Ready, fire, aim: Pentagon cut workforce with little analysis before or since, GAO finds
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth looks on during the 23rd IISS Shangri-La Dialogue at the Shangri-La Hotel on May 30, 2026, in Singapore. Ezra Acayan/Getty Images
ByMeghann Myers,
Staff Reporter
June 1, 2026 06:00 PM ET
Defense officials concurred that lessons should be drawn—but gave no indication they will be.
Pentagon leaders cut their department’s workforce by more than 10 percent with little regard for the effects—and still has no plans to assess them, according to a congressional watchdog report released on Friday.
The department shed 78,000 civilian employees in 2025 through a mix of voluntary resignations, involuntary layoffs, and a hiring freeze that resulted in nearly 60,000 fewer new hires than in recent years, the report found.
“But we found that DOD didn’t consistently analyze the impacts of these reductions, either in 2025 or in prior years,” according to the report. “DOD also doesn’t have a plan...
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