Missouri women's golf turns belief into breakthrough season

(The Center Square) – Lawmakers held another hearing on sanctuary policies Thursday, one of a series coinciding with President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts and a nationwide crackdown by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

This time, the House of Representatives subcommittee focused on Fairfax County, Virginia.

Just 30 minutes outside of Washington, D.C., Fairfax County is Virginia’s most populous county, with more than 1.1 million residents. The county borders one of the most diverse counties in the country, according to U.S. News & World Report, and is itself notably diverse, with more than 30% of its population born outside of the U.S.

Its commonwealth’s attorney and sheriff testified before the House committee Thursday, as the locality promotes non-compliance with Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers.

Another witness who testified Thursday was Cheryl Minter, mother of the deceased Stephanie Minter, a 41-year-old single mother killed at a Fairfax County bus stop in February.

Abdul Jalloh, an illegal immigrant from Sierra Leone, has been charged with her murder.  

Jalloh is one of three illegal immigrants on trial for an alleged 2026 murder in Fairfax County, and as of early April, the Department of Homeland Security reported “illegal aliens have allegedly committed 75% of all murders in the far-left county” in 2026, as there had been four alleged murders at the time. 

Jalloh had been arrested more than 30 times before being charged with fatally stabbing Minter, according to DHS.

“His criminal history includes more than 30 arrests for charges of rape, malicious wounding, assault, drug possession, identity theft, trespassing, larceny, firing a weapon, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and pick pocketing,” reads a DHS press release following Jalloh’s February arrest.

But via its Public Trust and Confidentiality Policy adopted in 2021, Fairfax County is one of a number of localities across the country, in addition to 17 states and Washington, D.C., that seeks to protect people who have immigrated to the U.S. illegally from deportation, according to advocacy group the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger also signed an executive directive earlier this year effectively repealing an executive action by former Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin that called for Virginia localities’ compliance with ICE. 

Lawmakers questioning Stephen Descano, the Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney, contended that it was Fairfax’s so-called sanctuary policies that repeatedly allowed Jalloh back on the street.

Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., said that Jalloh had been arrested more than 15 times from Jan. 2023 to Feb. 2026, that Descano had “dismissed almost all of these charges” and Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey Kincaid had been instrumental in Jalloh's evasion of ICE.

Jalloh concerned the Fairfax County Police Department – which operates in the county in addition to the sheriff’s department – enough that it issued a warning to Descano, according to Van Drew.

“The Fairfax County Police Department became so alarmed at these decisions that they took the extraordinary step of warning Descano that Jalloh had stabbed multiple people, sexually assaulted at least one woman, and committed numerous other criminal offenses," he said.

"The police then issued this grim prophecy: It is not a question of if, but rather when, he will maliciously wound – or worse – again,” Van Drew added.

In a particularly tense moment during the hearing, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, questioned Descano over a statement Jordan said had been on Descano’s campaign website for six years, but was taken down not long after the House committee reached out to Descano to testify before Congress.

The exchange involved the case of a 23-year-old Salvadoran national and Fairfax County resident named Marvin Fernando Morales-Ortez, who was charged in late December with second degree murder.

Jordan quoted Descano as having said on his website that his office would “take immigration consequences into account when making charging and plea decisions.” 

“Immigration consequences were certainly part of the game here.. with Mr. Morales-Ortez,” Jordan said.

Video footage had shown Ortez fleeing the home of a man who appeared to have been shot to death, and Ortez was also charged with possession of a firearm.

Ortez had been released from jail the day before and had previously been charged with various crimes, including a first-degree murder charge in 2021, but Descano’s office had not prosecuted him, according to Washington, D.C., ABC affiliate WJLA. 

Descano said that Jordan was misrepresenting his policies by quoting the “campaign statement that was made before” he became the commonwealth’s attorney.

“Why’d you change your website?” Jordan asked.

Descano responded, "Because I could not believe that people were so obtuse that they could not realize what the difference between a campaign statement and an actual office policy is."

(The Center Square) - Advocates called on lawmakers to redesign the United States’ tax system on Thursday in order to address the rising national debt.

The national debt surpassed $39 trillion in March 2026, the highest ever recorded in United States history.

A group of financial advocates spoke to members of the U.S. House Oversight Committee in a roundtable on Thursday about ways to reduce the national debt.

Joshua Rauh, a senior economics fellow at the Hoover Institution, said the federal government’s biggest drivers in spending are Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

He said those three programs accounted for 49% of $7 trillion the government spent in fiscal year 2025. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that figure will rise to 58% by 2035.

