Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed a memorandum today announcing the cutting of $5.1 billion in wasteful Defense Department contracts.
“That’s with a ‘B’; $5.1 billion in DOD contracts for ancillary things like consulting and other nonessential services,” Hegseth said while recording a video of the announcement from his office.
The memo lists some of the cuts, including $1.8 billion in consulting contracts the Defense Health Agency awarded to various private sector firms, a $1.4 billion enterprise cloud IT services contract awarded to a software reseller, and a $500 million Navy contract for business process consulting.
“We need this money to spend on better health care for our warfighters and their families, instead of $500 an hour business process consultant,” Hegseth said. “That’s a lot of consulting.”
He also mentioned cutting a $500 million contract awarded to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency for IT help desk services that are “completely duplicative” of services that the Defense Information Systems Agency already provides.
Additionally, Hegseth said the department is cutting 11 contracts related to diversity, equity and inclusion, climate change, the department’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and related nonessential activities across DOD.
“We are committed to rooting out DEI — root and branch — throughout this department … [And] I’m going to keep looking,” Hegseth said.
He also announced cuts on the academic front, saying that DOD would be pausing over $500 million in funding to a pair of universities that “tolerate antisemitism and support divisive DEI programs.” This is in addition to the $70 million already cut in funding at three other colleges in the past weeks.
Today’s announcement follows Hegseth’s initial March 20, 2025, announcement that the department would be cutting $580 million in programs, contracts and grants.
“If you’re keeping score at home, today’s cuts bring our running total to nearly $6 billion in wasteful spending over the first six weeks of the Department of Government Efficiency effort here at the Defense Department,” Hegseth said, adding that DOGE’s job is to find wasteful spending at DOD so that the funds can be driven back into the department’s warfighting capabilities.
Hegseth first announced that DOGE would be working within DOD during a recorded, on-camera address he made Feb. 20, 2025, regarding cutting excess and refocusing the department’s budget.
The secretary wound down today’s message by thanking DOGE and the people who unpacked and revealed the latest round of savings.
“We’re excited to make these cuts on behalf of you, the taxpayer and the warfighters here at the department,” he said.
By Matthew Olay, DOD News
