Over 100 Organizations Sign Letter to House Committee on Resources in Support of POGO

Chairman Don Young
House Resources Committee
U.S. House of Representatives
1324 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-6201

Dear Chairman Young:

We are writing to express deep concern over your Committee's efforts to obtain the home phone records of the Project On Government Oversight's (POGO) Executive Director as well as the organization's office phone records. Your subpoena of these records violates our country's deeply-held commitment to the right to freedom of association and freedom of speech.

Nonprofit organizations serve a vital role in helping the federal government function more effectively by giving voice to those who would be marginalized, exposing areas that need reform and balancing policy debates that would otherwise be monopolized by powerful special interests. Nonprofits and their leaders should not have to live in fear of retaliation and abuse in the form of invasive subpoenas such as yours.

Your request is particularly objectionable in light of POGO's role as an intermediary working with whistleblowers who fight fraud and abuses of power within the federal government. The identities and phone numbers of these whistleblowers must remain private and confidential in order to ensure that they are not the targets of retaliation.

Sincerely, 

Tim Barner
Program Director
20/20 Vision

John Fitzgerald
Counsel
Accounting for the Environment

Laurence E. Gold
Associate General Counsel
AFL-CIO

Cindy Shogan
Executive Director
Alaska Wilderness League

Jim Sykes
Executive Director
Alaska Public Interest Research Group

Nan Aron
President
Alliance for Justice

Maureen Eldredge
Program Director
Alliance for Nuclear Accountability

Clifford T. Honicker
Director
American Environmental Health Studies Project, Inc.

James Matlack
Director Washington Office
American Friends Service Committee

Steve Holmer
Campaign Coordinator
American Lands Alliance

D.W. Bennett
Executive Director
American Littoral Society

Ted Morton
Policy Director
American Oceans Campaign

Rebecca Wodder
President
American Rivers

Betty Schroeder
Chair
Arizona Safe Energy Coalition

J. Terrence Brunner
Executive Director
Better Government Association

Barbara Bode
CampaignsOnline

Ron Daniels
Executive Director
Center for Constitutional Rights

David Hunter
Executive Director
Center for International Environmental Law

Tim Eichenberg
Administrative Law Counsel
Center for Marine Conservation

Amy Kincaid
President
ChangeMatters

Craig Williams
Director
Chemical Weapons Working Group

David Radcliff
Director of Brethren Witness
Church of the Brethren General Board

Kaitlin Backlund
Director
Citizen Alert

Mark Lloyd
Executive Director
Civil Rights Forum on Communications Policy

Lynn Thorp
National Programs Coordinator
Clean Water Fund / Campaign for Safe & Affordable Drinking Water

Meredith McGehee
Vice President and Legislative Director
Common Cause

Joan Kiley
Executive Director
Community Recovery Services

Joni Arends
Waste Programs Director
Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety

Gary Ruskin
Director
Congressional Accountability Project

James Love
Director
Consumer Project on Technology

John Isaacs
President
Council for a Livable World

Robert Dewey
Vice President,
Government Relations & External Affairs
Defenders of Wildlife

T. Logan Russell
President
Delta Land Trust

Doug Koplow
President
Earth Track, Inc.

Jon Boley
Research Associate
Economics Research Associates

Marc Rotenberg
Executive Director
Electronic Privacy Information Center

Brock Evans
Executive Director
Endangered Species Coalition

Elizabeth Thompson
Legislative Director
Environmental Defense

Kevin Bundy
Policy Director
Environmental Protection Information Center

Ken Cook
President
Environmental Working Group

Tom Throop, Director
Sarah Gorin, Board Chair
Equality State Policy Center

John Richard
Executive Director
Essential Information

Steven Aftergood
Project Director
Federation of American Scientists

Jennifer Lindsay
Development Officer
First Nations Development Institute

Joan Flanagan
Lally McMahon, Forest Protection Program
John C. Horning, Watershed Protection Program
Forest Guardians

Andy Stahl
Executive Director
Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics

Joe Volk
Executive Secretary
Friends Committee on National Legislation

Brent Blackwelder
President
Friends of the Earth

Conrad Martin
Executive Director
Fund for Constitutional Government

Patricia T. Birnie
Chair
GE Stockholders' Alliance for A Sustainable, Nuclear-Free Future

