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The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is submitting to Congress
a number of actions it should take that would fix many of the systemic
problems that have long plagued the federal government and that spurred
POGO's creation 29 years ago. POGO submitted a similar list to Congress
in 2007, and is pleased to report that Congress made progress
addressing several of the issues we raised. For example, Congress has
passed legislation to create a database that addresses federal
contractor misconduct and established the Senate Ad Hoc Subcommittee on
Contracting Oversight and the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq
and Afghanistan that are trying to fix the broken federal contracting
system.
But
Congress has not adequately addressed many of the important issues we
outlined three years ago. Despite the tireless efforts of a bipartisan
group of Members, Congress has not passed the Whistleblower Protection
Enhancement Act. Nor has Congress reoriented its defense
spending priorities to the troops and national security mission rather
than defense contractors, as evidenced by the numerous earmarks in the
most recent defense appropriations bill, including $2.25 billion for
the C-17 Globemaster airlifters the Department of Defense doesn't want.
And because of such emergent problems as the financial crisis and the
H1NI scare, additional issues have arisen that demand Congress's
immediate attention.
1. Pass Whistleblower Protection Law
Frequently the first people to discover corruption and misconduct
are federal employees. By seeking to fix the problems they uncover,
these employees play a vital role in making sure the government is
accountable and effective. Unfortunately, whistleblowers are almost
always reprimanded, fired, and/or harassed instead of feted, even if
they have not "gone public" and even after their allegations are proven
to be true. The federal Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989 is grossly
inadequate in protecting federal workers and government contractors who
expose waste, fraud, and abuse from retaliation by their supervisors.
Until federal employees can expose wrongdoing without fear of
retaliation, they will lack the incentive to report wrongdoing.
Congress should immediately pass the Whistleblower Protection
Enhancement Act of 2009 (H.R. 1507), the bipartisan bill sponsored by
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Rep. Todd Platts (R-PA) that creates
strong, comprehensive federal whistleblower protections giving all
federal employees and contractors a functional administrative process
and access to trials.
2. Create an Independent Audit Agency
Auditors are on the front lines of rooting out wasteful spending in
federal agencies. Experience has shown that increased funding for
auditors ultimately results in greater savings for taxpayers, making it
essential for these offices to have the funding, independence,
staffing, and other resources they need to do their job. Unfortunately,
investigations into the General Services Administration (GSA), Minerals
Management Service (MMS) at the Department of the Interior, and the
Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) have found that auditors lack the
independence from their agencies they need to effectively do their
jobs. As a result, auditors' findings have been ignored or altered, and
in some cases have resulted in retaliation or demotion.
Congress should consider establishing an independent federal
contract audit agency. Until then, we hope that Congress provides
rigorous oversight to ensure that agency heads allow auditors to
operate independently, and warn them that officials who interfere with
auditors' independence will be held accountable.
3. Improve Economic Recovery Efforts
Congress has committed $700 billion to the Treasury Department's
Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) in response to the subprime
mortgage crisis and the ensuing freeze in the nation's credit markets.
Additional entities such as the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation (FDIC) are also lending and guaranteeing
trillions of dollars in public funds to encourage lending and to assist
banks in dealing with mortgage-backed loans and securities. To ensure
the success of these commitments, Congress must take additional action:
4. Put the Teeth Back in Financial Regulatory Agencies
In recent months there has been widespread bipartisan agreement
about the need to strengthen the nation's financial regulatory agencies
in order to prevent future economic crises. In particular, the
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Financial Industry
Regulatory Authority (FINRA) have been failing in their missions to
protect investors from securities fraud.
Congress should reevaluate the government's reliance on FINRA and
other financial self-regulatory organizations (SROs) as frontline
overseers of financial products. FINRA's claim that self-regulation
saves taxpayers money is belied by the fact that taxpayers still have
to pay for the SEC to conduct regular oversight of SROs. FINRA's recent
failure to detect the Bernie Madoff and Allen Stanford Ponzi schemes
should call into serious question whether self-regulators are deserving
of any new regulatory authority.
Congress should also instruct the SEC to fully implement the
hundreds of unimplemented recommendations made by the Inspector General
(IG) over the past two years, which would help address many of the
long-standing systemic problems that have hindered the agency's
effectiveness as a regulator.
