Joshua Roberts/Reuters
The Department of Defense failed to spend billions of dollars appropriated to the Pentagon and subsequently lost the authority to use the funds at the end of fiscal year 2018, Bloomberg Government reports. An audit from the Defense Department’s Inspector General revealed that the Pentagon apparently had too much money and failed to spend it in the required timeframe, thereby losing the authority to spend the $28 billion, which the Defense Department said spanned five years. The Pentagon was reportedly already well-funded last year before Congress and the White House agreed to allocate $700 billion towards national security—with the majority of that money going to the Pentagon. “The DoD IG correctly provides in its financial statement audit report that the Department had $28 billion in expired status,” Christopher Sherwood, a Department of Defense spokesman said. “The $28 billion spans five years, starting in fiscal 2013. This is less than one percent of the department’s budget over that time period.” According to Politico, Trump also told then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis late last year to submit a $750 billion budget request for fiscal year 2020.