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Rep. James Bridenstine (R-Okla.) is a former Navy pilot with virtually no management experience in any large organization. But the Oklahoma Republican has been tapped by President Donald Trump to take over the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a federal agency with a budget of $18.5 billion, 18,000 federal workers, and over 60,000 contract employees.
An investigation and review of public records by the Project On Government Oversight shows that, prior to his time in Congress, Bridenstine led a small non-profit organization into hefty financial losses. Some of the losses involved the use of the non-profit’s resources to benefit a company that Bridenstine simultaneously co-owned and in which he’d invested substantial sums of his own money.
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See coverage of our analysis:
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The Congress needs to vote on a war authorization that doesn’t cause yet more erosions to their Constitutional responsibility and will create a real debate in this country over whether we should still be conducting these wars.
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In a landmark decision, a California court recently awarded thousands of dollars in legal expenses to a public interest organization that successfully fought a government contractor’s attempt to block the release of public records.
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For 37 years, POGO has worked—frequently behind the scenes—to help stop the federal government and private contractors from wasting your tax dollars. Our investigations have found billions of dollars in actual and potential savings.
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The past conduct of three contractors who built border wall prototypes should concern contracting officers, and prompt stronger oversight in future contracts to ensure that these companies play by the rules.
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If Senators confirm Haspel to head the CIA without demanding answers, it will be a strong signal to CIA agents that there is no professional downside to taking part in grave human rights violations, or the destruction of evidence.
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The tale of the MQ-25 Stingray tells us a lot about risk, and how much the U.S. Navy and the Pentagon are willing to take these days. It illuminates the basic challenge of military technology: leapfrog everybody else, with all the risk that entails? Or take the easier path, and risk being left behind?
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POGO Testifies Before Congress
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Mandy Smithberger, Director of the Straus Military Reform Project at POGO, testified before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch. She called for strengthening Congress's ability to conduct oversight over classified programs by providing compartmentalized clearances to staff on key oversight committees. Read her testimony or watch it (starting at 51:00) |
Recent Letters to Policymakers
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We Need Your Input!
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As part of our effort to better showcase POGO’s investigative reporting, we’re conducting a short online study. Responses to the study will help us find ways to make our resources easier to navigate. Your input is important to us, so we appreciate your willingness to help! It shouldn’t take longer than 5 to 10 minutes. You may access the study by clicking here. |
Videos: 2018 Ridenhour Prizes
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POGO's Danielle Brian hosted the annual Ridenhour Prizes. Watch speeches from this year's winners: |
POGO in the News
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On Wednesday, the Project on Government Oversight, an independent watchdog organization, raised questions about Mr. Bridenstine’s actions as executive director of the Tulsa Air and Space Museum and Planetarium from 2008 to 2010, before he ran for Congress.
One of the events that he organized as executive was an air show in 2010 featuring races by rocket-powered airplanes — by a business he had personally invested in. That could be considered “self-dealing,” where a nonprofit official directs money from the organization toward a commercial venture the official has a stake in.
Nick Schwellenbach, director of investigations at the watchdog organization, said Mr. Bridenstine’s actions at the museum raise concerns given that the administrator oversees an agency with a $20 billion budget and more than 18,000 employees.
“Someone in that position needs to set a strong ethical tone, from the top, about the proper use of taxpayer dollars,” Mr. Schwellenbach said in an interview.
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Bridenstine now joins the ranks of other Trump appointees whose credentials have been criticized as inadequate or irrelevant for the jobs they’re taking on. He may soon join another, more specific club: Trump appointees swirling in controversy over ethical misconduct. On Wednesday, The Daily Beast reported that Bridenstine allegedly used the resources of the Tulsa Air and Space Museum to benefit a company he co-owned, citing a review of public records by the Project on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan, Washington-based watchdog group. “Evidence of Bridenstine’s self-dealing dates back to December 2008, when the Museum, under his leadership, put its own cash reserves on the line to bring the struggling Rocket Racing League—a company set up to race rocket-powered aircraft before live audiences—to an air show in Tulsa in 2010,” the publication reports. A Bridenstine spokesperson denied the allegations on Thursday.
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It's ultimately Congress that controls the purse strings to fund a program like the F-35. That's why Lockheed and other contractors have generously donated to candidates in both parties—as well as set up facilities in key congressional districts. "They have spread out the subcontracts for the F-35 all over the country, so it's built in 46 different states, probably 350 congressional districts," explains [POGO's Dan] Grazier. "It's virtually impossible really to get an adequate number of votes in Congress to kill something like the F-35 because, from the beginning, the creators of the program designed it to be that way."
[...] "Despite all the technological advances, the human eyeball is still the absolute best visual instrument that's yet been discovered," Grazier argues. "But to give the pilot the ability to use his own eyeballs to see what's going on around him doesn't make money for Rockwell Collins. Rockwell Collins gets a lot of money if we design in a subsystem for an F-35 where a pilot needs to use this really complicated camera system to provide images, that are really far less resolution than his own eyeballs, to get a good look at the world around them."
