A recipe for corruption

 

PREVIOUSLY LOST IN SPAM FOLDER!

April 2, 2022

NEW FROM POGO Introducing: The Continuous Action We’re excited to announce a new podcast from former director of the Office of Government Ethics (and POGO’s own) Walt Shaub and seasoned journalist and host of Trumpcast and This is Critical, Virginia Heffernan. The Continuous Action is a podcast miniseries exploring the labor of democracy. In their own words, they’re going in search of the government our nation deserves. Tune in for spirited discussions on everything from voting rights and whistleblowers to government surveillance. Listen to the trailer for a sneak-peek of what’s to come. This week, Politico reported on the influence the former CEO of Google has on a key White House office. Eric Schmidt’s foundation, Schmidt Future, indirectly paid the salaries of two employees in the White House Office of Science and Technology. At the same time, more than a dozen officials in the small office have worked with Schmidt previously.   So a tech billionaire who sits on the boards for several tech companies, is helping fund a White House office and is close to several staffers there. Even if this is technically legal, it still raises a lot of ethical red flags. It’s problematic for powerful individuals with ties to the tech industry to influence a government office that advises the president on tech policy.   If you’re not outraged enough already, here’s a detail that caught our eyes. A Schmidt Futures staffer, while working as an unpaid consultant for the White House office, secured funding from the foundation so that he could bring a new staffer into the White House. One ethics official in the White House raised concerns about the move, but the process proceeded anyway.   It’s a troubling display of industry influence over a federal agency. As this Vox piece points out, it raises serious questions about why the White House Office of Science and Technology takes funding from a foundation backed by a tech industry official who could benefit financially from the office’s policy recommendations — it’s a recipe for corruption. ANALYSIS A Potential Watershed Moment on Supreme Court Ethics Clarence and Ginni Thomas’s conduct was egregious. Supreme Court ethics reform is about more than just them. Read More ANALYSIS COVID-19 Test Giveaway a Potential Conflict for USPS’ DeJoy Postmaster General Louis DeJoy could profit off the Biden administration’s COVID-19 test kit giveaway — and could be violating a federal ethics law.  Read More ANALYSIS POGO Urges Congress to Stop Contract Pricing “Whack-a-Mole” Implementing a robust sanctions policy toward Russia but failing to fix anti-money laundering loopholes in the U.S. financial system is like fighting an adversary with one hand behind your back. Read More TESTIMONY Congress Should Act to Improve FOIA As Congress discusses FOIA, POGO highlights existing issues impacting the law and suggests ways to improve the system for requesters and promote greater access to information. Read More OP-ED TransDigm’s ‘excess profits’ on defense contracts reveal costly loopholes in the law This kind of wasteful spending does nothing to enhance our national security. It only fleeces hard-working Americans. Reform is long overdue. Read More in Cleveland.com LETTER Letter to U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Body-Worn Camera Program Coalition urges CBP to amend its body-camera to ensure it serves as a tool of accountability for the largest law enforcement agency in the U.S. Read More OVERHEARD WATCHLIST Senior Policy Analyst Sean Moulton talks about instances of waste, fraud and abuse in the distribution of federal pandemic relief funds on C-SPAN. ONE LINERS “Outsiders are not subject to government ethics rules or the government’s transparency requirements. They may put their own interests before the American people, and we have no way of knowing how that changes outcomes.” Walt Shaub, Senior Ethics Fellow, in Vox   “I think the program that has justifiably gotten the most attention for the level of fraud that we've seen, and potentially waste, would be the Paycheck Protection Program.” Sean Moulton, Senior Policy Analyst, on C-SPAN   “People are trying to use the [Supreme Court] to effectuate change that they are not able to do at the electoral level.” Sarah Turberville, Director of The Constitution Project at POGO, on the Black Agenda Podcast

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.

