Senator McCaskill, pushing for accountability at the Pentagon

Our own Senator Claire McCaskill posted a fantastic column today on her Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/notes/senator-claire-mccaskill/the-time-is-now-to-reform-wartime-contracting/386134884732785), calling for the Pentagon and Department of Defense to get far more responsible and accountable with its "wartime contracting." Who can't be behind that? Our military gets billions upon billions of dollars from us, the citizens of the country, and it seems the least they could do is to be responsible with it and spend it wisely and with tight accountability. As it is, far too many millions and billions of dollars get either lost completey--nearly unbelievably enough--or just spent poorly. That actually ends up weakening even the military itself, let alone the nation.

It seems that she--Senator McCaskill--and Senator Jim Webb of Virginia, a combat veteran and former Secretary of the Navy have teamed up to propose S2139, "the Comprehensive Contingency Contracting Reform Act of 2012. The legislation strengthens contracting practices and improves accountability across government by: ■Elevating oversight responsibility, improving management structures, expanding planning requirements, and reforming contracting practices during overseas military contingencies; ■Requiring the government to identify how it will pay for military operations overseas; ■And improving the contracting process through greater transparency, competition, and professional education. So good for you, Senator McCaskill, and good for us. Thank you for this and keep more of this kind of thing coming, especially if you could make the next step cutting Defense spending by great amounts and as soon as possible.