{"id":29634,"date":"2019-03-27T17:16:14","date_gmt":"2019-03-27T17:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/03\/27\/the-pentagons-lobster-dinner-bill-government-waste-or-good-food\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T10:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T10:02:08","slug":"the-pentagons-lobster-dinner-bill-government-waste-or-good-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/congress\/2019\/03\/27\/the-pentagons-lobster-dinner-bill-government-waste-or-good-food\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pentagon\u2019s lobster dinner bill: Government waste or good food?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Spending $4.6 million on shellfish isn\u2019t a sign of government waste, according to the Defense Department\u2019s top finance official.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s just dinner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In testimony before the House Budget Committee on Wednesday, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/pentagon\/2019\/01\/02\/pentagon-comptroller-to-serve-as-acting-deputy-secretary\/\" target=\"_blank\">Pentagon Comptroller David Norquist<\/a> pushed back on news reports of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2019\/03\/12\/use-it-or-lose-it-dod-dropped-46-million-on-crab-and-lobster-and-9000-on-a-chair-in-last-minute-spending-spree\/\" target=\"_blank\">lavish military culinary spending<\/a> that generated headlines in recent week. The money was not part of a wasteful party, he argued, and is in line with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/pay-benefits\/2019\/01\/17\/merging-commissary-and-exchange-systems-critics-question-where-any-cost-savings-would-go\/\" target=\"_blank\">other military food costs<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cYou\u2019re right to raise that kind of concern,\u201d he told lawmakers who questioned the total. \u201cIn this case, it\u2019s food for the service members, and it\u2019s part of normal operations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2019\/03\/12\/use-it-or-lose-it-dod-dropped-46-million-on-crab-and-lobster-and-9000-on-a-chair-in-last-minute-spending-spree\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"163\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Money-drain.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Use-it or lose-it: DoD dropped $4.6 million on crab and lobster, and $9,000 on a chair in last-minute spending spree<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The federal government found a way to spend $97 billion in a single month last year, of which more than $61 billion can be attributed to the Pentagon.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The comments came amid questions about the Defense Department\u2019s first-ever audit, a massive financial review completed last spring that involved more than 1,200 financial specialists combing through military spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Earlier this month, the nonprofit advocacy group OpenTheBooks released a detailed report related to some of those findings, criticizing Pentagon leaders for spending $97 billion in a single month last year in an effort to use up extra funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Among their list of waste were $2.3 million on snow crab, Alaskan king crab, and crab legs and claws, and another $2.3 million on lobster tails. The group said all of that money was spent at the end of the fiscal year, in a luxury spending spree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Norquist told lawmakers that total wasn\u2019t spent in a single month, but instead over the course of the year. Accounting practices had the total recorded at the end of the calendar, giving the impression it was spent in a single buying spree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe buy food for the military all year long, and these are then put into the chow halls,\u201d he said. \u201cEither they purchase it with their own food allowance, or a unit will pool its money. Some days they\u2019ll have pasta which is less expensive, and then on Fridays they\u2019ll have something fancier like surf and turf.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/pentagon\/2018\/11\/15\/the-pentagon-failed-its-audit-but-officials-arent-surprised\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Pentagon-Building-GettyImages-104684801.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">The Pentagon failed its audit, but officials aren\u2019t surprised<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">After years of delays, the Pentagon has completed its first-ever audit.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Norquist estimated that the total spent equals a seafood feast of about \u201cone meal a month\u201d for troops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He also pushed back on reports of $800 million in \u201clost\u201d construction funds, saying that the audit revealed that money was being improperly classified as incomplete projects even after work had finished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The bookkeeping error represents \u201csomething we need to get fixed,\u201d Norquist said, but not lost or misspent money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The comptroller did not address other specifics in the report, and did acknowledge that scrutiny of the Defense Department\u2019s $700 billion-plus budget for fiscal 2018 has turned up other instances of waste and misuse of government funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Democratic lawmakers at the hearing \u2014 who have been publicly skeptical of the administration\u2019s $750 billion budget request for fiscal 2020 \u2014 said they will be carefully analyzing the audit findings and outside waste reports as they evaluate the department\u2019s funding needs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The military&#8217;s top finance official refuted reports that the Pentagon wasted millions on lavish food spending at the end of last fiscal year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":96036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":38,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[104,38,106,31,33,9],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3294],"class_list":["post-29634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acquisition-update","category-congress","category-daily-brief","category-home","category-newsletters","category-federal-oversight"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"QBHBU7D7XRB7FINMJGM3PA2AIY","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2019\/03\/27\/the-pentagons-lobster-dinner-bill-government-waste-or-good-food\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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