“Congress should strengthen anti-fraud incentives, especially in Medicaid,” Rauh said. “States have to be held accountable for misspending federal money.”

William Beach, executive director of Fiscal Lab on Capitol Hill, applauded the Oversight Committee’s efforts to target fraud and wasteful spending over the last year. He also called on Congress to display greater unity in passing legislation to stimulate greater economic development.

“Find a few small things, get those on the books and say we’re intent on bringing that deficit down from six percent to something between three and four percent,” Beach said.

Rauh recommended the federal government distance itself further from state budgetary problems. He suggested Congress condition federal tax exemptions on adherence to certain pension funding standards.

“That should be paired with an explicit no-bailout provision of public pension plans to help protect the federal budget from state budgetary challenges,” Rauh said.

Doug Hultz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum, said Congress should work to slow the growth of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. He said these programs are set to outpace revenue growth, unless Congress implements major tax reforms.

“You’re going to have to do some sort of major tax reform to grow as quickly as possible and raise the revenue that we need,” Hultz-Eakin said.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., pushed back on the advocates' calls for lower spending on social safety net programs. Instead, she suggested cutting wasteful spending from agencies like the Department of War.

The Department of War has failed every audit of its finances since 2018. Tlaib said that should raise red flags for lawmakers to push more responsibility on the agency.

“I think there is a culture that’s been there that I feel like leaves our service members aside,” Tlaib said. “It’s not our residents. It’s these contractors, it’s the healthcare industry that benefits the most from it being broken.”

Rep. Bill Higgins, R-La., said the best way to solve the national debt crisis is to incentivize economic growth. He also said Congress should seek to eliminate deficit spending.

“We're a wealthy nation, we can sell 20-year treasury bonds,” Higgins said. “I think if we balance the budget, we’re within a few decades of being in the clear.”

The advocates also called for an overhaul of the country’s tax system. They said simplifying the tax code could also be a way to balance the government’s budget deficit.

“The cost of compliance with the federal tax is estimated at half a trillion dollars, so there’s potentially a lot of savings that they had there to improve it,” Hultz-Eakin said.

(The Center Square) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that women can continue to access abortion drugs through the mail without making an in-person doctor's visit, while a lawsuit continues against the practice. 

Justices on the high court graned two emergency requests from Danco Laboratories and GenProBio, two makers of the abortion drug mifepristone. 

The manufacturers challenged a ruling in Lousiana that upheld the state's ban on prescribing abortion drugs without an in-person doctor's visit. In 2023, the Biden administration finalized a rule to allow the drugs to be obtained without an in-person visit. 

Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented from the majority's decision. Alito said the litigation limits a state's ability to make determinations on abortion, as granted in the high court's 2022 decision that overturned the constitutional right to abortion. 

"Louisiana’s efforts have been thwarted by certain medical providers, private organizations, and States that abhor laws like Louisiana’s and seek to undermine their enforcement," Alito wrote. 

Thomas said allowing abortion drugs to be prescribed without an in-person doctors visit is a crime. 

"[Danco Laboratories] cannot, in any legally relevant sense, be irreparably harmed by a court order that makes it more difficult for them to commit crimes," Thomas wrote in his dissent. 

In 2023, approximately two-thirds of all abortions in the United States were through medications. 

As the case plays out, access to the abortion drug is expected to be uninterrupted until into next year. The high court could be petitioned again to rule on the merits of the lawsuit after litigation begins. 

A bench trial for former Mizzou football coach Gary Pinkel is scheduled Monday before Judge Michael Gilley in Camden County Circuit Court.

Pinkel, 74, is facing the loss of his driver's license after being stopped by a state trooper in July on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. Resolution of the case has been delayed for 10 months of legal procedure while Pinkel has retained possession of his license.

He was stopped July 7 near Camdenton at the Lake of the Ozarks   and held briefly before being released.

According to court documents, Pinkel refused to submit to a chemical test that would determine his blood alcohol content.

Under Missouri law, refusal of an alcohol or drug test will result in the suspension of driving privileges for one year.

Two days after the stop, Pinkel’s attorney submitted a motion to stay the revocation of his license until the court delivers a ruling. Gilley granted the stay on July 11.

An initial hearing was held Sept. 25 and another hearing held Nov. 20, but it was rescheduled for Jan. 26 and postponed again until March 30.  During that hearing, the May 18 bench trial was scheduled. 

