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The New York Times Editorial Board weighed in on Pentagon spending this week: "Yet the ground troops who are doing the actual fighting say there is no crisis, according to the analyst Mark Thompson of the Center for Defense Information at the Project on Government Oversight. Other experts say claims of a deteriorating military are exaggerated."
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A series of surprise inspections found immigrant detainees were subject to unnecessary strip searches, waited days for urgent medical care, and were placed in solitary confinement for minor infractions, among other issues.
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With just weeks before a controversial warrantless-surveillance authority expires, Congress took another step toward potential reauthorization—one that is a significant step backwards on protection of our rights.
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How did biotech executive John F. Crowley, who President Donald Trump singled out for praise in a February address to Congress, move a stalled experimental drug called migalastat onto a fast track for review at the Food and Drug Administration this year?
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We narrowly avoided a government shutdown last week, and may well still face one at the end of this month. Some folks might think that a federal government shutdown won’t affect them. But such thinking fails to consider the full scope of would result if the government did shut down.
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Congress is considering a simple but important step in overseeing federal agencies. A recently introduced bill would require a one-stop, easy-to-use, online location for all congressionally mandated reports. This may put an end to the world of lost and hidden government reports.
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For more than a quarter-century, four U.S. leaders have tried, and failed, to halt North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. Presidents Clinton, W. Bush, and Obama had a nascent threat on their hands. Now, the threat has become real for President Trump.
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Get to Know The Constitution Project at POGO
POGO in the News
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It’s certainly true that the military, cut back after the Cold War, was strained during the 16 years of near constant war after Sept. 11. Yet the ground troops who are doing the actual fighting say there is no crisis, according to the analyst Mark Thompson of the Center for Defense Information at the Project on Government Oversight. Other experts say claims of a deteriorating military are exaggerated.
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Sean Moulton, open government program manager for the Washington-based nonprofit Project on Government Oversight, says public comments ensure that the public can “have its voice heard and considered.”
A Pew Research Center analysis of the nearly 22 million public comments on net neutrality submitted to the FCC found that the vast majority were repeats, with more than 75,000 comments submitted at the exact same second on nine different occasions — possibly indicating these were automated submissions, such as in organized bot campaigns.
The FCC received five times the number of comments it did under the Obama administration and shaved a month off its review time, completing it in four months, Moulton says.
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Transparency International, headquartered in Berlin, issued the survey along with four U.S. watchdog groups: the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), Sunlight Foundation, OpenTheGovernment.org and the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency Coalition (FACT). They recommended steps to clean up government institutions, including stronger ethics agencies and an end to shell corporations and secret political money.
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Still, cuts in the civilian staff could push more work onto relatively expensive contractors and military officers, potentially raising costs over time, said Scott Amey, general counsel at the Project on Government Oversight, a non-partisan watchdog group.
"If we're just cutting jobs to cut jobs then mistakes are likely to be made," Amey said after reviewing Reuters' calculations of OPM data.
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Scott Amey, general counsel for the ethics watchdog Project on Government Oversight, says this case raises concerns. “This administration has put Whitefish, Montana, on the map, so to speak,” he said. “And this recent instance appears to constitute another questionable tie to Secretary Zinke that deserves further review to ensure that no ethics or travel violations occurred.”
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Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, an independent watchdog group founded in 1981 that investigates corruption and misconduct, agreed. Meyer has been a champion for whistleblowers and has attracted "enemies inside the bureaucracy," Brian said. "This looks like a blatant attempt to get rid of him simply because he is doing his job."
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Mandy Smithberger, director of the Straus Military Reform Project at the nonprofit Washington, D.C.-based Project on Government Oversight, believes the Navy will try to keep making the littoral combat ships work for their needs, but the path they took to get here was “unnecessarily wasteful, forcing taxpayers to pay for costly changes and retrofits” during a “set sail before it fails strategy.”
She pointed to Rowden’s decision to seek bids on a new frigate to replace the LCS as a sign of a program that’s still bedeviled by longstanding problems.
“There are still concerns about the survivability of the LCS and whether it can survive a hit, which is what the frigate program may address,” she said by email. “But it's clear that most of the decisions about this program were to protect jobs, not about what was best for the Navy. Right now it looks like the LCS won't be able to fulfill the mine countermeasure mission, and can't perform traditional frigate missions, either.”
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Jake Laperruque, senior counsel [...] said the Federal Bureau of Investigation is increasingly relying on facial-recognition technology, by which computers scour video for “face prints” that can then be compared to a database including driver’s license photos.
Laperruque said it’s generally true that the law allows any public or private group or individual to take video in places where there is not a “reasonable expectation of privacy,” like a street or a park, and without any notice to the public. State “peeping tom” laws prohibit images of private spaces — like a bedroom — from being captured from public spaces — like the sidewalk.
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Scott Amey, general counsel for the ethics watchdog Project on Government Oversight, says this case raises concerns. “This administration has put Whitefish, Montana, on the map, so to speak,” he said. “And this recent instance appears to constitute another questionable tie to Secretary Zinke that deserves further review to ensure that no ethics or travel violations occurred.”
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“Those in charge of Trump businesses must avoid any involvement in federal governmental affairs, such as by having access to information that isn’t available to the public,” Scott Amey, general counsel at the Project on Government Oversight, told ThinkProgress in an email. “It’s one thing to support your father, it’s another thing to cash in on his public service and gain a competitive advantage or preferential treatment because your father is the President.”
[...] “I think all of the Trumps have to be mindful that those in government service have a duty to the public, and those running the family business should stay in that lane,” added POGO’s Scott Amey. “The more those lines are blurred, the more questions will arise about the integrity of this administration and whether it is serving the public or its own personal or business interests.”
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According to Jake Laperruque, Senior Counsel at The Constitution Project, a ruling for Carpenter may raise questions that Congress will have to address. “Location data is extremely sensitive, and the Court seems prepared to act to protect this sensitive information from pervasive government surveillance,” he said. “In the likely event that Carpenter prevails, Congress will need to act to provide clarity and clear boundaries and rules on government access to location data. A positive ruling would be a huge victory for privacy rights, but will bring a host of questions on cell-site tracking, stingrays, and even newly evolving tracking techniques such as facial recognition.”
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“The fact that the programme has not even contracted for all the testing aircraft and has been favoring purchasing new aircraft is telling that they’re not taking the testing process very seriously,” says Dan Grazier, a fellow at the Project on Government Oversight.
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He overnighted a letter — obtained by the Project on Government Oversight — to Gottlieb explaining that the company had determined that it would take an extraordinary 5 to 7 years to complete a Phase III study of gastrointestinal symptoms that the agency had determined would be required before it could consider offering a green light for marketing.
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“There’s a really good chance you’re in danger if you’re that close,” said Sean Moulton, one of the contributors to the center’s report who now works for the Project on Government Oversight. That organization took over most of the Center for Effective Government’s work in March 2016.
“Certain societal forces got us to this point,” he said. “We need to do something about future facilities and figure out a way to reach out to communities that are there now, ensuring that they have the proper tools and knowledge to deal with short-term emergencies and address long-term consequences of living near these facilities.”
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Hill Country Community Journal
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According to the Project on Government Oversight, the cost of hiring a contractor is 1.83 times more expensive on average, than hiring a federal employee in the same position.
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