Impact
2019
Telecommunications Industry Influence
This quarter, we released two
investigations on the way the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) secures our telecommunications infrastructure. Here’s what you need to know:
We found that the FCC has repeatedly failed to fix a critical vulnerability in an important system that connects all of America’s phones. A lack of in-house technical expertise leaves the FCC relying on advice from the very companies it’s supposed to oversee.
Our second investigation examined an FCC advisory panel on telecom infrastructure security and found extensive industry influence: Over two-thirds of the 183 panel members represented industry. Our work prompted a Senator and Representative to launch a formal investigation.
Former Chemical Lobbyist Sidelined EPA Chemical Study
We released an analysis highlighting the fact that a former head of chemical policy at Koch Industries, David Dunlap, now helps run the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) main science office and made key decisions regarding which chemicals to evaluate for health dangers.
Ultimately, the EPA stopped a study on formaldehyde—one of the chemicals Dunlap dealt with at Koch industries—despite twenty years of preparation. The study reportedly contained information showing a link between formaldehyde and cancer—a conclusion that likely would have led to increased regulation and decreased sales of the chemical. In an attempt to appear to comply with ethics rules, Dunlap recused himself the day of the decision. And the EPA’s ethics officials allowed it.
Scrapped Instead of Sold: The Cost of Crushing Humvees
We found that the military is paying to crush tens of thousands of usable Humvees when it could legally donate or sell them—and the Pentagon itself estimates that it may have left at least $156 million on the table
in the first six years of the program. Our analysis finds that the total financial impact (which includes lost savings for the military) is far greater.
The vehicles are not only costly to produce but also costly to destroy. Yet the agency responsible for processing surplus military equipment states that federal regulations force it to destroy the Humvees instead of selling them to recover tax dollars.
House Appropriators Reject Proposal to Create Space Bureaucracy
Dan Grazier, POGO’s Jack Shanahan Military Fellow, testified before Congress this past month urging them to reject a proposal to add to the military bureaucracy by creating an independent Space Force.
Dan argued that “there are pressing military concerns in space, but space operations are a supporting function for the existing services.”
We see no need for a redundant force, especially since the existing services would have also maintained their own space assets under the proposal.
The House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee agreed—it rejected the proposal to create a separate space bureaucracy.
Facial Recognition Report Gains Major Traction in Congress
We were encouraged when Representative Justin Amash (I-MI) asked questions that POGO recommended during a facial recognition hearing and found that the FBI does not currently use real-time facial recognition. Real-time facial recognition has especially high levels of misidentification, which could pose a threat for innocent individuals if law enforcement officials use real-time facial recognition to identify alleged criminals.
Not only did Congress use our questions, but Members recognized TCP’s groundbreaking work as so important that House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-MD) entered our facial recognition report into the record during the hearing.
Congress also invited one of our facial recognition task force members to testify during the hearing.
Holding the Judicial Branch Accountable
Over the last several months, we’ve worked with advocacy partners and Members of Congress from across the political spectrum to explore ways to make the federal judiciary more ethical, accountable, and transparent.
Our sustained advocacy is paying off: Congress is interested in making changes. In June, the House Judiciary Courts Subcommittee held a hearing on developing a code of conduct for the Supreme Court, improving financial disclosure practices, and improving transparency on recusal decisions. We provided input about what specific problems the Committee should focus on and reforms it should consider.
New from TCP: Sidebar
In July, we launched Sidebar, the new digital newsletter for TCP. We’ve given a lot of thought to what would be new, exciting, and useful information to our supporters, policymakers, and advocates.
And so, every week, Sidebar features valuable and informative resources, our quick takes on today’s most pressing constitutional issues, and thought-provoking trivia and facts you can share. We will be brief, interesting, and occasionally amusing, and we think it will be worth your time (and space in your inbox).
To subscribe, visit www.pogo.org/subscribe
Money Talks, but POGO Has More to Say
This quarter, the House acted on several of our funding recommendations. In one of these victories, House Financial Services appropriators agreed to provide $1 million for oversight.gov, a central repository that enables the public to easily access nearly all the recent work from the 73 federal inspector general offices.
POGO analyst Sean Moulton recommended this when he testified before the Committee in March, and the House listened.
The House also agreed to fund its new whistleblower office after POGO advocated for creating and funding such an office. POGO believes that the $750,000 provided for the office will provide sufficient resources for it to succeed. Standardizing training and providing resources to help congressional staff better work with whistleblowers will greatly improve the likelihood that committees and personal offices can productively engage with individuals who have personal knowledge of waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government.
The House has also taken its first step in shining a light on a secretive office at the Justice Department. The Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) historically has not been required to publish its opinions—as a result, many influential legal opinions that bind the executive branch’s conduct have not been made public.
But POGO suggested (and the House adopted) language that would require OLC to provide Congress a list of all final opinions—with few exceptions—that are in effect, including the name of the person who signed the opinion and the date.
This is the first big step in promoting OLC transparency.