The stay on the revocation of Pinkel’s license has remained in effect throughout the rescheduling.

In 2011, Pinkel faced a DWI charge after he was pulled over just before the final home game of the season against Texas Tech. He admitted to drinking two “jumbo” glasses of wine after failing multiple field sobriety tests, according to Missourian coverage.

He pleaded guilty Nov. 18 and was put on two years' probation. He resigned as football coach at the end of the 2015 season after a lymphoma diagnosis. 

Pinkel coached the Tigers from 2001 through 2015, bringing the team to 10 bowl games in 15 years and winning six. He is “the winningest coach in school history,” according to the MU Tigers website. He was voted the 2014 SEC Coach of the Year by fellow league coaches.

(The Center Square) - The U.S. Department of Justice has created a new task force to fight healthcare fraud in three Western states.

The West Coast healthcare Fraud Strike Force will focus on California, Arizona and Nevada.

Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald of the DOJ’s Fraud Division said data shows the states have seen a “significant and accelerating increase in healthcare fraud.”

“The Fraud Division is committed to bringing that same relentless, data-driven prosecutorial force to bear across every corner of this region, making unmistakably clear that no scheme is too sophisticated, no network too large or small, and no fraudster too distant to escape federal accountability,” McDonald noted.

Scott Lampert, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ acting deputy inspector general for investigations, said “emerging threats” across Arizona, California and Nevada are “targeting billions of taxpayer dollars from federal healthcare programs.”

“Many of these schemes are driven by sham operations designed to appear legitimate while exploiting patients and inflating claims through increasingly sophisticated methods,” he added.

Timothy Courchaine, U.S. attorney for the District of Arizona, said, “Federal law enforcement and the United States Attorney’s Office have disrupted fraud schemes worth over a billion dollars of taxpayer money" in the state.

Courchaine said the mission of the task force is to “ensure Americans who need critical services are not used as pawns to make bad actors rich.”

“Through excellent investigations, trial work and seizures of ill-gotten gains, the District of Arizona will continue safeguarding those services,”  he added.

Attorney General Kris Mayes told The Center Square via email that “Arizona has been on the front lines of fighting Medicaid fraud for the past several years, and we welcome the federal government’s help in combatting this problem.”

She highlighted a 2023 case where $2.5 billion of taxpayer money was stolen from the state’s Medicaid program by directing Native Americans to unlicensed or fraudulent sober living homes that then billed the state for inadequate services or services that never occurred.  

The state recovered only $125 million, or 5% of the $2.5 billion in taxpayers’ money lost to the fraud scheme, according to the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting.

Last year, Mayes announced a $6 million grant program to help tribal nations affected by the healthcare fraud scheme.  

Since 2023, the Democratic attorney general said her office has “indicted 166 individuals and entities, and recovered or seized more than $139 million in cash and assets.”

“We are not done. To anyone committing healthcare fraud in Arizona: We will find you, and we will hold you accountable," she noted.

In June 2025, Farrukh Jarar Ali, the owner of a Pakistan-based company, was charged with conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and wire fraud, as well as wire fraud and money laundering after allegedly billing around $650 million to Arizona’s Medicaid program through at least 41 substance abuse treatment clinics in the state.

Six months later, Arizonans Alexandra Gehrke and Jeffrey King were sentenced to 15.5 years and 14 years in prison, respectively, for causing more than $1.2 billion of false or fraudulent Medicare and health insurance claims for medically unnecessary wound grafts, the DOJ said.

Gehrke and King submitted these false claims between November 2022 and May 2024, the DOJ noted.

In California, Silicon Valley is “ground zero for technology-driven healthcare fraud schemes that seek to cheat taxpayer-funded programs like Medicare,” according to Craig Missakian, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California.

To illustrate, last year a Silicon Valley-based digital health company saw its CEO, Ruthia He, and its clinical president, David Brody, convicted of carrying out a scheme involving more than $100 million in healthcare fraud that distributed Adderall over the internet.

In April, the California Department of Justice charged 21 suspects for allegedly defrauding the state’s Medicaid program of $267 million through a hospice fraud scheme.

Also last month, Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford charged two Nevadans, Lawrence Carter and Leasa Carter, with allegedly defrauding Nevada’s Medicaid program of at least $2 billion.

“These charges reflect a serious breach of trust and an alleged scheme that exploited both Medicaid and vulnerable individuals,” said Ford.

“Our Medicaid Fraud Control Unit works every day to uncover this kind of misconduct and ensure those responsible are brought to justice," the Democratic attorney general said.

