AUDIT OUTRAGE: New bipartisan legislation unveiled in the House on Thursday would slash the defense budget each year the Pentagon doesn’t pass an audit, owing to outrage in both parties that the Defense Department has failed to achieve a clean scrub of its books.

The bill, sponsored by Lee and Republican Michael Burgess, would cut the budget of any Pentagon agency that doesn’t achieve a clean audit by half a percent for the first year after enactment and 1 percent each subsequent year.

“The lack of accountability and transparency at the Pentagon is simply outrageous,” Lee said in a statement. “Congress pours trillions of taxpayer dollars into the Pentagon … but we still have no clear idea how that money is being spent. This legislation would be a long overdue step in ensuring transparency and putting an end to the culture of waste, fraud and abuse at the Department of Defense.”

The measure is supported by a handful of watchdog groups on both ends of the political spectrum, including Win Without War, Public Citizen, Taxpayers for Common Sense, FreedomWorks and R Street.

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