NDAA Amendments Seek to Reform Pentagon’s ‘Revolving Door’

The Pentagon, the headquarters of the Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Va., across the Potomac River from Washington, on Dec. 8, 2019. Daniel Slim/AFP via Getty Images

A recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found that 14 major military contractors have hired 1,718 former senior Pentagon officials over a five-year span. A group of good-governance advocates are pushing reforms seeking to prevent potential conflicts of interest posed by this activity.

The Sept. 9 GAO report found that of 1,497,882 people who left the Department of Defense (DOD) between 2014 and 2019, 37,032 of them went to work for one of the 14 major contractors reviewed. Of those, 1,718 were senior officials, according to the report.