Video: Lawmaker Asks ‘Jeopardy’-Style Questions to DOD Officials During Hearing

Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) asked “Jeopardy”-style questions to officials from the Department of Defense (DoD) during a hearing centered around financial accountability.

During the joint meeting held by the National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs and the Government Operations and the Federal Workforce subcommittees, Porter held up a sign titled, “JeopardDoD!” explaining that she would be asking questions related to categories like waste, missing guardrails and people who were responsible for blowing up the defense budget.

Porter’s game was styled after the popular television game show, “Jeopardy” in which contestants pick a category and a number amount. The host then asks them a question to which the contestants then give the answer in the form of a question.

President Joe Biden released his budget plan for the 2024 fiscal year, which called for an increase in the DoD’s discretionary budget to $842 billion, a 3.2% rise from the following year.

“In Washington, the same game is played year after year,” Porter began. She continued: “The president requests a massive defense budget, lawmakers don’t want to be seen as soft on national security, and defense lobbyists exploit that. Congress then falls into line and passes an expensive defense package, and then we do the same thing again the next year. That’s the game that lawmakers and lobbyists play with our tax dollars.”