Defense Secretary Pete Hegses announced Thursday that the Pentagon has cancelled more than $580 million in grants and contracts deemed “wasteful spending.”
In a new memo, Heggs argues that the program “contradicts the priorities” of the department and does not match President Trump's priorities. The cuts are part of the Trump administration's job with Elon Musk's Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is currently auditing the federal sector.
“Today, I am signing a memo directing the termination of more than $580 million in DOD contracts and grants that do not match the priorities of this president or this division. I said it in the video Posted on social platform x.
Among the cancellations was the “HR Software Effort,” known as the Defense Civilian Human Resource Management System (DCHRMS). This was originally intended to cost a year and $36 million, but instead, it would cost eight years to sign and $280 million on the budget, Hegseth said in the video.
DCHRMS was intended to streamline a significant portion of the Pentagon's legacy HR information technology, but according to the memo, there will be at least two years of development and testing before operating it.
“A further investment in the DCHRMS project will throw better taxpayer money after bad,” Hegses wrote, noting that he directed the development of a new plan within two months for the effort.
Other reduced grants worth a total of $360 million include funding research efforts and other activities in other areas that are “not aligned” with diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and related social programs, climate change, social sciences, COVID-19 pandemic response, and other areas that are “not aligned” with the Department of Defense priorities.
These efforts include $6 million to decarbonise naval vessel emissions, $5.2 million to diversify the navy, and $9 million to create “equitable” artificial intelligence.
“We need a fatal machine learning model, not an impartial machine learning model,” Heggs said.
The Department of Defense is also cutting contracts worth another $30 million with consulting firms.
The Trump administration aims to use Doge to reduce spending within federal agencies and reduce the civil servant workforce.
In early March, defense officials said they had teamed up with Doge to discover about $80 million in what was deemed a wasteful spending that was primarily devoted to DEI programs and climate change research, and promised that the action was “just the beginning” with more cuts.
And the Pentagon is looking to cut 5-8% of its civilian employees in the coming months. This is about 50,000-60,000 jobs.
With Cut's latest announcement, Hegseth said the total funds saved by the department are $800 million since February 20th.
However, critics say that withholding or inaccurate data on Doge's digital “receipt wall” has severely exaggerated the allegations of savings.