5. Uncover the Hidden Costs of Privatizing Government
Under previous administrations, vast swaths of the federal
government have been shifted into the private sector in an effort to
reduce the size of the federal government. From 2000 to 2008, the
amount of federal money spent on contracting increased by over 150
percent-the majority of which is money spent on service contracts. The
great promise that privatizing government would save money by engaging
a more "efficient" private sector hasn't materialized. In fact,
overzealous outsourcing created numerous concerns about whether the
federal government can adequately control its spending and fulfill its
mission. Contractors are now protecting embassies in war zones,
participating in covert intelligence operations, and creating budgets,
public policy, and government programs that are integral to government
missions.
Reversing the trend of outsourcing of government jobs became a hot
issue in 2009. Congress should closely examine the dramatic increase in
the government's use of service contracts and the resultant weakening
of agencies' ability to accomplish their missions and the taxpayers'
ability to hold these agencies accountable. To better track the work of
the federal government, Congress should require all federal agencies to
account for the number of contractor employees working for the
government using a process similar to FAIR Act inventories of
government employees filed by federal agencies.
6. Ensure Taxpayers Get Their Fair Share of Revenues from Royalty Collection
Congress needs to pass legislation that ends the Royalty-In-Kind
(RIK) program. Royalties on oil and gas from our nation's public lands
is one of the largest sources of government revenue. Evidence from the
Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Interior Inspector
General (IG) suggests that the RIK program is an "honor system" that
likely results in significant royalty underpayments by the oil and gas
industry. In order to ensure that taxpayers are getting their fair
share of income from the country's natural resources, Congress must
pass legislation to make Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's
administrative decision to end the RIK program permanent.
7. Increase Government Accountability and Transparency
The press and the public may play the most important oversight role
in holding the government and its contractors accountable. However, the
tools the press and public need-such as databases being created to
track information about past instances of misconduct by federal
government contractors and to track the revolving door between the
Pentagon and industry-cannot be accessed by the public. Congress should
pass legislation to make both of these databases publicly accessible.
USAspending.gov should become the one-stop shop for government
officials and the public for all spending information. This includes
actual copies of each contract, delivery or task order, modification,
amendment, other transaction agreement, grant, and lease. Additionally,
proposals, solicitations, award decisions and justifications (including
all documents related to contracts awarded with less than full and open
competition and single-bid contract awards), audits, performance and
responsibility data, and other related government reports should be
incorporated into USAspending.gov.
Congress should ensure that basic information about how the federal
government functions be made public, such as a list of how to contact
employees concerning specific matters at each agency. Each agency
should post a calendar for meetings of top-level officials. Similarly,
visitor logs from executive branch policy meetings with lobbyists and
outside groups should be made publicly available at least every three
months, taking into account the need for exemptions for privacy issues.
The public should have online access to a list of all FOIA requests,
which includes links to any documents released as a result of a
request. Similarly, unclassified versions of all IG reports should
become publicly available.
Congress should also ensure that all communications between agencies
and Congress are publicly available, such as responses to inquiries and
reports mandated by Congress.
In the face of the Obama Administration's Open Government Directive,
which mandates increased public access to agency information, Congress
should similarly open its doors. One important step would be for
Congress to make conference reports and marked-up bills publicly
available at least 72 hours prior to the vote.
Additionally, Congress should mark up and pass Senate Resolution
118, which would allow Senators to officially provide public internet
access to all non-classified Congressional Research Service (CRS)
products, some of the best research conducted by the federal government.
8. End Wasteful Defense Spending
The Pentagon has begun to demonstrate an increased willingness to
balance priorities around realistic threats and instill discipline in
weapons acquisitions. Unfortunately, Congress continues to fill the
Defense Appropriations bill with pet projects and earmarks for programs
the Department of Defense (DoD) neither wants nor needs, such as the
C-17. These earmarks divert money away from more urgent national
security priorities. Congress should make sure that Defense
Appropriations bills reflect spending based solely upon national
security needs instead of parochial interests.
Congress must
also make sure that the Pentagon truly is committed to responsible
acquisitions. The Pentagon often issues waivers to key program
milestones and requirements because Congress rarely, if ever, holds
them accountable for failing to follow their own rules. Congress should
use its oversight and appropriations authority to make sure the DoD
does not allow weapons system programs to ramp up production until
after the weapon technology is proven through independent Operational
Test and Evaluation.
9. Make Government Watchdog Organizations More Accountable
Inspectors
General require an extraordinary degree of independence to effectively
perform their duties. But they also need to be held accountable for
misconduct and inadequate work performance. In some cases such
accountability will necessitate that an IG be removed from his or her
post. As demonstrated by recent events, the process of removing an IG
can create a considerable chilling effect on the entire Inspector
General community when the justification for that removal is not fully
transparent.
To ensure that the entire IG community has trust that presidential
decisions to remove IGs are motivated by legitimate causes rather than
retaliation or politics, Congress should amend the Inspector General
Reform Act of 2008 to include a provision that would allow the
President to remove an Inspector General only for cause. The provision
should also require that the President inform Congress in writing of
the full justification for the decision.
10. Drag the Nuclear Complex Out of the Cold War, and Ensure Oversight of Lab Contractors
The people who are running the nuclear weapons complex at the
Department of Energy (DOE) operate as though the Cold War is not over.
Congress should prioritize efforts to secure vulnerable fissile
material around the world and in the U.S., instead of letting the
Administration pour billions of dollars into expanding nuclear
bomb-making materials, weapons, and facilities spread across the
country. For example, the Administration is continuing to store
approximately 250 metric tons of highly-enriched uranium (HEU) in World
War II-era buildings, creating a security risk and requiring billions
of dollars for the construction of new facilities and millions of
dollars for security.
Congress should push DOE to declare as excess and downblend the
growing stocks of HEU into low-enriched uranium which, unlike HEU,
poses no security risk. Furthermore, LEU can be sold as fuel for
nuclear power reactors, generating at least $26 billion in new revenues
for the government. In addition, Congress should look into why DOE has
been dragging its feet in dismantling the thousands of warheads that
have already been declared excess, and are in queue at both Pantex and
the Y-12 National Security complex. Inexplicably, the 2011 budget for
this effort has been cut in half. This funding shortfall both increases
security vulnerabilities and creates unnecessary costs that could
otherwise have been converted to revenue.
Additionally, Congress should conduct oversight of DOE's shift
towards a policy of self-policing for the contractors who manage the
eight facilities that comprise the nuclear weapons complex.
11. Disclose Conflicts of Interest in Scientific Research
One issue that POGO included in its 2007 Baker's Dozen list to
Congress has only partly been addressed. A few years ago, press reports
revealed that a number of researchers at the National Institutes of
Health's (NIH) central facility in Bethesda also served as paid
consultants to drug and biotech companies while they were working for
the federal government. The serious conflicts of interest these
situations caused were resolved by simply abolishing all paid
consulting and other types of payments to NIH's intramural scientists
by private companies. However, many researchers at the nation's medical
schools and universities who receive NIH grants and contracts continue
to consult for private companies.
Congress should ensure that the NIH require its grantees to publicly
disclose their paid arrangements with pharmaceutical companies, as well
as their ownership of relevant stock and stock options, as a condition
of having their medical research funded by the government.
Furthermore, the public would also benefit from greater transparency
in the Department of Health and Human Service's programs, particularly
for vaccine production in a pandemic. The online posting of all
government contracts for vaccine production would be a good place to
start. We urge Congress to press for easy public accessibility to this
information.
12. And of Course: Fix the Broken Federal Contracting System
Since 1981, POGO has exposed numerous problems that are the result
of so-called procurement or acquisition "reforms," including cozy
negotiations, inadequate competition, lack of accountability, little
transparency, and risky contracting vehicles that are prone to waste,
fraud, and abuse. While there have been some fixes to the federal
government's contracting systems, there are many more that must be
implemented.
None of these issues are partisan. In fact, the solution to many of
these problems involve strengthening the watchdogs in the government, a
goal that should be shared by both sides of the aisle.
These issues also provide an opportunity for
Members of Congress and the President to work together to sign into law
good government bills that prevent waste, fraud, and abuse. Passing
those laws and actually conducting real oversight would be a
substantive response to taxpayers' concerns that the government does
not spend their money sensibly. Swift implementation of comprehensive
government oversight will reap benefits for taxpayers long past the
election cycle.
The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is an independent nonprofit that investigates and exposes corruption and other misconduct in order to achieve a more effective, accountable, open and honest federal government.
"There is no legal justification for this military strike," said one Amnesty International campaigner. "The US must be held accountable."
President Donald Trump said Monday that the US carried out a fresh strike on what he said was a boat used by Venezuelan drug gangs, killing three people in what one human rights campaigner called another "extrajudicial execution."
"This morning, on my Orders, US Military Forces conducted a SECOND Kinetic Strike against positively identified, extraordinarily violent drug trafficking cartels and narcoterrorists in the [US Southern Command] area of responsibility," Trump said on his Truth Social network. "The Strike occurred while these confirmed narcoterrorists from Venezuela were in International Waters transporting illegal narcotics (A DEADLY WEAPON POISONING AMERICANS!) headed to the US."
"These extremely violent drug trafficking cartels POSE A THREAT to US National Security, Foreign Policy, and vital US Interests," the Republican president continued. "The Strike resulted in three male terrorists killed in action. No US Forces were harmed in this Strike."
"BE WARNED—IF YOU ARE TRANSPORTING DRUGS THAT CAN KILL AMERICANS, WE ARE HUNTING YOU!" Trump added. "The illicit activities by these cartels have wrought DEVASTATING CONSEQUENCES ON AMERICAN COMMUNITIES FOR DECADES, killing millions of American Citizens. NO LONGER. Thank you for your attention to this matter!!!"
US President Trump just announced that a second drug smuggling boat from Venezuela was hit by a US airstrike in the Caribbean, killing 3 people on board the boat.#Venezuela pic.twitter.com/dO34gYr9GZ
— CNW (@ConflictsW) September 15, 2025
Responding to arguments by legal experts and Venezuelan officials that the September 2 strike was illegal, Trump said Sunday that "what's illegal are the drugs that were on the boat... and the fact that 300 million people died last year from drugs."
Only 62 million people died in the entire world of all causes last year, making Trump's claim impossibly false.
Monday's attack followed the September 2 bombing of a vessel allegedly transporting cocaine off the Venezuelan coast, a strike that killed 11 people. Venezuelan officials say none of the 11 men were members of the Tren de Aragua gang, as claimed by Trump.
On his first day back in the White House, Trump signed an executive order designating drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. Last month, the president reportedly signed a secret order directing the Pentagon to use military force to combat drug cartels abroad, sparking fears of renewed US aggression in a region that has endured well over 100 US attacks, invasions, occupations, and other interventions since the issuance of the dubious Monroe Doctrine in 1823.
The Intercept's Nick Turse reported Monday that the Trump administration's recently rebranded Department of War "is thwarting congressional oversight" of the September 2 attack.
“I’m incredibly disturbed by this new reporting that the Trump administration launched multiple strikes on the boat off Venezuela,” Congresswoman Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) said in response to Turse's reporting. “They didn’t even bother to seek congressional authorization, bragged about these killings—and teased more to come.”
Common Dreams reported last week that Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) introduced a war powers resolution seeking to restrain Trump from conducting attacks in the Caribbean.
Also last week, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) led a letter signed by two dozen Democratic colleagues and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) asserting that the Trump administration offered "no legitimate justification" for the first boat strike.
It's not just congressional Democrats who have decried Trump's September 2 attack. Last week, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said that "the recent drone attack on a small speedboat over 2,000 miles from our shore without identification of the occupants or the content of the boat is in no way part of a declared war, and defies our longstanding Coast Guard rules of engagement."
“What a despicable and thoughtless sentiment it is to glorify killing someone without a trial," Paul later added.
Paul also mirrored Democratic lawmakers' questioning of Trump's narrative that the boat bombed on September 2 was heading to the United States.
Echoing congressional critics, Daphne Eviatar, director of Amnesty International's Security With Human Rights program, said of Monday's attack, "Today, President Trump claimed his administration carried out another lethal strike against a boat in the Caribbean."
"This is an extrajudicial execution, which is murder," Eviatar added. "There is no legal justification for this military strike. The US must be held accountable."
"Cluster munitions are banned for a reason: Civilians, including children, account for the vast majority of casualties," said one rights advocate.
Human rights leaders on Monday called on the 112 countries that are party to a treaty banning cluster munitions to reinforce the ban and demand that other governments sign on to the agreement, as they released an annual report showing that the bombs only serve to cause civilian suffering—sometimes long after conflicts have ended.
The governance board of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) and the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) released the 16th annual Cluster Munition Monitor on Monday, compiling data on the impact of cluster munitions for 2024 and revealing that all reported cluster bomb casualties last year were civilians—and close to half, 42%, were children.
Cluster bombs are particularly dangerous to civilians because after being dropped from aircraft or fired by rockets or other weapon, they open in the air and send multiple submunitions over wide areas—often leaving unexploded bomblets that are sometimes mistaken by children for harmless toys, and can kill and injure people in populated areas for years or even decades after the initial bombing.
The report, which was released as officials prepare to convene in Geneva for the Cluster Munitions Conference, says at least 314 global casualties from cluster munitions were recorded in 202, with 193 civilians killed in attacks in Ukraine—plus 15 who were killed by unexploded munitions.
Since the Convention on Cluster Munitions was adopted in 2008, none of the 112 signatories have used cluster bombs—but countries that are not party to the convention, including Russia and Ukraine, used the munitions throughout 2024 and into this year, and the US has said it transferred cluster bombs to Ukraine at least seven times between July 2023-October 2024.
The report details recent uses of cluster bombs, the impact of which may not be known for years as civilians remain at risk from the unexploded bombs, including by Thailand—by its own apparent admission—in its border conflict with Cambodia and allegedly by Iran, which Israel claimed used cluster munitions in its attack in June. Cluster munitions have also reportedly been used in recent years in Myanmar—including at schools—and Syria.
"Governments should now act to reinforce the stigma against these indiscriminate weapons and condemn their continued use."
This year, the withdrawal of Lithuania from the Convention on Cluster Munitions—an unprecedented step—garnered condemnation from at least 47 countries. While it had never previously used or stockpiled cluster bombs, the country said it was necessary to have the option of using the munitions "to face increased regional security threats."
The casualties that continued throughout 2024 and into 2025 "demonstrate the need to clear more contaminated land and to provide more assistance to victims," said Human Rights Watch, a co-founder of CMC.
"The Convention on Cluster Munitions has over many years made significant progress in reducing the human suffering caused by cluster munitions," said Mark Hiznay, associate crisis, conflict, and arms director for HRW. "Governments should now act to reinforce the stigma against these indiscriminate weapons and condemn their continued use."
The report notes that funding cuts by donor states including the US, which under the second term of President Donald Trump has cut funding for landmine and cluster bomb clearance and aid, have left many affected countries struggling to provide services to survivors.
Children, the report notes, are often particularly in need of aid after suffering the effects of cluster munitions, as they are "more vulnerable to injury and frequently require repeated surgeries, regular prosthetic replacements as they grow, and long-term opportunities to access physical rehabilitation and psychological support."
"Without adequate care for children, complications can worsen, affecting their schooling, social interactions, mental health, and overall well-being," explained IBCL and CMC.
At the Cluster Munitions Conference taking place from September 16-19, said Anne Héry, advocacy director for the group Humanity and Inclusion, states must "reaffirm their commitment to this vital treaty."
"Cluster munitions are banned for a reason: Civilians, including children, account for the vast majority of casualties," said Héry. "Questioning the convention is unacceptable. States convening at the annual Cluster Munition Conference must reaffirm their strong attachment to the treaty and their condemnation of any use by any party."
"The Post not only flagrantly disregarded standard disciplinary processes, it also undermined its own mandate to be a champion of free speech," said the Post Guild.
The union representing employees at The Washington Post on Monday condemned the paper for firing columnist Karen Attiah for comments she made about slain right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
In a statement, the Washington Post Guild said that firing Attiah betrayed the paper's mission to defend free speech in the United States.
"The Post not only flagrantly disregarded standard disciplinary processes, it also undermined its own mandate to be a champion of free speech," the union said. "The right to speak freely is the ultimate personal liberty and the foundation of Karen’s 11-year career at the Post."
The union also said it was "proud to call Karen a colleague and a longtime union sibling" and that it "stands with her and will continue to support her and defend her rights."
Attiah announced on Monday morning that she had been fired from the Post over social media posts in the wake of Kirk's murder that were critical of his legacy but in no way endorsed or celebrated any form of political violence.
"The Post accused my measured Bluesky posts of being 'unacceptable,' 'gross misconduct,' and of endangering the physical safety of colleagues—charges without evidence, which I reject completely as false," she explained. "They rushed to fire me without even a conversation. This was not only a hasty overreach, but a violation of the very standards of journalistic fairness and rigor the Post claims to uphold."
Attiah only directly referenced Kirk once in her posts and said she had condemned the deadly attack on him “without engaging in excessive, false mourning for a man who routinely attacked Black women as a group, put academics in danger by putting them on watch lists, claimed falsely that Black people were better off in the era of Jim Crow, said that the Civil Rights Act was a mistake, and favorably reviewed a book that called liberals 'Unhumans.'"
Independent progressive news site Drop Site News has published a running list on X documenting dozens of people who so far have been fired, suspended, or placed under investigation for their social media posts related to Kirk in the wake of his death. So far, says Drop Site News, over half of those targeted have been educators.