‘Use it or lose it’: Pentagon spending binge set record in final days of fiscal year | CNN Politics

Pentagon spending in September included nearly $9 million on Alaskan king crab and lobster tails, more than $200 million in furniture and $5.3 million in Apple devices – just some of the expenditures that added up to a record $93 billion price tag for the month, according to new analysis published by government watchdog Open the Books. September spending at government agencies typically dwarfs other months because it marks the end of the fiscal year. That’s when “use it or lose it” funding rules kick in for departments rushing to spend the remainder of their budget so as to not forfeit the unused money and have to send it back to the Treasury Department. But according to Open the Books, no federal agency has ever spent so much on grants and contracts in a single month as the Pentagon’s $93.4 billion in September 2025. More than half of that was spent in the final five working days of the month, the watchdog said. The expensive month comes as President Donald Trump has made cutting government spending a focal point of his second term, gutting the federal workforce last year with mass layoffs across federal agencies. At the same time, Trump has called for huge increases to