POGO: A time for reflection and action

July 4, 2020

This Fourth of July, we’re reflecting on the America we see right now. There’s a lot to be grateful for, but it’s hard to cheerfully celebrate with picnics and fireworks while we are in the midst of a nationwide reckoning on race—something that’s long overdue—and struggling to fight a deadly pandemic.   We don’t intend to eschew patriotism—we just want to be thoughtful about it. Now is the time to reflect on this nation’s shortcomings and to fight for the America and the government we deserve. For nearly forty years we've been working to make our government more accountable to the people, and we will continue in that effort.   A month ago, we acknowledged that we have a responsibility to confront institutional racism, and we committed to working more deliberately on fighting the corruption and abuses of power that disproportionately impact Black people. We’re focused on the militarization of the police and reforms to our justice system.   As for the pandemic, it has exposed weaknesses in our government—our leaders weren’t prepared for the coronavirus, reacted slowly, and failed to communicate effectively to the public. The virus has also illustrated how our system favors the wealthy and powerful, sometimes to the detriment of public health. And now the government is slow-rolling the release of data on its coronavirus relief spending, something we’ve pushed back against relentlessly.   We have a lot of work to do. Thanks for reading along. ANALYSIS What Comes After Big Tech’s Halt in Facial Recognition Sales? Congress needs to step up and pass legislation that will prevent government use of facial recognition that is susceptible to misuse and costly mistakes. Read More ANALYSIS Seila Law v. CFPB: What’s Unconstitutional for One May Not Be Unconstitutional for All This week, the Supreme Court issued a decision that could help clear the way for Congress to pass crucial protections for inspectors general. Read More ANALYSIS Oil Spill Response Exercises Exposed Serious Vulnerabilities When federal regulators held drills last year and the year before to test oil and gas companies’ ability to handle offshore blowouts and oil spills, some things went seriously wrong. Read More INVESTIGATION Spare Us the F-35 Parts Mismanagement A trove of documents obtained by POGO provide additional evidence that the F-35 program is plagued with poor management and lax accountability. Read More OP-ED Congress is losing ground on the budget; it's time it claws that power back As the president sidelines congressional authority, it falls on Congress to reassert its power to spend money. Otherwise, Congress' power and interbranch trust will continue to erode. Read More OP-ED COVID-19 Means Good Times for the Pentagon Even if the rest of us remain in danger from the coronavirus, Congress has done a remarkably good job of vaccinating the Pentagon and the weapons makers that rely on it financially. Read More QUOTE OF THE WEEK “These individual pillars of oversight, as we talk about them, they interact with each other. And so the effect of attacking all of them at the same time poses an exponential problem for accountability and transparency here in a way that I think we don’t often think about as we look at one-off instances of undermining those accountability mechanisms and systems within the government.” Liz Hempowicz, Director of Public Policy, on WNYC's On The Media ONE LINERS “We’re always worried about the risk of fraud and misconduct when the government’s spending money at all. But when you’re spending it at these levels and with this speed, you have that much more to worry about.” Danielle Brian, Executive Director, on Swamp Stories   “If this is an attempt at executive roadblocking, as the IG seems to insinuate, it could cause further damage to the IG independence we’ve come to rely on if more agencies start to employ this tactic.” Rebecca Jones, Policy Counsel, in the Washington Post   “This whistleblower followed the law every step of the way and look at what they got for it.” Liz Hempowicz, Director of Public Policy, in NBC News   “Having a criminal case hanging over you can disrupt your life in any case, but if you’re incarcerated it will definitely disrupt your life even if you’re not being exposed to a deadly disease during a pandemic.” Katherine Hawkins, Senior Legal Analyst with The Constitution Project at POGO, in Courthouse News   “This is the taxpayer’s money. They have a right to know where this money went.” Sean Moulton, Senior Policy Analyst, in Deseret News   “The COST Act will help ensure Congress and the American people have the information they need to analyze the plans of federal agencies before relocating across the country.” Tim Stretton, Policy Analyst, in the Federal Times   “There's been a lot of reporting over the last couple of years about the Air Force's shortage of pilots. ... The Navy, the Marine Corps and the Army have all had some trouble, to greater or lesser degrees, in retaining pilots.” Dan Grazier, Jack Shanahan Military Fellow, in UPI

pogo.org The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is a nonpartisan independent watchdog that investigates and exposes waste, corruption, abuse of power, and when the government fails to serve the public or silences those who report wrongdoing. We champion reforms to achieve a more effective, ethical, and accountable federal government that safeguards constitutional principles.

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