During a hearing in the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, the General Accounting Office (GAO) released a report requested by Schakowsky and Grassley on the improper use of premium class travel at the Pentagon.  GAO found that in 2001 and 2002, 72% of first and business class travel was not authorized or justified due to lack of oversight and ignored or flawed policies. 

“It is ironic that massive financial abuses, including tens of millions in improper first and business class travel, are occurring at the Department of Defense, an institution that places a premium on discipline, the chain of command and accountability.  That makes the culture of waste, fraud and abuse that seems to permeate all aspects of DoD’s fiscal operations all the more intolerable.  This has to stop.  It is unfair to our soldiers and to U.S. taxpayers,” Schakowsky said.  

Schakowsky added, “Senior officials, some of them presidential appointees, are taking advantage of their position and wasting taxpayer dollars, flying premium class in violation of the rules.  At the same time, enlisted military personnel returning from Iraq during their brief two-week break from the war have had to pay their own transportation within the US.  Were it not for the fact that Congress intervened, those patriot soldiers would still have to pay their own way to see loved ones before returning to combat in Iraq.”

GAO, for example, discovered that a GS14 DoD employee relocated with his family from London to Hawaii and charged the government $21,000 for First and Business Class tickets.  Coach fare would have been $2500. 

Schakowsky announced during the hearing that she will be introducing legislation that will prevent the Defense Department from receiving budget increases unless and until it can balance its books.  The bill would ensure that troops and their families receive what they need.

“Despite its horrific record of waste, fraud, and abuse, the Pentagon’s budget grows every year.  Until the Department of Defense can pass a financial audit, and account for $1.2 trillion in transactions, it should not be rewarded with billions more dollars each year,” Schakowsky said.