Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the Pentagon is canceling more than $580 million in contracts and grants, including a delayed and overbudget human resources (HR) software project.
These recent cuts, detailed in a memo on March 20, bring the Department of Defense’s (DoD) total eliminated programs to $800 million since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term.
Among the cuts is the Defense Civilian HR Management System (DCHRMS) software development program and associated active contracts at the Defense HR Activity (DHRA). The program is currently six years behind schedule and more than $280 million over budget.
“That’s 780 percent over budget. We’re not doing that anymore,” Hegseth said in a video posted on social media platform X.
The DCHRMS is a cloud-based HR transactional system developed by DHRA to streamline and standardize personnel processes, integrating six databases into one, and replacing the Defense Civilian Personnel Data System – DoD’s legacy HR information technology stack.
The program still has at least two more years of development and testing before it can be operated. But according to Hegseth, further investment in the project “would be throwing more good taxpayer money after bad.”
Moving forward, Hegseth has directed the DoD Performance Improvement Officer to work with the director of DHRA, DoD Chief Information Officer, the military services, and HR service providers to develop a new plan for the effort within two months.
Other cuts include $360 million in grants for funding research efforts in areas such as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI); climate change; social science; and the COVID-19 pandemic response. There was also a cut of $30 million in contracts with external consulting firms for analysis products, which the secretary labeled as “not mission-critical to executing the Department’s priorities.”
“Collectively, these terminations represent over $580 million in wasteful spending … and nearly $170 million in estimated savings which we can reallocate to mission-critical priorities,” Hegseth wrote.
The reductions are part of the Trump administration’s collaboration with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
In its initial round, DOGE identified $80 million in wasteful DoD spending to slash, including a $1.9 million for diversity, equity and inclusion training in the Air Force and $6 million to the University of Montana to “strengthen American democracy by bridging divides.”
