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All of the services are increasingly resorting to schemes for high-profile weapons acquisition programs. The danger to the taxpayers, to say nothing of the men and women who will have to take these systems into combat one day, is that these complex and expensive weapons systems aren’t subjected the kind of outside scrutiny necessary to ensure the services are purchasing suitable and effective equipment.
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Special Counsel Robert Mueller deserves the support of all Americans. As Republicans and/or conservatives, including those who have served in elected and appointed positions, we reject recent efforts to discredit him.
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Overall, since 1986, the False Claims Act has helped taxpayers claw back more than $56 billion—an average of $1.8 billion per year. As in past years, the largest share of the recoveries—about two-thirds—involved health care fraud. But a substantial sum also came from some of Uncle Sam’s largest contractors.
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Get to Know The Constitution Project at POGO
Learn about TCP's issues:
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POGO in the News
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"These are top public officials who work for the U.S. citizens, and they have a right to know who they're meeting with and what they're doing,” said Sean Moulton, the open government program manager at the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog group.
[...] “It has been hit or miss, even under the Obama administration,” Moulton said. But he said the Trump White House set the tone when it announced in April that it would refuse to publish its visitor logs on the grounds of “national security risks and privacy concerns,” breaking with the Obama administration’s policy.
[...] Moulton, of the Project on Government Oversight, called it “troubling” that agencies have forced groups to resort to litigation to obtain records that have long been recognized as subject to FOIA. "There are simple and complex requests,” he said. “This should be one of those simple requests."
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In August of 2016 during the campaign, the State Department released emails from former Clinton aide Huma Abedin that conservative groups said showed evidence of “special expedited access to the secretary of State” for some donors who had contributed from $25,000 to $10 million to the Clinton Foundation. Many of the exchanges involve former top Foundation executive Doug Band.
Yet Scott Amey, general counsel at the nonpartisan Project on Government Oversight, or POGO, told USA TODAY that while the emails showed some donors requesting meetings and access, there wasn't evidence they were granted, meriting further investigation.
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Even so, aircraft specialists point out that the F-35 continues to have severe structural problems and that its high-tech computer command system is vulnerable to cyberattack. “This plane has a long way to go before it’s combat-ready,” remarked a military analyst at the Project on Government Oversight. “Given how long it’s been in development, you have to wonder whether it’ll ever be ready.”
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The first year of the contract obligates the CBP to pay nearly $43 million, Scott Amey, general counsel for the Washington-based Project on Government Oversight, told Bloomberg Law on Jan. 4. This is for the hiring of 440 customs enforcement officers, 150 Border Patrol agents, and 32 air and marine interdiction agents, he said.
“Although there is a surge in CBP hiring and a need to fill openings, the contract’s cost and scope of work, some of which is very close to inherently governmental, deserves a second look,” Amey said in an email. “Considering that the first $43 million only hires 622 officers and agents, I think Uncle Sam and Accenture should be ready to answer some questions.”
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Lydia Dennett, an expert on foreign lobbying and investigator at Project On Government Oversight (POGO) said that this filing appears to be illegal. “It does look like they registered significantly late which is, technically, a violation of the law” she said. However, she cautioned that these laws are rarely enforced, “we here at POGO have found (and confirmed by the DOJ Inspector General) these kind of violations are shockingly common.”
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"Much of the criticism of Mueller seems political, said Scott Amey, general counsel for the Project on Government Oversight, one of the watchdog groups that supports a new law to protect Mueller and future special counsels.
“A lot of Republicans stood behind special counsel Mueller’s investigation when he was named,” Amey told The Daily Signal. “Now that the investigation is going on and some of the counts are against people formerly associated with the Trump campaign or administration, they are afraid it will affect the administration and maybe trickle down to them during the midterms.”
Amey said he believes Mueller’s team should be subject to oversight just as any government entity is. But, he said, the removal of Strzok, the FBI agent, shows the team has addressed staffing controversies.
“There are certainly questions that could be raised about the scope of Mueller’s work and his prosecutorial team,” Amey said. “That can be resolved through proper oversight by the Justice Department and from Congress to ensure it stays on course.”
[..] Still, four government watchdog groups—Issue One, Open the Government, Project on Government Oversight, and the Sunlight Foundation—last month signed a letter urging Congress to support a bill called the Special Counsel Integrity Act that would make it more difficult to fire a special counsel.
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The more complicated a military weapon platform becomes, the more expensive it is to maintain, and nearly every platform is growing more complicated. Perhaps the ultimate in needy platforms is the F-35, and it’s not even fully deployed yet. Dan Grazier, a fellow at the Project on Government Oversight, took a close look at the requirements in maintenance contracts and found some surprising facts. He shares the details on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.
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The letter was signed by dozens of groups affiliated with the Make It Safe Coalition, which includes organizations from across the ideological spectrum, including the National Taxpayers Union and Liberty Coalition on the libertarian right, and Public Citizen and the Union of Concerned Scientists on the liberal left. The coalition also includes whistleblower advocacy groups such as the Government Accountability Project and the Project on Government Oversight.
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Storch replaces George Ellard, who in December 2016 was asked to leave as NSA IG after an external review convened under Presidential Policy Directive 19 found he took personal actions against a whistleblower. A report from the Project on Government Oversight originally uncovered the decision on Ellard, who openly condemned the actions of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
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“It’s an abdication of congressional responsibility to provide the armed forces with adequate time to plan to spend its fund as smartly as possible,” Mark Thompson, a national security analyst with the Project On Government Oversight in Washington, D.C., said in an email. “Lord knows, the Pentagon needs all the help it can get in doing that, and Congress isn’t helping.”
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