WASHINGTON, May 22 (RIA Novosti) - U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday signed into law legislation to reduce the financing of wasteful and inefficient military programs.
The bill, known as the Weapons System Acquisition Reform Act, was earlier passed unanimously by both the House of Representatives and Senate.
"This morning, I'm proud to join Democratic and Republican members of Congress for the signing of a bill that will eliminate some of the waste and inefficiency in our defense projects - reforms that will better protect our nation, better protect our troops, and save taxpayers tens of billions of dollars," Obama said at a news conference.
Obama said the Government Accountability Office (GAO) had looked into 95 major defense projects and found cost overruns totaling $295 billion. He also said that the U.S. had to choose between investments designed to keep the American people safe and those that were simply designed to make a defense company or a contractor rich.
"I reject the notion that we have to waste billions of taxpayer dollars to keep this nation secure," he said.
Obama said that exuberant spending was "unexcusable and unconscionable" while the U.S. was fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and attempting to tackle the consequences of the ongoing economic crisis.
"This law will also enhance competition and end conflicts of interest in the weapons acquisitions process so that American taxpayers and the American military can get the best weapons at the lowest cost," he said.
