Pentagon loses 2% of budget if it fails audits.
S. 5185 — Audit the Pentagon Act · Filed by Bernie Sanders (I-VT) · 13 cosponsors · Introduced Jul 30, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
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What it does
The bill requires Pentagon departments to pass full audits each year. If a department fails, it loses 2% of its budget. The lost money goes to the Treasury. The 2% cut applies equally to all programs in that department.
Who it affects
Pentagon departments and their programs are affected. Citizens benefit from stronger Pentagon money tracking. The national debt gets smaller.
One thing to notice
The bill ties budget cuts directly to audit failure. This pushes Pentagon units to focus on passing audits.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
13 cosponsors: 10 Democrats, 3 Republicans.
- Jul 30, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jul 30, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Armed Services · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Armed Services”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- audit — An official check to make sure money records are correct and honest.
- Treasury — The part of the U.S. government that handles federal money.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,097 characters) on Aug 2, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,707 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-23.
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