[...] "His initial instincts on these programs are actually pretty good. Questioning the F-35 is a good instinct." Grazier tells Playboy. "[But] the information that reaches him is very filtered. He talks to generals and the Secretary of Defense, and they'll feed him the information that they want him to see. I think there's a lot of that going on."
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Yet even as inspectors general have widespread support, there have been a number of long-standing IG vacancies under Republican and Democratic administrations. There are 14 vacancies, according to the Project on Government Oversight. The number of days vacant, as of Tuesday, ranged from 137 at the Department of Homeland Security to 3,340 at Interior. Now there is one more — the IG position at the Government Publishing Office became vacant last month.
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A review of a nonprofit Bridenstine led before joining Congress suggests evidence of self-dealing, the Daily Beast’s Nick Schwellenbach and Adam Zagorin report: “Bridenstine led a small non-profit organization into hefty financial losses. Some of the losses involved the use of the non-profit’s resources to benefit a company that Bridenstine simultaneously co-owned and in which he’d invested substantial sums of his own money. … [Bridenstine] has vehemently denied mismanaging the non-profit: the Tulsa Air and Space Museum. His stake in the separate company, the Rocket Racing League, has been well known. But the fact that he was using the Museum’s resources to benefit that company has not previously been covered by the press and now raises red flags for tax law experts.”
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La Rocque’s Center for Defense Information, a think tank devoted to criticizing U.S. military spending, produced a 1983 documentary about nuclear weapons, “War without Winners.” Narrated by Paul Newman, it invited viewers to “contribute to preventing World War III.”
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Following the new report, the agency may need to do more staff training or secure more funding for Pruitt’s office, according to Scott Amey, general counsel for the nonprofit Project on Government Oversight. “The EPA should report the interior decorating violations to Congress and the President and take the necessary remedial actions,” Amey told BuzzFeed News by email. “Someone at EPA might need more training on spending taxpayer dollars and the agency might need funds to cover Pruitt's office alterations.”
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Such a dramatic move could have serious implications for his presidency and could possibly even trigger impeachment proceedings, according to Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project On Government Oversight.
“I have confidence that if he were to take that step, you would see not just an uprising from people on the left, but you would see Republicans saying that this has gone too far,” Brian said by phone Thursday.
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Scott Amey, general counsel at the Project on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan government watchdog group, said the purchases raise “concerns,” especially since Trump campaigned on running Washington differently.
“Just because you can spend $31,000 on a (dining) table or close to a million dollars on a remodel, there should be some people asking the question: Is this the best way to utilize taxpayer dollars?” Amey told the Post.
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Arizona Daily Independent
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Dan Grazier, Jack Shanahan Military Fellow, with the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) stated, “This entire episode shows to what lengths Air Force leaders will go to rid themselves of an aircraft and a mission they have always viewed with contempt. Their actions here hurt not only the taxpayers, but more importantly put the lives of our men and women on the ground at risk.”
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An investigation and review of public records by the Project on Government Oversight reveals that back in 2008, Bridenstine used the non-profit Tulsa Air and Space Museum's own cash reserves to bring his struggling company, the Rocket Racing League, to a 2010 air show in Tulsa.
The show was a boost for Bridenstine's rocket racing company, which was disappointing investors at the time.
"This is a classic example of the use of a charity's assets for private benefit," Marc Owens, an expert on tax law, told The Daily Beast.
"This could have jeopardized the Museum's status as a tax-exempt organization."
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In a report released Tuesday, DC-based group The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) identified three contractors—Caddell Construction, W.G. Yates & Sons, and Fisher Sand & Gravel—who have been hit with multiple allegations of mismanagement and criminality.
The report found that one of the contractors, Caddell Construction, faced “debarment”— which prevents companies from extending, renewing, or bidding with any federal agencies—on multiple occasions.
Caddell Construction, which was hired to design two border wall prototypes, faced debarment by both the Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Air Force.
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FORMER GOP OFFICIALS URGE SENATE REPUBLICANS TO PROTECT MUELLER -- Nearly three dozen former elected Republicans and Republican-appointed federal judges and prosecutors are calling on Senate Republicans to pass a bipartisan bill to protect special counsel Robert Mueller from an unjustified termination. In a letter sent Tuesday, they said it’s “in the best interest of our country” that Mueller complete his investigation “without undue interference.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), however, has said the chamber won’t vote on the bill. McConnell said the legislation is “not necessary” and Trump would never sign it. The letter: https://politi.co/2J7WGxG
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A Project on Government Oversight investigation, informed in part by FOIA-released records, show that half of the contractors that built border wall prototypes had shaky track records, including one that the Army Corps of Engineers felt in 2014 “was too risky to do future business with.” The contractor, Caddell Construction, was investigated by the Army for defrauding the government across multiple contracts. The Corps recommended that the Army’s Procurement Fraud division debar Caddell.
The border wall contracting process was also the subject of a separate USA Today FOIA investigation, which in 2017 shed light on the “unusually confusing and haphazard process” of contractors bidding to build border wall prototypes. Nearly 200 pages of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) documents revealed communications with companies seeking clarity on a rushed, murky bidding process that initially only gave companies 12 days to submit proposals for 30-foot high prototypes that could lead to a $300-million five-year contract.
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