Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — The Defense Department has ordered all acquisition shops to review consulting service contracts to determine whether they are essential to Trump administration priorities, and terminate those deemed not to fit that bill.
“To ensure we are accountable for every dollar we spend and that we are aligned with the President of the United States’ America First priorities and Secretary of Defense [Pete] Hegseth’s direction, Component heads will conduct a comprehensive review and validation of existing contracts for consulting services,” states the Feb. 18 memo [PDF] memo signed by Steven Morani, who is performing the duties of DoD’s undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment.
The memo mandates an assessment of “the essentiality of contracts … for the purpose of terminating or descoping contracts for activities that are not essential for the Department to fulfill its statutory purposes.”
Components are organizations within the Pentagon that have acquisition authority. Morani’s memo, first reported by DefenseScoop, is addressed to “senior Pentagon leadership, defense agencies and DoD field activities directors.”
The DoD review is taking place in two parts: first looking at contracts let under the General Services Administration vehicle, then other types of contracts. Component heads have until March 19 to submit to the results of the first review and until April 19 for the second.
The memo doesn’t define “consulting services,” so it is unclear what exactly will fall under the review and how much money is currently being spent on these types of contracts.
However, according to a 2023 report by the Government Accountability Office, DoD spent between $184 billion to $226 billion from 2017 to 2022 on all types of “service contracts,” including administrative and technical support. That said, the report noted that data is hard to collect as the various offices within the DoD do not use the same criteria to keep track of such spending.
Morani explains that if certain consultancy contracts are found to be “essential,” then a “short justification” including a validation of the requirement by “a General Officer/Senior Executive Service member” should be provided.
The memo comes against the backdrop of Hegseth ordering Pentagon leaders to redirect roughly $50 billion planned for the fiscal 2026 budget request towards a set of priorities that better align with Trump’s goals for the department, as well as the arrival of Elon Musk’s DOGE team at the Pentagon.
