Exclusives

EXCLUSIVE: Pentagon Watchdog Investigating Why Bureaucrats Are Hiding Costs To Taxpayers

(Wikimedia Commons/Public/David B. Gleason from Chicago, Illinois, CC BY SA 2.0)

Republican Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst announced Wednesday that the Department of War inspector general will open a probe into why the Pentagon wasn’t reporting the cost of research studies.

Department of War Inspector General Platte Moring told Ernst, who sponsored the Cost Openness and Spending Transparency Act in 2021 and demanded answers about the Pentagon’s failure to abide by that law’s provisions in February, that his office would review the matter in a Feb. 25 letter. Moring noted that Ernst had asked him about compliance with the law during his October confirmation hearing. The law requires all studies funded by the federal government to disclose how much they cost taxpayers.

“Thank you for your letter dated February 11, 2026, which asked the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General (DoD OIG) to review the Department’s efforts to comply with the Cost Openness and Spending Transparency (COST) Act, as incorporated into the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021,” Moring wrote.

“I appreciated our dialogue on this subject during my Senate confirmation hearing last October.  My office has reviewed the details of your request and will perform work in this area,” Moring continued. “We will update your office once we announce the project.”Ernst told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the lack of transparency was allowing wasteful spending that led the Department of War to fail audits.

“Sunshine is the best disinfectant, and I’m shining a light on any and all government secret spending. After the Biden administration refused to enforce the laws on the books and publicly share how it spent your money, it’s no wonder the Pentagon is the one agency that hasn’t passed an audit,” Ernst told the DCNF.

“At my request, the IG will begin reviewing why research and development projects funded with defense dollars are not disclosing the costs to taxpayers as required by law,” Ernst continued. “Then we can know how every cent is being spent, so we can ensure Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars are actually used to support our servicemembers.”

In the letter to Moring, Ernst highlighted five studies paid for by the Biden administration from the War Department’s research and development (R&D) budget, which included whether “octopus hypnosis” could replace anesthesia, the sleeping habits of elephant seals, the properties of “snail mucus,” “doomscrolling” on Facebook and an effort to “decode and interpret the brain signals of monkeys.”

In September 2025, the War Department spent $93 billion to avoid triggering “use it or lose it” rules, including $2.4 billion on laptops and software licenses, $1.8 million on musical instruments (including a grand piano and a flute from Japan) and $225 million in furniture.