Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, is leading the charge to bring renewed transparency to the Pentagon through the upcoming National Defense Authorization Act.
That legislation could set the Department of Defense on track to finally pass an audit by harnessing artificial intelligence and increasing transparency around government defense spending.
“It is inexcusable that the Pentagon has never passed an audit while American citizens can be jailed for the same offense,” Ernst told The Daily Signal.
The Iowa Republican has supported two provisions in the NDAA. The first would require the Pentagon to use artificial intelligence to keep track of inventory. Not knowing what inventory the Defense Department has will, by necessity, prevent that inventory from being audited.
The first provision, dealing with AI, directs the comptroller general of the U.S. to review commercial AI scalable asset inventory-management systems. The technology would help categorize equipment, create a cloud-based source of truth for all asset data collection, evaluate potential replacements for aging infrastructure, and allow for complex inventory tasks by personnel.
Because of the force-multiplying effects of AI, the Defense Department would likely be able to digitize the make, model number, and serial numbers of equipment for comprehensive data collection. The deadline for the comptroller general to make his assessment would be Feb. 1, 2026.
The second provision would increase transparency for the department by requiring the Pentagon to disclose potentially billions of dollars in spending. The Defense Department and other government agencies are currently allowed to use a legal loophole called Other Transaction Agreements to keep federal money away from taxpayer scrutiny.
Last year, that meant more than $18 billion in government spending primarily related to defense was hidden from taxpayers. A total of $40 billion in spending was shielded from the public during fiscal years 2020 to 2022.
The second provision would incorporate language from Ernst’s bipartisan Stop Secret Spending Act, which would require disclosures of Other Transaction Agreements made by the Defense Department in the same manner as grants and loans on the public website USAspending.gov.
“If the IRS wants to know exactly how much you earned, then Washington should let you know exactly how it is spending the dollars being taken from your paycheck. Stopping secret spending and leveraging AI to better track and catalog inventory are significant steps in delivering an accurate accounting of every dime spent,” Ernst said, adding:
The days of bureaucrats playing hide-and-seek with tax dollars are over, and accountability is coming.