Federal spending projects that are $1 billion or more over budget and five years or more behind schedule can no longer avoid public accountability, thanks to the bipartisan “Billion-Dollar Boondoggles Act” signed into law October 8 by President Donald Trump.

The new law requires the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to make public on its website annual reports to Congress covering government spending programs that exceed the billion-dollar threshold or that fall behind a congressionally mandated schedule.

The new reports must name primary contractors, subcontractors, grant recipients and subgrantees, and include applicable contract and/or award numbers to ensure public access to the details of those documents. The new law also requires agencies to provide OMB with detailed explanations for delays and cost increases, as well as the justification for any bonuses or incentive fees paid to individuals and/or firms working on the project.

Trump’s action comes against a backdrop of blunt urgency provided by the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) warning earlier this year that federal spending is out of control and heading the nation to a fiscal crisis in the increasingly near future.

“The federal government is on an unsustainable fiscal path that poses serious economic, national security, and societal challenges if not addressed. Nearly every year this century, the government has spent more than it collected in revenue. To finance these deficits, the government has had to borrow by issuing debt,” GAO explained.

“If current spending and revenue policies continue, the nation’s fiscal outlook is projected to deteriorate further, as debt accumulates at a faster rate than the economy grows. GAO projects that under current revenue and spending policies, debt held by the public will reach its historical high of 106 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2029 and grow to 251 percent of GDP in 2056,” reported the investigative arm of Congress.

The last time the federal government balanced its annual budget to spend less than it received in tax revenues was the fiscal year spanning Oct. 1, 2000 to Sept. 31, 2001. That budget was the last of four consecutive annual budgets worked out in negotiations between Democratic President Bill Clinton and Republican congressional majorities. There have been annual deficits every year since then in the 21st century regardless of which of the two major political parties has held the White House and congressional majorities.

The national debt hit an all-time record of $40.3 trillion on October 8, the same day Trump signed the Boondoggles measure into law. The GAO report further warned that the spiraling national debt will be higher than any previous high mark, including those reached as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, World Wars I and II, the Great Recession of 2008, and the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The GAO warning is not unique. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has been warning for years about the potential fiscal disasters associated with unrestrained deficit spending and rising debt. In its February 2026 Budget Outlook report, CBO pointed out that “relative to the size of the economy, the deficit is 5.8% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2026 and grows to 6.7% in 2036, which is greater than the 3.8% deficits averaged over the past 50 years. Rising net interest costs drive much of that increase.”

Interest payments on the national debt in the fiscal year ending Sept. 31, 2026, were 25% higher than total national defense spending, according to CBO.

Senators Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) were the main sponsors of the Boondoggles measure in the Senate. The Iowa Republican, who is not seeking re-election in November, emphasized in a statement that the measure was needed because “Washington math doesn’t add up, but my Billion Dollar Boondoggle law will restore accountability to its shady accounting. Taxpayers deserve this transparency, and it will protect them from being put on the hook for hundreds of billions of dollars sunk into failed and mismanaged projects plagued by massive cost overruns and never-ending delays.”

Ernst also disclosed five new examples of spending projects that are far over budget and behind schedule, including:

• “F-35 Modernization (Department of War): $89.5 billion over budget since being rebased in 2012, increasing from $395.7 billion to $485.2 billion, and five years behind schedule, now expected in 2031.
• “Hudson River Tunnel (Department of Transportation): $3 billion over budget, increasing from $12.7 billion to $15.7 billion, and three years behind schedule, now expected in 2038.
• “Rebuilding Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge (Department of Transportation): Up to $3.5 billion over budget, increasing from as low as $1.7 billion to as high as $5.2 billion, and two years behind schedule, now expected in 2030.
• “Saturn Dragonfly Spacecraft (NASA): $2.5 billion over budget, nearly quadrupling from $850 million to $3.35 billion, and more than two years behind schedule, now expected in July 2028.
• “Palo Alto VA Medical Center (Department of Veterans Affairs): $1.2 billion over budget, increasing from $450.3 million to $1.6 billion, and 21 years behind schedule, now expected in 2036 instead of 2015.”

In the same statement, Hassan described the bill as a “commonsense, bipartisan bill that will give the public greater visibility into how their tax dollars are being used and it will help Congress identify wasteful spending. I am pleased to see this bill signed into law and I will continue working with my colleagues of both parties to protect taxpayer dollars and increase government transparency.”