The Center Square reached out to Ford’s office for further comments, but did not receive a response before press time.

WASHINGTON — Montana Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) and Washington Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) went to Beijing ahead of this trip for conversations regarding pulse crops, potatoes, apples and the Boeing deal, laying the groundwork for this trip ahead of the President Donald Trump's arrival.

Senator Daines sat down with NonStop Local Thursday for his take on the trip so far. The senator has extensive experience in China, having been instrumental in Procter & Gamble’s Chinese division before running for office.

"I use that experience now to help promote our American agenda as we were negotiating with the Chinese," Senator Daines said. "It was remarkable. I met with the premier last week. In fact, at that same great hall where we've seen all the images of President Trump and President Xi Jinping, that's exactly where I was last Thursday."

The delegation met with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi for discussions focused on expanding market access for American products. That will also be a focal point of President Trump's visit.

“The bottom line is I think we're going to see some really nice deals come out for, I call it the three B's, Boeing, beef and beans,” Senator Daines said.

Boeing operates a facility in Helena, Montana and has its headquarters in Everett, Washington. CEO of Boeing Kelly Ortberg is joining the president for this trip and it’s believed a sizable deal for the Washington based aerospace company, which has plants in Moses Lake and Helena, could be made.

Boeing and China are in conversations about around 100 Boeing 787 Dreamliner and 777x widebody jetliners. Multiple outlets have reported that the President is expected to potentially make that announcement of the deal on the trip.

"There's a lot of reason why the United States and China have to keep dialogue going forward to have a stable relationship," Senator Daines said. "Clearly, last year was a tough year in the relationship. The tariffs went to 145%. There wasn't much cooperation"

Senator Daines believes this trip is an important part in lowering the temperature between the two powers.

"I'm very proud of what's happened here in the last 24 hours," Daines said. "I think this summit's gone very well. Both leaders are saying the right things. We just have to make sure it turns into action here for next steps."

This is the senator's eighth visit in an official capacity. The senator made headlines when on one of those trips he took a cooler full of beef to Chinese officials.

"It was Fred Wacker steaks from Miles City that I gave to the premier of China and now we have access to that market," Senator Daines said in February 2025.

The senator said that the face-to-face visits make an impact and help with accountability. 

“I told the Chinese officials last week, including the premier, that if you're going to want to keep seeing U.S. senators coming to China and having these discussions, we've got to see action results,” Senator Daines said, “It's got to be not just a bunch of talk. We've got to see results. And I'm seeing that."

Daines also said a deal on opening China up to American beef exports is "all but done."

"That's the second largest beef export market in the world, and the Chinese shut it off last March when we got in that big trade fight. "Senator Daines said. "They were unwilling to open it back up until I went there last week and told them, we've got to have this opened up and (I) wanted to tee that up certainly for President Trump and his team. So they are listening. It's 1.4 billion consumers there in China."

But the senator said these trips have changed over time. The posture from the Chinese is different, which he said could lead to real progress.

"Over the years, oftentimes I'd go into these meetings (and) the Chinese government would be spending most of their time talking at us," Sen. Daines said. "This time, they said, we want to hear from you. So, we were able to lay out our concerns, what we want to see from China. And that was a shift, I think, in tone that I've seen from prior visits.”

On the heels of that and with the president's arrival—we now watch for details of these deals to potentially be released and what they could mean for American producers.

"I had some text messages last night directly from Ambassador Perdue, who's on the ground there for the United States," Senator Daines said. "Things are going very well. And there's a spirit of cooperation. And that's a good thing. Look, the relationship is far from perfect, but we're in a lot better place now than we were certainly a year ago."

(The Center Square) – Teacher’s guide learning modules and self-assessment tools for students are part of the third annual Student Guide to Artificial Intelligence, a production of Elon University, the American Association of Colleges and Universities, and The Princeton Review.

“Capacities such as critical inquiry, ethical reasoning, creativity and communication are more important than ever because they enable students to engage AI thoughtfully, question its outputs and apply knowledge with judgment and purpose,” said President Lynn Pasquerella of the AAC&U.

Authors say, “The guide draws on 10 voices across centuries and cultures – from Aristotle, Cicero and Descartes to Mencius and Ptahhotep – whose enduring insights into human judgment, creativity, ethics and wisdom take on new urgency as AI reshapes how we learn and work.”

