The Department of Defense (DOD) cut $5.1 billion in non-essential contracts in its commitment to “strategically rebuild our military, restore accountability to the Department, cut wasteful spending, and implement the President’s orders,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote in a memo.
The terminated contracts include a Defense Health Agency contract for consulting services from Accenture, Deloitte, Booz Allen, and other firms; an Air Force contract with Accenture to resell third-party Enterprise Cloud IT Services; a Navy contract for business consulting; and a DARPA contract for IT Helpdesk Services. Another 11 contracts across the Defense Department supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts, climate initiatives, and COVID-19 responses were also terminated.
“These contracts represent non-essential spending on third party consultants to perform services more efficiently performed by the highly skilled members of our DoD workforce using existing resources,” the memo said, adding, “Collectively, these terminations represent $5.1 billion in wasteful spending at the Department, and nearly $4 billion in estimated savings which we can re-allocate to our mission critical priorities to Revive the Warrior Ethos, Rebuild the Military, and Reestablish Deterrence.”
In a video on X, Hegseth said the DOD is also pausing more than $500 million in funding to Northwestern University and Cornell University on top of the $70 million the department paused at Columbia, Penn, Brown, and Princeton Universities.
Hegseth signed a memo last month directing the DOD to cut more than $580 million in contracts and grants. The contract terminations totaled nearly $170 in estimated savings to be reallocated to the department’s priorities.
