Audit the Pentagon Act

Enumerated powers · passes

Congress has express constitutional authority over military funding under Article I, Section 8, Clause 12 (power to raise and support Armies) and Clause 14 (power to make rules for the regulation of the land and naval forces). Requiring the Department of Defense to reduce spending for components that fail to achieve a clean audit is a direct exercise of Congress's power to condition appropriations and to ensure accountability over military expenditures. No enumerated power is exceeded.

Bill of Rights · passes

The bill imposes no restriction on speech, religion, assembly, press, petition, arms, quartering, search and seizure, self-incrimination, due process, fair trial, jury, cruel and unusual punishment, or any other right protected by the first ten amendments. It is a fiscal management measure directed at government agencies, not at individuals. No Bill of Rights provision is implicated.

Individual liberty · passes

The bill does not restrict what any individual may do with their own person, property, speech, labor, or belief. It imposes conditions only on federal agencies and their internal budgeting. Individual sovereignty is untouched.

Decentralization · passes

The bill addresses federal military spending, which is a matter constitutionally assigned to the federal government. An individual or family cannot handle Pentagon auditing (Question 1: no). A local community or county cannot handle it (Question 2: no). A state cannot handle it (Question 3: no). The bill does not consolidate decision-making upward beyond the minimum necessary; Congress already has plenary authority over military appropriations, and this bill merely adds a condition to that existing authority. It passes all four questions.

Due process and takings · passes

The bill does not take private property, does not bypass procedural due process, and does not impose arbitrary government action. It applies a clear, non-arbitrary standard (failure to obtain an unqualified audit opinion) and a fixed reduction (2%). The affected entities are federal agencies, not persons, and the Fifth Amendment's Due Process and Takings Clauses protect individuals, not government departments. No due process or takings issue arises.