A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report shows that the amount of ammunition purchased by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has declined each year since 2009.
In fiscal 2009, the department purchased 132.9 million rounds of ammunition at a cost of $33.8 million, the report said. Those numbers dropped to 84.4 million rounds at a cost of $19.2 million in fiscal 2013.
Officials said the decline was due largely to budget constraints.
Sen. Tom Coburn, who highlighted the report Wednesday, said he is “pleased DHS has worked in good faith, and in a transparent manner, with both myself and the GAO.”
“I will continue to conduct rigorous oversight of DHS programs and will specifically work with Congress and the GAO to examine how duplicative federal police forces cause excess and waste across the federal government,” said Mr. Coburn, Oklahoma Republican.
The report said that as of October 2013, DHS estimated it had approximately 159 million rounds in inventory — “enough to last about 22 months to meet the training and operational needs of its firearm-carrying personnel.”
The department has more than 70,000 firearm-carrying personnel.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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