Federal Investigation of Icahn Trading
POGO alerted the SEC to potential abuses of power in the government this quarter when we called on the SEC to investigate Carl Icahn, a former White House adviser, for possible insider trading.
We specifically asked the SEC to look into whether Icahn was provided non-public, market-moving information by government officials. And now investigators are at work: News reports say the U.S. attorney’s office in New York is looking into this matter.
“American Lives at Risk”
Our recent investigation into the security situation at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya caught the attention of the staff on the House and Senate Foreign Affairs Committees who asked for our experts to brief them on our findings. Emails we obtained show that a top American security officer at the U.S. Embassy warned the State Department that there are “American lives at risk” after the embassy dismissed hundreds of security guards over a labor dispute. This came shortly after a terrorist attack in the city killed 21 people. The congressional briefings lead to a private letter sent from Congress to Secretary of State Pompeo asking for answers to the questions our reporting raised.
POGO Reporting Informs Congressional Questioning
Last fall, we reported in The Daily Beast evidence that ICE officials visited Silicon Valley last June to meet with Amazon. The purpose of the meeting was to pitch the company’s real-time facial matching system. A letter was sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos from seven members of Congress, citing our report and demanding answers to earlier questions about the technology dubbed, “Rekognition,” and its use. Shortly after, Sens. Ron Wyden, Edward Markey and Cory Booker cited our news reporting in a letter asking follow up questions of the deputy director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement on the agency’s efforts to meet with vendors of facial recognition technology.
Pentagon Revolving Door Database Gains Traction with Media
POGO’s Center for Defense Information team identified 645 instances of senior government officials, military officers, Members of Congress, and senior legislative staff going to work for defense contractors as lobbyists, board members, or executives within two years of retirement. The report determined that 90 percent of cases of senior government officials going to the top 20 contractors became lobbyists—not being valued for their expertise, but for their relationships. These numbers included 25 generals, 9 admirals, 43 lieutenant generals, and 23 vice admirals. Since its release last November, this report and its accompanying database has become a primary source for revolving door stories in the news media including The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Politico, Rolling Stone magazine and countless others.
Navy Takes Notice
The Navy’s press office sent POGO a response email acknowledging they saw our report on documents we obtained that show the Navy’s F-35C Joint Strike Fighter is almost never fully ready for combat within 30 minutes of us posting it. The fully mission capable rate for the F-35C plunged to zero in December 2017, and the data we obtained shows it remained in the single digits throughout 2018. More than a month after our report, the Government Accountability Office published a very similar F-35 report which validated CDI’s sources and documents.
States Notice POGO Election Security Report
As a result of our election security report we released this past November, our staff has been working with the National Association of Secretaries of State to recommend that the possibility of wholesale destruction of voter registration databases be included in the Department of Homeland Security’s national tabletop scenario planning exercises. In our recent report we found that 29 states do not have adequate procedures or regulations in place to manage a large-scale provisional ballot system in the event of a voter database hack. Recent news reports about how a foreign actor infiltrated the voter rolls of a county in Florida highlight how realistic this scenario is.
Congressional Committee Requests Task Force Briefing
The House Oversight and Reform Committee asked members of our facial recognition task force to brief their staff on the findings of our recent report examining issues related to the technology. The report contained policy recommendations that would ensure constitutional rights are safeguarded while the government increasingly relies on this emerging technology. Our task force included experts from across sectors, including law enforcement. You can read the report at http://bit.ly/facial_rec
POGO Experts are a Resource for Congress
In the first four months of the year, POGO’s experts have testified or submitted written testimony eight times. Some of the topics we’ve testified on include overhauling executive branch ethics, instituting a code of conduct for the Supreme Court, reforming The National Emergencies Act to rein in executive power, strengthening national security oversight, and requiring the House and Capitol Police Inspectors General to make their reports public.
Think HR 1 Isn’t Bipartisan?
Reps. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and Harley Rouda (D-CA) introduced the only bipartisan amendment that was included in the final HR 1 bill. The amendment aims to improve disclosure rules surrounding fellowships in the House of Representatives. Multiple investigations by our Lydia Dennett found that the congressional fellow program could be utilized by industry to infiltrate Congress with little to no disclosure. One of the most glaring findings was that the House has *no* disclosure rules to require reporting to track who's footing the fellowship bill.
Legislative Reform Agenda Released
POGO’s 116th Congress Baker’s Dozen report on 13 policy areas (hence the name, Baker’s Dozen) which contains 75 individual recommendations. Congress has already introduced bills on a few of our recommendations, and there are a few more bills in the works that haven't been introduced yet.
"Drilling Down" Series Receives Journalism Award
The Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing honored POGO’s “Drilling Down” series by David Hilzenrath and Nicholas Pacifico with the 2018 Best in Business award for explanatory journalism from a small organization. The series explores giveaways to Big Oil, rules hidden away from public scrutiny, and the government’s blind eye to industry takeover—even when lives are at stake. The judges praised the series for picking up “where the headlines leave off, looking into Big Oil and its risks and relationships in Washington.”