- Sean Parnell calls termination of contracts ‘just the start’
- Cuts represent tiny portion of Defense Department’s budget
Initial work by the Department of Government Efficiency at the Defense Department is expected to yield $80 million in savings, according to the Pentagon’s chief spokesman.
In a video posted to social media on Monday evening, Sean Parnell, the assistant to the secretary of Defense for public affairs, pointed to contracts tied to diversity, equity and inclusion and climate resiliency as evidence of waste.
He did not provide details on the duration of the contracts or any potential penalties for early termination. But such cuts represent a tiny amount of the department’s budget of about $850 billion.
Parnell identified $13 million in projects that he described as wasteful, including $1.9 million in Air Force spending on “holistic DEI transformation and training” and a $6 million award to the University of Montana “to strengthen American democracy by bridging divides.”
He also mentioned $3.5 million in “support to DEI groups” from Defense Human Resources Activity and a $1.6 million award to the University of Florida “to study social and institutional detriments of vulnerability and resilience to climate hazards in African Sahel.”
“This stuff is just not a core function of our military,” he said of the issues addressed by the contracts, calling it “a distraction.”
The military services have long assessed the risks that climate change could pose to installations and the security environment, and gauged the ability of the military to adapt to evolving conditions.
“Today’s actions are just the start,” Parnell said, previewing work over the coming weeks to “trim the fat, preserve the muscle, make the DoD more mission capable and more lethal.”
In a memo last month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he planned to reduce projected US military spending by 8% over the next five years.
