The Air Force Was Paying $10,000 To Replace A Toilet Seat Cover Until Last Year

Until recently, the U.S. Air Force was paying $10,000 to replace a toilet seat cover on certain aircraft.

Will Roper, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics, in May said the military was paying $10,000 to replace toilet seat covers on certain military planes, according to a June letter written by Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican.

Though the cover costs about $10,000 to replace, it only costs around $300 to make through a 3-D printer, Roper said.

The Air Force's $10,000 Toilet Seat Cover by Jared Keller

The plane with the toilet seat in question, a C-5 Galaxy, is a Vietnam-era military cargo plane that dates back to the 1960s, The Washington Post reports. Although the Air Force has replaced the toilet seat covers at least three times, all future replacements will be 3-D printed at a lower cost, according to The Post.

In his June, letter Grassley tried to bring the issue of the toilet seat cover to the attention of the Department of Defense’s Inspector General. He asked the OIG to conduct more “aggressive oversight” of the Air Force’s spending and said the toilet seat cover “could be just the tip of the iceberg.”

“It seems to me that there is no way to justify a $10,000 price tag for a toilet seat lid. It’s just not credible. It needs scrutiny,” Grassley wrote in his letter to the inspector general’s office.

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©2018 the Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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