[Take Action Now] Save the A-10, one of the most reliable jets in our fleet

Act Now: Email your members of Congress and demand that they save the A-10 Just about everyone would agree that military decisions should be made with the best interests of our troops in mind. But a situation is currently unfolding that shows us, yet again, that bloated Pentagon budgets don't immediately translate into the most effective force. Right now, Air Force officials are trying to force the A-10 plane into retirement, despite its status as one of the highest performing aircraft in our fleet. There have been efforts by the USAF to actively mislead Congress about the effectiveness of the A-10 plane and a refusal to properly allocate money to repair and maintain the aircraft. What’s worse, this effort to cut the A-10 program is underway with no suitable replacement in development. This cut would undermine our military preparedness and troop safety. Email Congress now We need to recognize this effort for what it is: A poorly veiled plan to scrap a reliable, functioning aircraft for a lesser replacement that would profit contractors and shareholders well into the future. This baseless retirement could do far worse damage than cost taxpayers financially: The A-10 has an unmatched reputation for providing air support, so cutting the program will almost certainly cost lives in a future conflict. As my colleague and veteran Marine Corps officer Dan Grazier wrote recently, “If Congress fails to act and allows Air Force leaders to follow through with their secretive plans to scrap the A-10 without replacing it, there will quickly come a day when young Americans fighting on a distant battlefield will die because the air support they need is absent from the skies above.” Rarely do we call on you to take action so that things don’t change, but we need to make sure the A-10s stay put until a dedicated and proven aircraft can take its place. Email your members of Congress now and demand that they save the A-10, one of the most capable and reliable aircraft in our fleet. Thanks for taking the time to make your voice heard. Tim Farnsworth Executive Strategist Project On Government Oversight Contribute

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A great first step

 

April 30, 2022

This week, the House passed the Courthouse Ethics and Transparency Act, sending the bill to the president’s desk for signature. The legislation will bring greater transparency into federal judges’ potential conflicts of interest and make it easier for watchdogs like POGO to hold judges accountable for failing to recuse when appropriate. Enactment of this legislation will be a great first step in making the judicial branch a more transparent and accountable body. Yet as we wrote in testimony submitted to a House committee this week, Congress must also create stronger ethics rules for the Supreme Court. The highest court in the country wields significant influence, and yet Supreme Court justices are not bound by the official code of conduct that governs judges on lower federal courts. For our system of checks and balances to work, it requires public trust in the integrity of the courts. And without this basic standard of ethics, the Supreme Court risks that legitimacy. Congress must pass ethics reforms to address this, something POGO will continue to push for. LISTEN NOW Episode 2: War Lies, Watchdogs, and Whistleblowers Hosts Walt Shaub and Virginia Heffernan explore a troubling truth: the government lies, particularly when it comes to war. Listen, rate, and review now. ANALYSIS Can We Track Infrastructure Dollars? The federal government is beginning to spend the $1.2 trillion in infrastructure spending authorized by Congress, but limited award data will almost certainly prevent the public from knowing where the funds go and what they accomplish. Read More ANALYSIS Air Force Leaders Defy Congress’s A-10 Mandates Congress saved the A-10 five times over eight years when Air Force leaders tried to retire the only aircraft designed to support ground troops. Despite these clear mandates, Air Force leaders pressed forward with their plans anyway. Read More OP-ED Let a Stinger be a Stinger. A new design isn’t needed. Developing a new Stinger replacement will add unnecessary costs to taxpayers and likely deliver far later than the capability is needed. Read More on Breaking Defense TESTIMONY Building Confidence in the Supreme Court Through Ethics and Recusal Reforms Having been entrusted with that great power, the justices owe the public not only a commitment to the ethical use of power, but also a conspicuous demonstration of their ethical conduct. Read More TESTIMONY Fully Equip FinCEN to Combat Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism POGO’s testimony before the House Financial Services Committee on FinCEN oversight outlines steps to help ensure bad actors can’t make illicit financial transactions that harm our national security. Read More PRESS RELEASE POGO Applauds House for Passing Judicial Ethics Reform The House on Wednesday passed the Courthouse Ethics and Transparency Act, which will make it easier to hold federal judges accountable for financial conflicts of interest. Read More QUOTE OF THE WEEK “[Earl E. Devaney] was a standout because he recognized the full breadth of the responsibilities of an inspector general.” Danielle Brian, Executive Editorial Director, on New York Times OVERHEARD ONE LINERS “Depending on the day, members might be criticizing Twitter and promising to regulate them out of existence or using Twitter to generate attention and support for their agenda, all the while having a direct financial interest in Twitter’s share price.” Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, Government Affairs Manager, in Business Insider   “This does look like a classic case of you got some insider information and acting on that information. And that’s illegal.” Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, Government Affairs Manager, in Washington Examiner   “There is at least a strong case to be made that Rep. Cawthorn violated the STOCK Act’s reporting requirements as well as potentially engaging in insider trading.” Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, Government Affairs Manager, in Business Insider

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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All the President's attorneys

