{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.mccaskill.senate.gov/media-center/news-releases/pentagon-cover-up-mccaskill-vows-investigation-to-get-to-the-bottom_of-buried-study-detailing-125-billion-in-waste", "Pentagon Cover-Up: McCaskill Vows Investigation to ‘get to the bottom’  of Buried Study Detailing $125 Billion in Waste", "2016-12-06", "2016", "2016-12", "Democrat", "House", "MO", "Claire McCaskill", "M001170", "www.mccaskill.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Pentagon Cover-Up: McCaskill Vows Investigation to \u2018get to the bottom\u2019  of Buried Study Detailing $125 Billion in Waste \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t Following Washington Post expos\u00e9, Senator\u2014soon to be top-ranking Democrat on Homeland  Security & Governmental Affairs panel\u2014demands full report and accompanying data  from Defense Department McCaskill: \u2018Pentagon played Congress and the American public for fools\u2019 \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tTuesday, December 6, 2016\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tWASHINGTON \u2013 U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill\u2014soon to be the top-ranking Democrat on Congress\u2019s leading oversight panel\u2014is vowing an investigation after a Washington Post expos\u00e9 detailing how the Department of Defense buried an internal study that exposed $125 billion in administrative waste in its business operations amid fears Congress would use the findings as an excuse to slash the defense budget.\r\nAccording to the Washington Post: \u201cPentagon leaders had requested the study to help make their enormous back-office bureaucracy more efficient and reinvest any savings in combat power. But after the project documented far more wasteful spending than expected, senior defense officials moved swiftly to kill it by discrediting and suppressing the results.\u201d\r\n\u201cIf this is true, the Pentagon played Congress and the American public for fools,\u201d said McCaskill, who in January will become the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee, and is also a senior member of the Armed Services Committee. \u201cIt would mean that while some in Congress were busy debating cuts to vital services, furloughing employees, and threatening working peoples\u2019 pensions, the Department of Defense literally knew it could save the American people billions and billions of dollars in bureaucratic waste, and instead, they buried it. I vow to get to the bottom of this.\u201d\r\nMcCaskill\u2019s office contacted the Defense Department early Tuesday to demand a full copy of the buried study along with the background data.\r\nMcCaskill has consistently used her position as Senator to root out misconduct and abuse of power in federal agencies:\r\n \r\nShe waged a successful six-year battle to rein in wasteful wartime contracting practices in Iraq and Afghanistan, and ultimately passed into law the most expansive reforms to wartime contracting practices since World War II\r\nShe spearheaded investigations into poor conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and into management at Arlington National Cemetery following disclosures of mismarked gravesites\u2014both of which resulted in resignations of senior officials, and legislation\r\nShe investigated into the General Services Administration, after a Las Vegas conference that cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars, and secured the resignations of senior officials while introducing legislation to prevent such waste in the future\r\nAnd she led a probe that resulted in the resignation of an Assistant Secretary of Labor for circumventing rules and regulations to secure government contracts for friends and colleagues\r\n \r\nVisit mccaskill.senate.gov/accountability to read more about McCaskill\u2019s fight for stronger accountability in Washington.\r\n###\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\tPrint\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tEmail\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t  \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tTweet", 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.mccaskill.senate.gov/media-center/news-releases/pentagon-cover-up-mccaskill-vows-investigation-to-get-to-the-bottom_of-buried-study-detailing-125-billion-in-waste"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.2835331726819277, "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"}