Glimmer of Progress Seen In House Intelligence Committee Transcript

After all of the political points have been scored, debated, and forgotten, the legacy of these memos will remain: they showed that the House Intelligence Committee could not withstand the pressures of politics. Glimmer of Progress Seen In House Intelligence Committee Transcript After all of the political points have been scored, debated, and forgotten, the legacy of these memos will remain: they showed that the House Intelligence Committee could not withstand the pressures of politics. However, it is encouraging to see that the Chairman has recognized that the members of the Committee should have access to the underlying documents. We are pleased that some Committee members shared the concerns we raised in our joint letter, specifically Representative Speier, and forced this issue again on Monday. Read More Gutting Civil Service Laws Would Reduce Senior Official Accountability Weaker civil service laws would easily undermine whistleblower protections and other protections that insulate the roughly 1.8 million-person career federal workforce from retaliation and political favoritism. Read more Insider Threat Programs Could Chill Whistleblowing, Agency Warns Agencies throughout the federal government should evaluate whether insider threat programs and electronic monitoring of employee communications are chilling would-be whistleblowers, according to new guidance issued last week by OSC. Read more Homeland Security Falling Short in Managing Risky Contractors The Department of Homeland Security—which awarded over $23 billion in contracts, grants, and other federal assistance in fiscal year 2017—needs to improve the way it keeps track of risky awardees, according to a recent IG report. Read more Kicking the F-35’s Tires Average F-35B tire life is below 10 landings, well below the requirement for 25 conventional full-stop landings. Think of it as military procurement in microcosm: Taxpayers will have paid to develop it, but what they paid for won’t actually do what it is supposed to do. Read more Congressional Oversight Fellows Announcing First Class of Congressional Oversight Fellows POGO is excited to announce the placement of the first two POGO Congressional Oversight Fellows, Jim Getz and Andrea Noble. Each will spend a year learning more about Congressional oversight by serving alongside professional staff on Congressional committees. Read more about the fellowship program Get to Know The Constitution Project at POGO Learn about TCP's issues: Warrantless surveillance Authorization of military force Congressional oversight powers Judicial independence POGO in the News     NPR - Civics 101 Podcast Civics 101 Podcast - "Episode 97: Inspectors General," featuring POGO's Director of Public Policy, Liz Hempowicz   Liz Hempowicz: What happens to these [Inspector General] reports? They're full of recommendations on how to reduce waste, fraud, abuse, mismanagement in an agency, but it really is then up to the agency to implement those recommendations. And up to Congress to conduct the oversight over the agency and make sure that they either are implementing the recommendations or have a good reason why they aren't.  I think that's one of the frustrations for Inspectors General is that they don't have this power to compel change. But what they do have is the power to put out compelling documents that say, "This is why this change is necessary. This is the money it'll save." My favorite statistic is that for every $1 spent in an IG office, on average they find a savings of $17, and that's taxpayer money. So that's that's good and exciting, but that only really matters if the agency is implementing those changes.       The Wall Street Journal U.S. Warns Agencies Over Whistleblower Rights   The Project on Government Oversight said in a blog post on Wednesday the memos originated after the nonpartisan watchdog group raised concerns last year that efforts to contain leaks of information–such as so-called insider-threat programs and communications monitoring–were restraining whistleblowers. “The Office of Special Counsel took action responsive to concerns and recommendations that POGO expressed last year,” said Daniel Van Schooten, the POGO investigator who wrote the post, in an email.       CNBC Audit finds Pentagon failed to properly keep track of $800 million in projects, says report   "I expect we'll see much more of these things as the audit process goes on," said Dan Grazier, a former Marine captain and defense industry expert at the Project On Government Oversight, a Washington watchdog group. "There are a couple of auditing firms that are being hired to ... check all the books and property records and those kind of things."       Politico Husband of former Trump household aide scores government job   Scott Amey, the Project on Government Oversight’s general counsel, said there has been a pattern of “questionable hiring” across both Republican and Democratic administrations for decades, noting that presidents’ friends and acquaintances often get tapped for ambassadorships and other top job.  