{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ContentRecord_id=89C03446-D3A3-413D-A3DF-C5EFBDFD349D", "INDEFENSIBLE: SASC CHAIRMAN JOHN McCAIN EXPOSES $13 BILLION IN WASTEFUL DEFENSE SPENDING IN NEW AMERICAS MOST WASTED REPORT", "2016-12-19", "2016", "2016-12", "Republican", "House", "AZ", "John McCain", "M000303", "www.mccain.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Washington, D.C. \u2013 \u00a0U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, released a new oversight report today as part of the ongoing\u00a0America\u2019s Most Wasted: Indefensible\u00a0series, which identifies egregious Department of Defense (DOD) spending and mismanagement. In this latest oversight report, Chairman McCain exposes $13 billion in wasteful spending across DOD, including:\r\n \r\n$12.4 billion for 26 Littoral Combat Ships with no proven combat capability\r\n$458 million in inappropriate travel expense reimbursement payments\r\n$375 million for Missile Defense Agency (MDA) targets that were never used or didn\u2019t work\r\n$58 million for the Navy\u2019s experiments with alternative fuel sources for its Great Green Fleet\r\n$12 million for defective spare parts that will need to be replaced or refunded\r\n$1 million for travel claim reimbursements for unauthorized expenses at casinos and strip clubs\r\n$1.3 million to research the mating habits of African Giant Pouched rats\r\n \r\n\u201cAs our Armed Forces confront the most diverse and complex array of national security challenges since the end of World War II under extraordinarily constrained fiscal resources, we simply cannot afford to waste our precious defense dollars on unnecessary or poorly performing programs,\u201d said Chairman McCain. \u201cThis oversight report exposes just a few examples of the wasteful spending at the Pentagon that is so detrimental to our national defense. It has never been more important to eliminate unnecessary defense spending and mismanagement so that we can reinvest savings into improving the training and equipment our warfighters need.\u201d\r\nTo view past\u00a0America\u2019s Most Wasted\u00a0reports,\u00a0click here.\r\nRead the full report here.\r\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ContentRecord_id=89C03446-D3A3-413D-A3DF-C5EFBDFD349D"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 3.03256930783391, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}