Let's Cut Some Spending: The Pentagon's 23 Redundant Cybersecurity Contractors
- ForAmerica
- 1 day ago
- 1 min read
In our Let's Cut Some Spending series, ForAmerica chronicles the many ways Washington wastes YOUR tax dollars - and as you'll see, the list is endless.
Today's offering: the Pentagon is paying 23 separate cybersecurity contractors to do the exact same job.
The Pentagon: home to 23 contractors apparently unaware the other 22 exist.
The Government Accountability Office's newly released 2026 annual report found it:
"23 cybersecurity service providers who are largely conducting the same activities and functions."
That's just one line in a 97-recommendation report on government duplication. Auditors also found different divisions of the IRS separately buying the same AI software, and agencies like the FCC and USDA running overlapping rural broadband programs without ever talking to each other. On top of that, Medicare pays hospitals more than doctors' offices for the exact same procedure - fixing that alone would save taxpayers nearly $16 billion a year. Hundreds of "zombie programs" keep getting funded even though their legal authorization expired years ago.
Congress has acted on 77% of the GAO's recommendations since this report series started, saving taxpayers an estimated $774 billion. That leaves 23 percent still sitting on a shelf somewhere in Washington - including, apparently, whichever office is supposed to notice it's paying two dozen contractors for one job.