Hegseth commits to Pentagon passing clean audit within 4 years

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Friday committed to getting the Pentagon to pass a clean audit within four years after the Defense Department failed several in a row.

During a town hall with defense staffers, Hegseth said that he will ensure the Pentagon "at a bare minimum" passes a clean audit by the end of the current administration.

"The American taxpayers deserve that," he continued. "They deserve to know where their $850 billion dollars go, how it's spent, and make sure it's spent wisely."

The Pentagon failed its seventh audit in November, though officials claimed at the time they made strides toward the goal of a clean audit in 2028. Around half of the agencies passed and half failed in the audit.

The Pentagon has not passed a clean audit since it became legally obligated to in 2018, even as the budget has soared and is approaching a trillion dollars.

The Marines have been an exception, with the military branch announcing this week a clean audit for its $49 billion in financial assets.

The Pentagon's failure to pass a clean audit has led to concern across Capitol Hill. Ahead of his confirmation, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) raised concerns in a letter to Hegseth about his ability to handle the finances of the Defense Department and its work toward a clean audit, citing his alleged financial mismanagement of two veterans organizations he once led.

But Hegseth said Friday that the Pentagon is "accountable for every dollar we spend, and every dollar will waste we find or redundancy is one dollar we can invest somewhere else."

"It used to be that if you sit call for an audit, somehow you were you were undermining the department," he told staff. "I believe the exact opposite."

At the town hall, Hegseth also said the Pentagon would focus on deterring adversaries and enforcing the southern border, and he called for accountability for top officers overseeing the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan during the Biden administration.

He also pledged to end diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts in the Defense Department. Both Hegseth and President Trump have already taken action to remove DEI policies across the U.S. military and the rest of the federal government.