WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) issued a statement regarding President Trump’s decision to close the Department of Defense (DOD)’s Office of Net Assessment (ONA). In a meeting in January, Grassley personally discussed his longtime oversight of ONA waste with then-Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth and recommended DOD close the ONA.
“After years raising Cain about the Office of Net Assessment’s failure to strengthen our national defense and its rampant abuse of taxpayer dollars, I’m thrilled to hear the news that President Trump is abolishing this wasteful and ineffective office,” Grassley said. “Praise the Lord. This wise move saves American taxpayers over 20 million dollars a year.”
Background:
ONA was tasked with researching and comparing the military capabilities of the U.S. versus its adversaries to identify and assess future threats. However, since 2019, Grassley’s oversight has repeatedly exposed ONA for breaching contracting rules and inappropriately spending millions of taxpayer dollars on projects unrelated to its mission: conducting a net assessment, which the office neglected to do for years.
Grassley has scrutinized ONA’s contracting practices, with a particular focus on contracts awarded to Stefan Halper and his non-compliance with government contracting rules. Halper was a confidential human source tasked by the Obama and Biden administrations’ FBI to surreptitiously record members of President Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign as part of the bogus Crossfire Hurricane investigation. Grassley wrote Secretary Hegseth last month calling on DOD to conduct additional oversight of ONA’s contracts and spending.
A timeline of Grassley’s ONA oversight follows:
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