Project On Government Oversight 1100 13th Street NW, Suite 800 Washington, DC 20005 United States

The bizarre spectacle of the confirmation hearings

 

POGO GOT CAUGHT IN SPAM! 

NOT TIMELY, BUT YOU CAN SUBSCRIBE FOR YOURSELF & RECEIVE PROMPTLY.

March 26, 2022

The confirmation hearings this week for Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson exemplified just how broken the judicial selection process has become. Rather than focusing on relevant lines of inquiry, some Republican Senators asked Jackson about children’s books and critical race theory and bizarrely pushed Jackson to define the term “woman.” It was clear that many senators were using the hearings to make political points, rather than discern whether she had the right experience as a jurist to serve on the nation’s highest court. And in sharing their extreme political views, some senators’ lines of questioning quickly became condescending and downright racist. The spectacle was yet another reminder that we desperately need to reform the Supreme Court and the process for selecting justices to serve on the bench. In our current political moment, the stakes are too high when there’s an opening on the Supreme Court, and it creates incentives for lawmakers to engage in a seemingly endless race to the bottom. We cannot continue like this. Late last year, our task force on judicial selection recommended some steps that would lower the pressure on the nomination and confirmation process. Term limits, judicial selection screening committees, an official code of conduct, and changes to the structure of the court, taken together, could make the nomination process less political and restore faith in the Supreme Court. WANT MORE FROM POGO? The latest from us, straight to your inbox For updates on POGO’s investigations, upcoming events, and more ways you can get involved, subscribe to our emails. ANALYSIS Executive Order 12333: The Spy Power Too Big for Any Legal Limits Revelation of a new CIA program conducting bulk collection of private financial records has reignited debate over Executive Order 12333, a spy power that monitors billions of private communications, including Americans’, but is totally devoid of congressional or court oversight. Read More ANALYSIS An Inside Look Into the 14th Oversight Boot Camp At the 14th Oversight Boot Camp, 25 congressional staffers from 14 different congressional committees learned how to successfully conduct a congressional oversight investigation. Read More LETTER POGO Urges Congress to Stop Contract Pricing “Whack-a-Mole” For years, federal contractor TransDigm Group has been in the headlines for excessive spare parts profits. It isn’t alone in profiting at taxpayer expense, and Congress is working on solutions to ensure fair and reasonable prices. Read More RESOURCE Identifying Beneficial Owners is a Win-Win and a National Security Priority For too long, loopholes in the U.S. financial and regulatory systems have benefited bad actors and facilitated illicit financial activities. It’s time to fix that. Read More WATCHLIST Watch our town hall for a breakdown of what you need to know about warrantless government surveillance and how you can protect your civil liberties. QUOTE OF THE WEEK “By not fully complying, they are breaking the law. And this is, to put it mildly, not a good look.” Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, Government Affairs Manager, in Insider OVERHEARD Read the thread on Twitter. ONE LINERS “There’s numerous conflict of interest laws that should be investigated here to ensure that Carroll didn’t violate the laws on the books.” Scott Amey, Executive Editorial Director and General Counsel, in US Right to Know   “The exemption is just too broad, and it allows people who should be registered under FARA ... to avoid and circumvent the kind of thing we’re trying to do with FARA.” Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, Government Affairs Manager, in Politico   “Until they deal with the OLC opinion and how the OLC reads that provision, I don’t think this language is as strong as it could be when it comes to protecting these whistleblowers.” Melissa Wasser, Policy Counsel, in Roll Call   “It appears the Biden White House has a policy that goes above and beyond the Hatch Act. ... That’s not unheard of or necessarily inappropriate.” Nick Schwellenbach, Senior Investigator, in Government Executive   “The Senate, particularly, views those inspectors general as a little bit more independent, a little bit more accountable to Congress, a little bit more of a partner.” Liz Hempowicz, Director of Public Policy, in Politico

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.

Project On Government Oversight 1100 13th Street NW, Suite 800 Washington, DC 20005 United States