In Bipartisan Letter, Warren, Grassley, Slotkin, Ernst Press Pentagon to Crack Down on Military Contractors’ Price Gouging, Enforce Cost Transparency

“The culture of overcharging within the defense industry that has driven thi s behavior has come with significant costs to both readiness and the American taxpayer.” Text of Letter (PDF) Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) sent a bipartisan letter to Deputy Secretary of Defense Stephen Feinberg requesting the Department to hold defense contractors accountable and enforce the Pentagon’s August 18 directive on Supplier Cost and Pricing Transparency. For decades, defense contractors have taken advantage of the Pentagon’s inability to prevent price gouging. The Department notoriously paid $436 for hammers and $640 for toilet seats in the 1980s. More recently, Boeing charged the Air Force a nearly 8,000% markup on lavatory soap dispensers. “The culture of overcharging within the defense industry that has driven this behavior has come with significant costs to both readiness and the American taxpayer,” wrote the senators. In August 2026, the Department issued a new directive on “Supplier Cost and Pricing Transparency” to improve access to contractors’ cost and pricing data and help the Pentagon’s contracting officers negotiate fair prices. The senators welcomed the effort but raised concerns that a key gap in the policy – applying a $10 million threshold for obtaining certified cost and pricing data – could leave the Department without access to critical information for more than 60 percent of its contracts. They urged the Pentagon to apply its new directive to lower-value contracts and use its existing authority to make contractors ineligible for awards when they refuse to provide requested data. They also urged the Department to support Senator Warren’s bipartisan Stop Price Gouging in the Military Act as well as their Transparency in Contract Pricing Act in the Fiscal Year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Both bills would better arm contracting officers with statutory backing during negotiations, improve pricing transparency, and ensure taxpayers get a fair deal. “To ensure our understanding of how this directive ‘resets the Department’s expectations regarding supplier cost and pricing information,’ and how it will gain transparency through ‘modern information technology and current business best practices,’ we seek to clarify how the Department will gain such data from refusing companies, conduct consistent oversight, and hold non-compliant companies accountable,” concluded the senators. The senators requested answers to their questions by November 3, 2026, to inform legislation aimed at strengthening pricing transparency, preventing contractor abuse, and protecting taxpayer dollars. Senator Warren has long led bipartisan efforts to crack down on defense contractor price gouging and protect taxpayers: In July 2026, she pressed Deputy Defense Secretary Feinberg on conflicts of interest related to companies bidding on the major Golden Dome missile defense program. In June 2026, she further pressed DoD on the potential conflicts of interest surrounding lucrative DoD loans and deals following reporting that the White House allegedly intervened to secure an OSC loan to a Trump Jr. company. In March 2026, after DoD failed to answer most questions in her January letter, she pressed DoD and OSC on the processes in place to ensure DoD contracts and loans are awarded fairly to companies. In January 2026, she raised concerns about DoD and OSC handing out loans and contracts to companies with ties to the Trump family. In September 2025, she introduced the Transparency in Contract Pricing Act of 2025 to root out price gouging by military contractors. In March 2025, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) wrote to Deputy Defense Secretary Nominee Stephen Feinberg, urging him to recuse himself from all matters related to Ligado Networks. Mr. Feinberg’s private equity firm, Cerberus Capital Management, is heavily invested in Ligado, which has a pending $39 billion lawsuit against the Department of Defense (DoD) over highly sought-after telecommunications spectrum space that the military has said is “essential for its various satellite communications, radars and navigation systems” usage. In September 2023, she called for further transparency surrounding DoD’s OSC and how it is interpreting ethics restrictions. In June 2023, she reintroduced the Stop Price Gouging the Military Actto address widespread price gouging in the military. In June 2023, she reintroduced the Department of Defense Ethics and Anti-Corruption Act to strengthen ethics laws in DoD contracts. On May 25, 2023, Senators Warren, Sanders, Braun, and Grassley sent a letter to DoD urging an investigation into contractor price gouging. On May 25, 2023, Senator Warren and Representative John Garamendi sent letters to DoD, Boeing, and TransDigm on companies’ refusal to provide cost or pricing data. ###