense committees
- Federal taxpayers
- Audit oversight officials
- Budget committees
Identified Costs
- DOD departments
- DOD agencies
- DOD Comptroller
- Office of Management and Budget
- President of the United States
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the House Committee on Armed Services.
Introduced in House
Mr. Pocan (for himself, Mr. Biggs of Arizona, Ms. Omar, …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Armed Forces service members, DOD agencies, DOD departments
Positive-direction: Armed Forces service members
Negative-direction: DOD agencies, DOD departments
DOD Comptroller, Department of Defense, Office of Management and Budget
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "DOD"
- → Department of Defense
- "OMB"
- → Office of Management and Budget
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology