All Things Reform: Project on Government Oversight

Showing posts with label Project on Government Oversight. Show all posts

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Federal employee travel credit card abuse "in the millions of dollars" each year

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From: POGO- Project on Government Oversight

Taxpayers are Victims of Continued Government Charge Card Abuse

Contact: Scott Amey, 202-347-1122 or Marthena Cowart, 202-347-3958

[In a bureaucracy the size of our federal government, we can expect, during peace time and prosperity, daily small financial abuses from many of its employees. However, in the time of wars and skyrocketing national debt, credit card abuse during the George W Bush administration is shameful. -ATR]

A recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report obtained by the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) highlights long-standing systemic weaknesses and mismanagement in federal credit card spending.

CRS’s report details abuses in the federal government travel card program that are costing the government and taxpayers “millions of dollars annually.” Travel cards are used by government officials for airline, hotel, and related travel expenses. CRS looked at Government Accountability Office (GAO) and Inspector General (IG) travel card reports, and found that:

Improper or unauthorized charges included $3,700 for laser eye surgery, reimbursement of nearly $10,000 for tickets that an official didn’t purchase, a first-class trip to Hawaii, and numerous upgrades to premium-class accommodations.
Agencies failed to recover millions of dollars in unused tickets – the Department of Defense had $100 million in unused tickets from 1997 to 2003.
Delinquent travel card payments prevented the government from receiving maximum potential rebates from card vendors.
Travel card spending increased from $4.39 million in FY 1999 to $8.28 million in FY 2008.

“A private travel agency would be out of business running this kind of operation,” declared Scott Amey, POGO’s General Counsel. “This report summarizes problems with individual transactions and, more importantly, with government agencies that aren’t safeguarding taxpayer dollars. Immediate improvements are needed, including improved oversight of all transactions, increased penalties for misuse, and enhanced processes to take full advantage of the benefits that travel cards were expected to bring.”

Legislation is pending in the Senate (S. 942) and House (H.R. 2189) that will add taxpayer protections for government travel cards and purchase cards (used for supplies and services).

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Monday, May 11, 2009

Alert: Catch POGO investigator on Dept. of Energy mismanagement on CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight

Image via Wikipedia

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From: POGO Project on Government Oversight

POGO Investigator Ingrid Drake is scheduled to appear this evening on CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight. She'll be discussing a letter POGO sent to Energy Secretary Stephen Chu last week after we learned that the Department of Energy had given the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) an award for "Project Management Excellence" for the National Ignition Facility (NIF). We were shocked to learn that NNSA was receiving this award, which recognizes "exceptional results in completing a project within cost and schedule," since the NIF is more than 600 percent over budget and at least 8 years behind schedule, and has been singled out by the GAO and Inspector General as perhaps the worst example of program management.

Click here to read POGO's letter to Secretary Chu, which was highlighted today in Al Kamen's "In the Loop" column in The Washington Post. And be sure to check out our press alert to learn more.

Please note that all media appearances are subject to change. Check your local listing for details.

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Wednesday, March 04, 2009

President Obama outlines new federal contracting reforms

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From: POGO- Project on Government Oversight

Obama Outlines Contracting Reforms

March 4, 2009

President Obama's speech [pdf file] and his memorandum to the heads of executive agencies [pdf file] incorporates many of the contracting reforms that POGO has been promoting.

POGO Cheers Obama's Contracting Reforms

For Immediate Release
Contact: Danielle Brian, 202-347-1122

The president’s statement today on reforming government contracting was welcome news to the Project On Government Oversight. His recommendations go to the heart of the systemic failures of how the federal government currently spends hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars.

“This is great news coming from the White House. By giving this speech, President Obama has highlighted the culture of corruption in contracting in Washington, and is embracing the necessary changes to fix it,” said Danielle Brian, Executive Director, POGO. “The hard part will be to reach down into the incestuous government contracting world and change how Washington does business.”

Last October, POGO sent the Presidential transition teams a set of recommendations addressing the federal contracting system. http://www.pogo.org/pogo-files/reports/good-government/pogos-recommended-good-government-reforms/gg-ptp-20081016.html

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Sunday, March 01, 2009

Amount of nuclear-weapon-ready materials that the Dept. of Energy cannot account for "exceeds alarm limits"

A ring of weapons-grade electrorefined plutonium, with 99.96% purity. This 5.3 kg ring is enough plutonium for use in an efficient nuclear weapon. Image via Wikipedia

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From: POGO Project on Government Oversight

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Ingrid Drake, 202-347-1122; cell: or Peter Stockton,

DOE: Broken System for Protecting Nuclear Material Could Compromise Los Alamos Operations

In the midst of trying to account for 80 missing or stolen computers, the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) is now under fire for a new problem. Critical deficiencies in its system for keeping track of its huge stocks of plutonium and highly enriched uranium—enough for hundreds of nuclear weapons. According to a February 23 internal Department of Energy letter, the amount of nuclear material that LANL could not account for in January “exceeded alarm limits.” While Los Alamos says there is no suspicion of theft or diversion, if it does not know where the material is, it cannot say for certain that the material has not been stolen.

[more...]

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Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Ask your two US Senators if they placed a hold on Neil Barofsky's nomination for Special Inspector General of SIGTARP

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From: POGO- Project on Government Oversight

Calling All Detectives

Dec 02, 2008
Posted at 04:14 PM

Over the past few weeks, we have raised numerous concerns about how long it's taken Congress to confirm Neil Barofksy as the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) and give him the authority and resources he needs to accomplish his mission. As we wrote last week, the latest stumbling block is that a senator appears to have placed a secret hold on Barofsky's nomination.

Whatever your position on the bailout may be, taxpayers everywhere should be concerned that an anonymous senator is preventing Barofksy from taking office and investigating wasteful and abusive bailout expenditures. TPMMuckraker has launched a campaign to identify the senator who placed the secret hold. Can you help solve the mystery??

Please take a moment to contact your senators and politely ask whether or not they placed a hold on Barofsky's nomination (click here to look up who your senators are). If you get an answer, let the folks at TPMMuckraker know by emailing them or posting a comment on their blog. And while you're at it, be sure to check out the GAO's latest recommendations for improving accountability and transparency in the bailout program.

-- Michael Smallberg

[POGO article accepts comments]

Thursday, October 16, 2008

US Department of Health and Human Services should disclose much more information relevant to a flu pandemic

The seal of the United States Department of He...

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From: POGO - Project on Government Oversight

[The unnecessary withholding of government information from the public has been a trait of the current president's administration. -ed.]

Federal Times in the Right Area, but Doesn't Hit the Vein

-- Eric Orenstein

October 15, 2008

Props to the Federal Times for an article by Rebecca Neal calling attention to the government's preparations for a pandemic flu outbreak, an issue that POGO has examined in some detail. The story points out that Health and Human Services' (HHS) current plan is to vaccinate "20 million people deemed critical" in the case of an emergency. What HHS has not done is tell the public, convincingly and in detail, who will receive the vaccinations and why. In the event of an outbreak, an imperiled public would probably not be willing to listen to justifications as to why it cannot get help.

POGO agrees with the main point of Neal's article--that HHS needs to detail their plans for protecting the public. That said, the government should disclose much more information relevant to a flu pandemic. In a recent report, POGO lists documents that we think should be made readily available. Among these are documents related to manufacturing capacity, dependence on foreign manufacturers, vaccine alternatives, and budget plans. This issue is too important to be hidden deep within government files. HHS needs to make the public aware of the safeguards it has in place, as well as its plans to manage crises of national (not to mention global) magnitude.

Click below to watch a video of POGO's Ned Feder discussing our investigation into the government's pandemic flu vaccine program:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dehEyvIAa_A

[POGO article accepts comments]

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Army engineer games defense procurement system with government representative

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From: POGO - Project on Government Oversight

[This sounds like a Washington defense earmarks scheme that brings home money to future voters. -ed.]

Read It and Weep

-- Beverley Lumpkin

October 15, 2008

Last Sunday's New York Times carried a story by Eric Lipton that should be required reading for everyone and anyone involved in the defense procurement process in Washington, particularly those who think adherence to government rules and regulations is somehow an affront to freedom, or that transparency in government operations would bring the system down. It's such a great story, I almost feel I'm detracting from it by writing about it at all.

It's a fascinating saga of how an Army engineer from Huntsville, Alabama, completely gamed the procurement system and managed, in the words of the NYT, "to turn America's missile defense program into a personal cash machine."

Michael Cantrell, the engineer on a piece of the Strategic Defense Initiative or SDI, a.k.a. President Reagan's Star Wars program, figured out early on how to keep money flowing to his program so that he could keep his job. He learned to bypass all his superiors and go straight to Capitol Hill, where he made friends with powerful members of the leadership as well as appropriations and defense committees. "He cultivated lawmakers, who were eager to send money back home or to favored contractors and did not ask many questions. And when he ran into trouble, he could count on his powerful friends for protection from Pentagon officials who provided little oversight and were afraid of alienating lawmakers."

Cantrell only fell into disgrace when he decided it was time for him to cash in personally. Along with his deputy, Doug Ennis, Cantrell concocted a kickback scheme under which the two ultimately garnered $1.6 million, for which they pleaded guilty earlier this year: "Mr. Cantrell readily acknowledges concocting the crime. But what has drawn little scrutiny are his activities leading up to it. Thanks to important allies in Congress, he extracted nearly $350 million for projects the Pentagon did not want, wasting taxpayer money on what would become dead-end ventures."

Had he not gotten greedy on his own behalf, Cantrell would surely be out there still, pimping for the various members of the iron triangle of Congress, the military, and contractors.

[POGO article accepts comments]

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Saturday, October 11, 2008

How to make easy money on we, the taxpayers

Cayman Islands. Image via WikipediaGovernment reform orgs. deliver news on major events within their areas of expertise.
From: Project on Government Oversight (POGO)

The Usual Suspects of Contract Abuse

Government Executive reports that the Army is investigating whether Combat Support Associates, an Orange, Calif.-based contractor, overcharged the government on its contract supporting U.S. troops in Kuwait.

CSA performs equipment maintenance and security work at Army bases in Kuwait under the Services Support Contract - Kuwait (CSSC-K), a contract the Army awarded in 1999, shortly after the company was formed. The contract, which had a projected 10-year value of $547 million when it was awarded, has so far cost the government more than $2 billion.

It is not surprising that CSA is under suspicion. Read the story and you immediately see some of the “usual suspects” of contract abuse: 1) a multi-year, cost-plus contract; 2) a war zone; 3) an understaffed contract oversight office; and 4) a Cayman Islands subsidiary set up shortly after winning the contract to avoid paying taxes on its overseas employees and to escape the jurisdiction of U.S. courts.

There is an important aspect to this story not mentioned in the Government Executive article. We hasten to call it a usual suspect, but Blackwater Worldwide has certainly seen its share of contracting controversy. Last year, when a shooting in Baghdad put Blackwater in the spotlight, new questions arose in regard to Andrew J. Moonen, a Blackwater guard accused of shooting a an Iraqi vice president's bodyguard on Christmas Eve 2006. Moonen was fired and quickly sent home after the incident, but within weeks he was hired by CSA and sent off to Kuwait. Moonen ended up working for the company for six months.

The incident was a cause of embarrassment for the State Department, which helped Moonen get out of Iraq and apparently did nothing to prevent him from getting work on other Iraq War-related contracts. CSA claimed it was unaware of Moonen's history when it hired him.

-- Neil Gordon

[Original article accepts comments]

Monday, October 06, 2008

US Inspector General Reform Act of 2008 passed by Congress; President expected to sign

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From: Project on Government Oversight

At Long Last, Congress Passes IG Reform Act

Beverley Lumpkin | September 29, 2008

After more than a year of wishin' and hopin' and plannin' and dreamin'...at long last both houses of Congress have passed the same version of H.R. 928, the Inspector General Reform Act of 2008. Final passage came per unanimous votes in the Senate on Wednesday the 23rd, and in the House on Saturday the 27th.

The bill began life as legislation originally drafted by Rep. Jim Cooper, (D-TN), but twisted through numerous permutations on its way to passage. Although one version passed the House last October by a vote of 404-11, it contained several provisions that Republicans in the Senate as well as the White House just could not swallow, including a seven-year term limit for IGs and a strict provision that IGs could only be dismissed for good cause. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) was instrumental in keeping the bill alive and negotiating the necessary changes, along with Sens. Lieberman (I-CT), Collins (R-ME) and Kyl (R-AZ) on the Senate side, and Reps. Henry Waxman, (D-CA) and Cooper (D-TN) on the House side. Lieberman and Waxman chair the relevant committees.

But even though this final version has been reluctantly agreed to by the administration, we are told that we should expect one of the President's inimitable "signing statements," whereby he signs a piece of legislation while simultaneously stating his disagreement and/or intent to ignore certain provisions contained therein. We understand that the signing statement for this bill will continue to object to provisions requiring more transparency in IG budgets--something that OMB has in the past complained would trample unconstitutionally on the President's executive powers.

Another interesting fillip on final passage of the IG bill concerns a subject that POGO has been pushing since at least July 2007: the need for all IGs, but particularly the OIG at the Defense Department, to have access to their own dedicated and independent legal counsel. The problem mostly pertains to smaller IG offices, but we had been stunned to learn that ever since the creation of the Pentagon's IG shop, the Inspector General's counsel had always been beholden in some respect to the Office of General Counsel of the Department. In other words, the Secretary's lawyer, the person whose job it is to make the department look good--not necessarily to do right--has been the ultimate boss of the IG's lawyer. We found that inherent conflict unsupportable in any agency, but particularly one in which so many billions of the taxpayers' money are susceptible to fraud and other misconduct.

While Congressional staffers inserted special language into the defense authorization bill (Sec. 907) to make sure that DOD's IG has independent legal advice, Section 6 of the IG bill made sure that every IG will "obtain legal advice from a counsel either reporting directly to the Inspector General or another Inspector General." Notwithstanding the passage of these two legislative provisions, we learn today that last Tuesday, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, Gordon England, by purest coincidence, ordered that the IG's Office of General Counsel will no longer be "under the authority, direction and control of the General Counsel of the Department of Defense." It's a bit amusing that this situation had existed for twenty years but suddenly had to be changed, "effective immediately," the day before the Senate approved final passage of the IG bill and four days before the House did so. Or maybe it was the kinda stubborn thing that just took two pieces of legislation plus one executive order to change...whatever, we're glad.

POGO has blogged elsewhere about important provisions of the defense authorization bill, but here are the most important provisions of the IG Reform Act in addition to the counsel issue:

The President must notify both houses of Congress of his reasons at least 30 days in advance before removing or transferring an IG.

The pay of all IGs is raised to be in line with other senior agency officials; however, IGs will henceforth be forbidden to receive any cash bonuses or other awards.

The establishment of the Council of IGs on Integrity and Efficiency. This provision combines and makes statutory the two existing councils previously set up by executive order to coordinate the activities of IGs. And unlike the existing councils, the new one will be chaired by an IG elected by his or her peers, although a senior OMB official will retain some semblance of control as the "executive chair." The new council's mission is to "address integrity, economy, and effectiveness issues that transcend individual" agencies and to increase the professionalism and effectiveness of IG personnel with training academies for auditors and investigators. Importantly, a funding stream is identified to enable the Council to perform its

The Council on IGs will submit a slate of qualified candidates to the President or agency head when an IG vacancy

Within the IG Council, the establishment of an Integrity Committee to handle allegations of wrongdoing aimed at IGs or their top staff members.

More budget transparency is achieved by the requirement that the President's budget submission to Congress include a separate statement of the IG's budget request, along with the amount requested by the President for funding of the IG's office, along with an amount for IG training and a separate amount for support of the Council of IGs. Furthermore, if an IG concludes that the President's budget request is inadequate to support the needs of his office, he may include such comments in the package that goes to Capitol Hill.

IGs' subpoena power is specifically expanded to include access to electronic and tangible items, and it's made clear that all IGs may recover funds defrauded from their agencies under the Program Fraud Civil Remedies Act. Similarly, all IGs would now have clear law enforcement authority.

The bill further requires a "direct link" on the website of every agency to its IG's webpage. The link must be "obvious and facilitate accessibility" to the IG's site. All public IG reports must be posted within three days of release and must be "searchable and downloadable." There must also be a clear link for individuals to report fraud, waste, and abuse anonymously.

[Article accepts comments]

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Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Minerals Management Service royalty-in-kind program corruption abounds

Seal of the Minerals Management Service.
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From: Project on Government Oversight (POGO)

September 17, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Danielle Brian or Mandy Smithberger, 202-347-1122

POGO ROYALTIES-IN-KIND REPORT: DRILLING THE TAXPAYER

Washington, D.C. – The Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) continues their fatal attraction to the oil and gas industry, with no signs of the cozy relationship cooling. Last week’s salacious findings in the Department’s Inspector General report cited specific instances of corruption, inappropriate relationships, and conflicts of interest. A report being released today by the Project On Government Oversight illustrates that those scandals are only symptoms of a much larger problem in the royalty collection program.

For years, POGO has questioned the MMS royalties-in-kind (RIK) program. Royalties are the second largest source of federal revenue outside of Internal Revenue Service collections. Nearly half of those royalties are collected in kind—in the form of crude oil or natural gas—rather than in cash. The product is then sold in the marketplace, returning the proceeds to the Treasury. POGO’s report, the fifth in a series about royalties, tracks how industry’s influence on the RIK program has been pervasive, and can be traced from the program’s inception through its expansion into the full-blown program that exists today. POGO now demands the program be abolished. http://pogoarchives.org/m/ep/rik-report-reporter-draft-20080917.pdf; http://pogoarchives.org/m/ep/rik-appendices.pdf

“The IG tried to find evidence of a quid pro quo for the presents and trips given to government employees. Perhaps, the evidence was so big the IG missed it. The program itself is the gift industry wanted in return. It is clear from the facts that the gas and oil industry’s pals in MMS implemented a program tailored to the industry’s benefit, defended its unverifiable book-keeping, and expanded the program without any regard for good governance or accountability,” said Danielle Brian, POGO Executive Director.

POGO’s report found that the program is lacks standard taxpayer protections, avenues for public participation, regulations to explain the program, and professional audits, and is surrounded by secrecy.

Essentially, the RIK program asks taxpayers to trust that industry delivers the correct amount of oil or gas to the government in lieu of cash, but has reduced oversight to such a degree that the GAO labeled RIK’s management “an honor system.” “That honor system has failed, and it’s time to shut the program down,” stated Brian.

###

[No comments with original article]

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Wednesday, September 10, 2008

DOI's Mineral and Mining Service wins "Worst Misconduct Abuse" award

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From: Project on Government Oversight (POGO)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Danielle Brian or Mandy Smithberger, 202-347-1122
POGO: DOI’s Mineral and Mining Service Wins “Worst Misconduct Abuse” Award

Washington, D.C. – The Project On Government Oversight welcomed the news today that federal investigators at the Department of Interior OIG have documented evidence that employees at the Department of Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) have accepted gifts, ski vacations, and sex from industry personnel. The charges illustrate the improper relationship between the regulatory agency and the oil and gas industry that it is tasked with over-seeing. This cozy relationship with the industry has been the subject of several inquiries in recent years.

U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman, Chairman, Energy and Natural Resources Committee had requested the OIG investigation.

Sources have told POGO that three Department of Interior OIG reports show systemic and reckless abuse at MMS that extends to its leadership, explicitly naming retired Associate Director Lucy Denett as being responsible for contract rigging contract at the agency.

“Given the billions of dollars at stake, and number of people involved, this is easily the worst instance of government misconduct that POGO has seen,” said Danielle Brian, Executive Director of POGO.

The IG’s findings confirm POGO’s earlier reports that Denett rigged a contract to allow a former MMS employee, Jimmy Mayberry, to work as a consultant for MMS. These allegations provide further insight into how MMS has failed its mission to collect royalties owed on federal oil and gas leases on behalf of taxpayers.

For several years, POGO has been monitoring and reporting the department’s gross mismanagement of the Mineral and Mining Services (MMS) office. For more information go to, www.pogo.org.

Founded in 1981, the Project On Government Oversight is an independent nonprofit which investigates and exposes corruption and other misconduct in order to achieve a more accountable federal government.

.
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Thursday, August 07, 2008

Visit the Federal Contractor Misconduct Database and leave your comments

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From: Project on Government Oversight (POGO)

All Things Reform has POGO's Federal Contractor Misconduct Database in the lefthand column of this blog under "Federal Government Fiscal Databases: Contracts, Grants etc." Please visit it and leave any comments or questions you may have with POGO at their addresses below. Thank you

Dear [Friend],

Help us improve the
Federal Contractor
Misconduct Database!

As you may know, we've been busy updating and expanding our Federal Contractor Misconduct Database, which will soon include information on the misconduct history of the government's top 100 contractors.

But before we go any further, I wanted to give you an opportunity to share your thoughts on the database since we last overhauled it in July 2007. If you have a few minutes to spare, we'd love to hear your anecdotes, comments, critiques, and other reactions.

Please send your comments to me or POGO investigator Neil Gordon at ngordon@pogo.org. We will gladly keep your comments anonymous if you prefer. And you can always post an anonymous comment to our blog.

Thanks so much for your help!

Warm regards,

Danielle Brian
Executive Director
Project On Government Oversight

P.S. We're particularly interested in hearing examples of how you've been able to use the database in your own work. Has it influenced a contracting decision made by you or someone in your office? Has it helped you write a story, either as useful background info or as a central theme? Have you used it to find dirt on a competitor? Let us know!

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Monday, July 07, 2008

Say NO to costly and unnecessary nuclear weapons projects

the entrance to the Senate Appropriations Comm...

Image via Wikipedia

POGO (Project on Government Oversight) is asking us who are represented by US Senators in the Senate Appropriations Committee, to tell them NO to costly and unnecessary nuclear weapons projects. This week, the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee and the full Senate Appropriations Committee will be marking up the Senate's version of the Energy and Water Appropriations bill.

The US Senate has the opportunity to eliminate three projects worth billions of taxpayer dollars; otherwise, these projects would create unnecessary national security risks and costs. This savings can be made without diminishing the national security mission of the US nuclear weapons complex.

Take action right now on this urgent action alert-- first, please check to see whether either of your two senators are on the Senate Appropriations Committee. If so, then go to POGO's campaign webpage, make any personal changes you might want to the sample letter and fill out the short address form.

If you prefer to call their official senate offices personally and leave this message with their staff, you may call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 (this is not a toll-free call).

Then, tell all your friends about this timely alert. Also, please share this alert with your social networks!

Thank you

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Thursday, June 05, 2008

Tell your US Rep. and two US Senators you support enhanced whistleblower protections for government employees

Project on Government Oversight is asking us to contact our two US Senators and US Representatives; Congress must finish legislation of a government employees whistleblower bill by reconciling the House and Senate versions, and sending a finalized bill to the president for his signature.

This POGO action alert's deadline is Thursday, June 12th.

A coalition of 112 religious, scientific, consumer, civil liberties, civil rights, peace, small-business, labor, libertarian, journalism, environmental, and good-government organizations, representing millions of Americans, is urging key U.S. Senate and House negotiators to agree to the strongest possible federal employee whistleblower protections.

Please support enhanced protections for government employees who blow the whistle on waste, fraud, and abuse- send POGO's letter (you may edit it) to your representatives; or, if you prefer to call the Capitol Switchboard directly, the number is 202-224-3121 (not toll-free). Thank you

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Hundreds of servicemen and womens' lives lost due to mismanaged procurement of armored vehicles

POGO has just made publicly available for the first time an internal study--conducted by Marine Corps science adviser Franz Gayl--showing that the Marine Corps "grossly mismanaged" Marines' requests for armored vehicles, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of U.S. servicemen and women.

The study points to unacceptably long delays in the procurement of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles (MRAPs), which are much less susceptible to the improvised explosive devices (IEDs) being used against American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. POGO is calling for congressional hearings to investigate the rapid acquisition system at the Defense Department, which is clearly failing to respond to urgent requests from American soldiers in battle.

To learn more about the study, be sure to check out POGO's press alert and blog post.

Thursday, January 31, 2008

President Bush signs bill then ignores crucial amendments of it

POGO (Project on Government Oversight), a federal government contracting watchdog, has reported that President Bush has actually struck out of a bill certain parts it proactively supported during the bill's Congressional legislation. President Bush feels that he has the power to sign a bill and then ignore certain parts of it through a "signing statement", a very controversial action. I provide the full text of their post on this important and critical finding:

Crucial Amendments Fall Prey to Presidential Signing Statement
In an outrageous but all-too-familiar move, President Bush has declared in a signing statement that he is entitled to ignore certain provisions of the FY 2008 Defense Authorization Bill, which he signed into law yesterday. One of these provisions would establish an independent, bipartisan Commission on Wartime Contracting; another would extend whistleblower protections to employees of defense contractors.
POGO strongly supported both of these provisions (see here and here), and we’re dismayed to learn that the White House now considers them to be optional.
According to the White House press release, the burdensome provisions “purport to impose requirements that could inhibit the President’s ability to carry out his constitutional obligations...The executive branch shall construe such provisions in a manner consistent with the constitutional authority of the President.”
As many reporters have pointed out, the use of presidential signing statements has increased at an alarming rate under the current administration. But should the president be allowed to selectively disregard any part of a bill that he signs into law? Senator Levin (D-MI), Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told CQ Today that “the courts have ruled that the president cannot pick and choose provisions of appropriations bills that [he wants] to comply with.” A blue-ribbon American Bar Association task force also found that these signing statements “undermine the rule of law and our constitutional system of separation of powers.”
-- Michael Smallberg

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Agencys' Inspector General openness to the public now being legislated

There is often tension between government agencies and their Inspector General watchdogs who can be the bearer of bad news about those agencies. POGO (Project on Government Oversight) has been researching the effectiveness and independence of the IG’s. They’ve already found other instances where IGs have had their reports unnecessarily redacted by agencies or where the agency has simply refused to post an IG’s reports on the web.

Inspector General legislation THAT passed by a vote of 404-11 in the House, despite a Presidential veto threat, would require that all IG reports be posted on the web within three days. The Senate will likely take up corresponding legislation in the coming days.

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

We won! Wartime contracting reform passes.

Last Wednesday, September 26th, we posted a POGO netroots campaign to help establish a Commission on Wartime Contracting. With your help, we were successful! Here's what POGO (Project on Government Oversight) has to say:

You did it! Last week we told you about an amendment introduced by Senators James Webb (D-VA) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO) to establish an independent and bipartisan Commission on Wartime Contracting. I'm happy to report that the amendment has passed the Senate with unanimous approval.
We were overwhelmed by the response from POGO's supporters who contacted their Senators and asked them to support this important initiative. Thanks to your hard work, we're now one step closer to victory. We'll be watching closely as Representative John Tierney (D-MA) introduces a counterpart bill in the House, and will let you know if we need your help.
Click here to read POGO's press release on the passage of the Senate amendment.
Click here to read the amendment introduced by Representative Tierney.