Republicans Upset Over Pentagon's Tactic To Save Money

The Pentagon is trying to save money by limiting the number of document pages it sends to Congress, and that's upsetting Republican lawmakers in the region.

Last week, in a classified briefing, Pentagon officials handed lawmakers 19 pages outlining China's military and any potential security threats, which local Republicans say was laughable. Last year that annual report was 51 pages longer.

The Pentagon says its aim is to keep reports at a mere 15 pages, which Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.) says is unacceptable.

"If that's all they deliver, that's woefully inadequate, because our professional staff really needs much more information than that, or they cannot assist us in our constitutional obligation for oversight," he says. "This is insulting to our staff to give us just that little information."

The Pentagon says it's an effort to save money as it sends Congress more than 500 reports annually. That's not good enough for defense policy makers though, who are demanding more pages and more information from the military.