Several of President Donald Trump’s personal attorneys have opened the White House up to yet another ethics minefield. All the President’s Attorneys Several of President Donald Trump’s personal attorneys have opened the White House up to yet another ethics minefield. With Trump’s impeachment acquittal in the rearview mirror, some on his legal team will be well-positioned to help their wealthy clients with business before the Trump administration, potentially leading 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue into a new ethical morass. These attorneys are facing questions ranging from controversies involving their current or recent clients, how they’re being compensated, and whether they may have violated tax law in their defense of the president. Read More What to Expect for the PATRIOT Act Reauthorization Over the last four decades, the government’s national security surveillance powers have increased significantly; whenever Congress passes a new law to further this expansion, as it did with the PATRIOT Act, it’s building onto FISA. Read more No, Clearview AI's creepy plan to spy on us is not 'free speech' The unrestricted use of facial recognition technology is clearly incompatible with a democratic society. This mass surveillance is misguided and sinister. We must push back before it’s too late. Read more POGO Supports Senate Resolution to Limit President’s War Powers in Iran The Senate must continue to take even stronger steps to re-assert its authority, including holding hearings on the strike against Qassem Soleimani, and voting to repeal the 2002 Iraq War authorization, as the House of Representatives recently did. The Constitution gives Congress, not the President, the power to declare war. Read more NEW: The Bunker Introducing: The Bunker After nearly 20 years of winless wars following 9/11, and a Pentagon budget that is well above the Cold War average, U.S. national security spending has never been a more target-rich environment. That is why the Project On Government Oversight’s Center for Defense Information has launched The Bunker, a precision-guided e-newsletter targeting your inbox most every week. Sign up now! Sign up for The Bunker POGO in the News The Washington Times Experts sound alarm on foreign influence on U.S. think tanks The Project on Government Oversight’s Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette said the foreign funding poses a risk to the national interest, particularly when it comes to funding from America’s adversaries. “There are large gaps in [FARA] that allow for a lot of the types of foreign influence we’re talking about here to continue to occur and it goes unregistered and unrecorded,” Mr. Hedtler-Gaudette said. “We also see this in the academic space a lot where there are a lot of universities and colleges here in America who are receiving a lot of money from foreign entities.” Politico Huddle Blow the Whistle After Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) publicly named the alleged Ukraine whistleblower on the Senate floor week, there is now an effort underway to ensure that never happens again. The Project On Government Oversight is spearheading a letter calling on the Senate to overhaul its rules to prohibit lawmakers from outing whistleblowers. The letter, which was shared exclusively with your Huddle host, will be sent this morning and is also signed by The Liberty Coalition and the Taxpayers Protection Alliance. Mother Jones ICE Stops Using Jail Where Detainees Were Beaten and Pepper-Sprayed The same DHS report criticized the Nakamoto Group, finding that the company’s inspections “do not fully examine actual conditions or identify all compliance deficiencies” and that its inspectors “are not always thorough.” Independent investigations have come to similar conclusions. Scott Shuchart, who spent eight years at DHS’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, told the Project on Government Oversight, “Nakamoto has no credibility because of the volume of problems it has failed to uncover at multiple facilities over multiple years…It is a checklist driven, superficial inspection process.” In light of the company’s track record of underreporting deficiencies, the Bossier inspection report is all the more striking. Senate Budget Committee Bipartisan Bill Would Strengthen Federal Financial Management Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-WY) this week introduced bipartisan legislation to strengthen federal financial management by updating the Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Act of 1990. The CFO Act created a new foundation for federal financial management and established a fiscal management reporting and leadership structure. Jane's Defence Weekly Pentagon Budget 2021: US Air Force again pursuing A-10 cuts A Pentagon watchdog and retired US Marine Corps (USMC) captain criticised the USAF for again trying to reduce its A-10 fleet. Dan Grazier, military fellow with the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) watchdog group in Washington, DC, told Jane’s on 11 February that despite Congress repeatedly affirming its support for the A-10 and an effective CAS capability, USAF leaders have apparently convinced the President Donald Trump administration to allow them to press forward with their long-held desire to sunset, or gradually retire, the fleet. Roll Call Democratic Caucus governance still shrouded in secrecy Signatories on the letter say there’s no reason for the Democrats to conceal this information. “There is no good reason to keep the caucus rules secret,” said Liz Hempowicz, director of public policy for the Project on Government Oversight. “I can’t fathom why they haven’t been published already.” Law 360 Trump Budget Looks To Fold Audit Watchdog Into SEC “It’s unacceptable that the agency is taking such a light-handed approach in holding these large audit firms accountable,” Danielle Brian, POGO's executive director, said in a press release at the time. “By failing to hold the Big Four accountable, the board is putting all Americans’ financial futures in jeopardy.” Tech Dirt Federal Agencies Are Still Abusing Their Favorite, Super-Vague FOIA Exemption Thousands Of Times A Year The abuse of this exemption may have peaked in 2013, when federal agencies used it more than 81,000 times. But things haven't necessarily improved in the last seven years. In 2018, (b)5 was still cited more than 60,000 times. The (otherwise considerable) drop in deployment may be due to 2016 legislation, as the Project on Government Oversight explains: CyberWire Daily Briefing A Primer on Congressional Staff Clearances A primer from the Project On Government Oversight and Demand Progress offers a comprehensive resource on the limitations to congressional staff overseeing classified programs. Patch Chula Vista 911 Drone Cops Test Pilot Emergency Response In Sky They already have lenses with powerful zoom lenses — but pair them with facial recognition technology or equip them with license plate readers, microphones and possibly the scariest drone technology — Active Track, which can affix on an individual and track them autonomously — and we're on our way in a hurry to living in a surveillance state, according to the Project on Government Oversight.

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