Artificial intelligence is a burgeoning influence on the world. In American, second-term Republican President Donald Trump has reversed a number of Biden era policies inclusive of deregulation, accelerating private-sector innovation and promotion of “ideologically neutral” artificial intelligence. He’s concerned with competition from China.

In April, the Elon University Imagining the Digital Future Center and Elon University Poll found 82% believing artificial intelligence will play “a significantly larger role in shaping people’s lives and key societal functions in the next 10 years or less.” The resilience infrastructure is to “counterbalance the human and systemic challenges posed by widespread AI adoption.”

The sampling Dec. 26 to Feb. 12 invited more than 4,000 experts to weigh in.

“The central risk described by these experts is not a single catastrophic AI event,” said Janna Anderson, professor of communications and senior researcher for the center. “They said accelerated AI use will lead to a cumulative reallocation of human agency until people and institutions find it harder to question, contest or even notice what has changed. That drift can look like ‘progress’ in the short term, but it has a price – the gradual weakening of human judgment, accountability, shared truth and the social fabric that makes self-government possible.”

Rob Franek, editor in chief at The Princeton Review, said students are “both excited by AI and uncertain about how to use it well.”

“What they’re really looking for is guidance,” he said. “This field guide meets that moment by translating big ideas – like critical thinking, creativity and ethical decision-making – into practical habits students can use every day.”

More than 4,000 colleges, universities, schools and organizations access Student Guide to Artificial Intelligence publications. More than 87,000 users in 170 countries have been provided information through the guide’s website.

The American Association of Colleges and Universities, headquartered in Washington, is an international organization billing itself as “a global membership organization dedicated to advancing the democratic purposes of higher education by promoting equity, innovation, and excellence in liberal education.”

The Princeton Review, headquartered in New York City, is not affiliated with Princeton University. The private organization provides test preparation, tutoring and college admission services.

(The Center Square) – The U.S. House committee that oversees election laws advanced multiple bills Thursday to stop fraudulent campaign donations and foreign influence in elections.

Three of the Republican-led bills arose out of committee Chairman Bryan Steil’s, R-Wis., three-year investigation into online campaign fundraising platform ActBlue.

“Our current campaign finance laws were not written for the digital age,” Steil said during the Thursday markup. “Through our investigation, we’ve learned that fraudsters and foreign nationals could exploit the current system to make illegal campaign finance contributions. That’s an unacceptable vulnerability and we have an opportunity to fix it.”

Steil’s three-year investigation into ActBlue not only revealed the platform’s “weak” fraud prevention practices, but more importantly identified security gaps in America’s existing campaign financing laws.

To close those potential loopholes for fraud, the Campaign Finance Transparency Act would require political donations made via credit or debit card to include a CVV/CVC number, billing zip code, and a name that matches the name of the donor.

It would also prohibit political contributions via prepaid gift cards and require platforms to report all political donations, not just those over a certain dollar amount.

Contributions made from donors without a U.S. mailing address would require document verification to ensure that foreign actors are not using American identities to funnel money to preferred political candidates.

The other two bills sent to the House floor – the Preventing Foreign Interference in American Elections Act and the Stop Foreign Funds in Elections Act – aim to prevent foreign money from influencing how U.S. elections are conducted and what proposals make it to the ballot.

“Foreign nationals cannot be allowed to influence American elections,” Steil said. “That’s why I introduced the Preventing Foreign Interference in American Elections Act, which bans foreign nationals from donating to electioneering activities. This includes voter registration, get out the vote efforts, and ballot harvesting.”

In 2024, foreign billionaires moved money through nonprofit “dark money” groups like the Sixteen Thirty Fund to support progressive ballot initiatives related to abortion access and automatic voter registration in multiple states, including Ohio, Arizona and Nevada. Such activities are currently legal under federal election laws.

With the midterm elections quickly approaching, the Republican-controlled Congress has amped up attempts to reform or restructure election and voting laws, arguing that both federal and state-level election rules are inadequate to protect election security and prevent fraud.

The House-passed SAVE America Act, which would strengthen voter identification requirements nationwide, faltered and effectively died in the Senate after it became clear that every Democratic senator would oppose it.

(The Center Square) – Responses are due by 5 p.m. Thursday in Virginia’s emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court over the commonwealth’s congressional redistricting dispute, as outside groups and legislative officials continue weighing in ahead of any action from the court.

Chief Justice John Roberts earlier this week ordered responses to the emergency stay request filed by Virginia House Democrats and state officials after the Virginia Supreme Court voided the Commonwealth’s April redistricting referendum.