But hiring people at government agencies with little relevant experience can backfire, he said.  “If you put friends in high places and they don’t have the proper qualifications it can have disastrous results for the agency and for taxpayers,” Amey said. “We hope that public service positions are filled with people that are qualified to best serve the public interest.”       The Daily Beast ICE Wants to Be an Intelligence Agency Under Trump   “The idea that ICE could potentially get access to warrantless surveillance is frankly terrifying,” Jake Laperruque, senior counsel at the Project on Government Oversight, told The Daily Beast.       Dayton Daily News Trump calls for end of military budget sequester   Dan Grazier, a Project On Government Oversight defense fellow in Washington, D.C, said an audit of Pentagon spending is needed before more money is spent on expensive weapon systems or wasteful projects.  “What needs to happen is the Pentagon needs to figure out how to spend the money it is given first before we ever consider raising Pentagon spending,” he said. He noted a Defense Business Board study in 2015 that claimed $125 billion in wasteful spending within the Defense Department could be eliminated over five years. More will be found as the Pentagon completes the long-expected audit of where and on what it’s spending billions of dollars, he said.  “That’s really the tip of the iceberg,” he said. “We’re going to find all kinds of things out over the next year or so as the first audit goes through.”The Defense Department “is a big organization spread all over the world,” the former Marine officer added. “There are a lot of inefficiencies built into it.”       National Journal Ethical Predicaments Weigh Down Opioids Effort   Ethical experts say the host of problems that Trump appointees have faced may reflect a breakdown in the vetting process. "What is a little different with the Trump administration is how many appointees have actually been named, and even taken their positions, where major ethics dilemmas still exist," said Scott Amey, general counsel at the Project On Government Oversight, a nonprofit watchdog group. "I think in a lot of other administrations some of these people would have never been named. If you have appropriate vtting even before names come out, then some of these people may not have made the short list and certainly wouldn't have been appointed to the position."       BuzzFeed Exxon's Seven-Year Campaign To Kill An Anti-Corruption Rule Finally Worked   “They get to say they support transparency,” Mia Steinle, investigator of Project on Government Oversight and civil society coordinator for the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative in the US, told BuzzFeed News. “But at the same time they’re fighting the SEC and fighting Congress to stop the rules that would be enforcing it.”       Federal News Radio Liz Hempowicz: Past, present, future of whistleblower protection laws   A former Justice Department lawyer recently pleaded guilty to stealing sealed whistleblower records before he joined a private law firm. He offered to sell them to their targets, but got caught. The case illustrates how precarious whistleblowers can still be despite several recent laws to protect their rights. Liz Hempowicz, director of public policy at the Project on Government Oversight, joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin to talk more about what to expect from present and future whistleblower laws.       Business Insider The entire ethics program was now in jeopardy': Former US ethics chief recalls the moment he realized Trump could make money off the presidency   Danielle Brian, the executive director of the nonprofit Project on Government Oversight, said Trump was setting a dangerous precedent. "Previous administrations have sort of cared a lot about trying to do something about a violation of those conflicts of interest standards, and we have an administration now that honestly doesn't care," she told NPR.       Business Insider Trump stunned ethics experts with his surprising, 'excellent choice' to lead the government office that's been a huge thorn in his side   Norm Eisen, who served as the top ethics official for President Barack Obama, retweeted Painter's praise for Rounds. And Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, tweeted that if Shaub and Painter "are game for this guy then I'm thrilled!"       Compliance Week Groups call for expulsion of Exxon and Chevron from anti-corruption group   EITI is an organization that sets global standard for the good governance of oil, gas and mineral resources. Its focus in on key governance issues in the extractive sectors. Among those signing the Feb. 7 letter were representatives of the: Project on Government Oversight; Pipeline Safety Coalition; Global Witness; and Publish What You Pay.       Government Executive Lawmakers Revive Effort to Curb Agency Payments to Dead People   The nonprofit Project on Government Oversight also sent a letter endorsing the bill.