The May 8 ruling found lawmakers missed a constitutional deadline because early voting for the November 2025 House of Delegates elections had already begun when the General Assembly approved the amendment on Oct. 31.

Three outside groups have now filed amicus briefs in the case.

The NAACP Virginia State Conference and Advancement Project filed in support of the stay request, saying the Virginia Supreme Court adopted an incorrect interpretation of election law.

The NAACP brief argues the ruling effectively discarded more than 3.1 million ballots cast during the referendum.

A separate filing from West Virginia Attorney General John B. McCuskey opposed the stay request, saying the dispute centers on Virginia constitutional law and does not present a federal question for the U.S. Supreme Court to review.

The West Virginia filing also said changing course this close to the 2026 election cycle could create confusion for voters and election officials ahead of 2026.

“A stay would only further compound the confusion, inviting a whiplash situation in which elections are held under new maps for just one election, only to revert to the old maps for the next, all at the behest of this court,” the filing states.

The American Center for Law and Justice also opposed the stay and said the amendment process violated additional state constitutional requirements involving timing and ballot language.

The clerks of the Virginia House of Delegates and Virginia Senate also filed a response Thursday supporting the emergency application, saying legislative immunity issues tied to the case were not addressed in the Virginia Supreme Court’s May 8 ruling.

Roberts has not indicated when the court may act after responses are filed. The court could rule quickly, request additional briefing or take no immediate action.

(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump is asking Congress to approve the largest military budget in American history for an agency that has never passed a financial audit.

The Department of Defense, rebranded the Department of War by the Trump administration, says it has a new plan to finally clear that hurdle, but a congressional watchdog warns the effort may prioritize balancing the books over fixing the underlying problems.

The department is seeking $1.5 trillion for fiscal year 2027, a 44% increase from current spending levels, despite failing eight consecutive audits and remaining the only major federal agency never to pass one, unable to fully account for about $4.7 trillion in assets.

In March, the Pentagon unveiled a revised audit strategy that shifts away from repairing the internal controls needed to produce reliable financial data and instead emphasizes validating account balances through a combination of artificial intelligence, automation and hands-on verification.

"We rely on internal controls where they exist, maximize the use of artificial intelligence and automation wherever we can, and have the auditors perform substantive testing where they must," Deputy Chief Financial Officer Thomas Harker told lawmakers.

Subcommittee Chairman Pete Sessions, R-Texas, welcomed the new approach but said questions remained.

"I'm encouraged by this approach, but still have questions about how sustainable this approach is for the entire department and how the department will prioritize high-risk areas that need attention," he said.

The Pentagon's size and complexity make the challenge immense. The Marine Corps is the only military branch to receive a clean audit opinion, a process that required more than 70 site visits and physical inventories of roughly 26 million assets, even though the Marines account for just over 1% of the department's total assets.

The Government Accountability Office, Congress's investigative watchdog, warned that the Pentagon's new approach appears "more focused on bookkeeping" than correcting the systemic weaknesses that caused the audit failures in the first place.

"Even if under the new approach DOD achieves a clean audit opinion by the end of 2028, the department's financial management will likely still be on the high-risk list," said Asif Khan, the GAO's director of financial management and assurance. "The department will still need to turn its attention back toward improving systems, internal controls, business processes and operations throughout the department."

Khan also warned that weak internal controls, combined with a proposed $441 billion increase in military spending, could increase the risk of waste, fraud and abuse. He compared the vulnerability to the fraud that plagued several federal relief programs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The money may not be going to the right places," Khan told lawmakers.

The department expects to spend $1.7 billion on audit-related work in fiscal year 2027 alone, according to GAO, about the cost of a dozen F-22 Raptor fighter jets.

Pentagon officials have pushed back on the characterization that the department's audit problems reflect poor financial management. Acting comptroller Jules Hurst told reporters in April that the difficulty lies less in wasteful spending than in tracking and valuing decades-old military assets.

"We buy a nuclear missile in the 1970s and then we have to account for the present-day value, which includes every single repair or modification we made of that missile over 50-plus years," Hurst said. "That's the kind of stuff that makes it hard for the department to get an audit."

The explanation did little to satisfy lawmakers at Wednesday's hearing.

"In all good conscience, I can't vote for that, knowing we've gone seven straight years without an audit," Rep. Kweisi Mfume, the committee's ranking Democrat, said.

The department has, in fact, undergone eight consecutive audits since 2018, but has failed each one.