Bryan Hager
Director
Georgia Sierra Club
Challenge to Sprawl Campaign

Louis Clark
Executive Director
Government Accountability Project

Bill Hedden
Utah Conservation Director
Grand Canyon Trust

Roger Featherstone
Director
GrassRoots Environmental Effectiveness Network, GREEN

Bill Sheehan
Network Coordinator
GrassRoots Recycling Network

Tom Myers
Director
Great Basin Mine Watch

Gary Wolf
Co-Chair
Green Party of Tennessee

Gary Cook
Director of Climate Campaign
Greenpeace USA

James C. Turner
Executive Director
HALT, Inc. - An Organization of Americans for Legal Reform

John T. O'Connell
Executive Director
Health and Welfare Council of Long Island, Inc.

Scott Armstrong
Director
Information Trust

Joseph Mendelson III
Legal Director
International Center for Technology Assessment

Dr. Rosalie Bertell
President
International Institute of Concern for Public Health

Joel Carp
Senior Vice President
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago

Rene Voss
Legislative Director
John Muir Project

Mark Rand
Executive Director
JustAct

Peter Hille
Chairman
Kentucky Environmental Foundation

Stephen D'Esposito
President
Mineral Policy Center

Adam McLane
Business Manager
Montana Environmental Information Center

Robert Weissman
Editor
Multinational Monitor

Robert O. Bothwell
President Emeritus/Senior Fellow
National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy

Phil Clapp
President
National Environmental Trust

Kim Gandy
Executive Vice President
National Organization for Women

Stephen Kohn
Chairman of Board
National Whistleblower Center

Gregory Wetstone
Director of Advocacy Programs
Natural Resources Defense Council

Audrie Krause
Executive Director
NetAction

Elizabeth Crowe
Director
Non-Stockpile Chemical Weapons Citizens Coalition

Tim McKay
Executive Director
Northcoast Environmental Center

Iza Kruszewska
International Programmes Co-ordinator
The Northern Alliance for Sustainability, ANPED

Michael Mariotte
Executive Director
Nuclear Information and Resource Service

Gary Bass
Executive Director
OMB Watch

Jacqueline O. Kittrell
President
Oak Ridge Communities Allied ORCA

Sandra Reid
Director
Oak Ridge Health Liaison

Ken Rait
Conservation Director
Oregon Natural Resources Council

Will Pipkin
Director
Out Up North

Doug Norlen
Policy Director
Pacific Environment and Resources Center

Vina Colley
President
Portsmouth/Piketon Resident for Environmental Safety and Security, PRESS

Richard Healey
Executive Director
Preamble Center

David Banisar
Deputy Director
Privacy International

Don Wilson
Director
Progressive Resources

Sam Smith
Editor
Progressive Review

Robert Seldon
Executive Director
Project on Liberty And the Workplace

Joan Claybrook
President
Public Citizen

Jeff Ruch
Executive Director
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility

Lucy Dalglish
Executive Director
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

Scott Denman
Executive Director
Safe Energy Communication Council

George D. Roberts
Legislative Director
Service Employees International Union

Antony Scott
Energy Analyst
Sierra Club, John Muir Chapter, Wisconsin

Mike Matz
Executive Director
Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance

Ralph Estes
Director
Stakeholder Alliance

Felice Yeskel, Ed.D
Director
Stonewall Center

Don Chen
Research Manager
Surface Transportation Policy Project

Ralph DeGennaro
Executive Director
Taxpayers for Common Sense

Carol Westlake
Executive Director
Tennessee Disability Coalition

Judith Filler
Executive Director
Texas Alliance for Human Needs

Anna Aurilio
Staff Scientist
USPIRG

Ann Hoffman
Legislative Director
Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees, UNITE

Reverend Jay Lintner
Director Washington Office
United Church of Christ

Chuck Collins
Executive Director
United for a Fair Economy

Dave Rapaport
Executive Director
Vermont Public Interest Research Group

Bill Meadows
President
Wilderness Society

D'Arcy Kemnitz
Director
Wildlife Advocacy Project

Susan Shaer
Executive Director
Women's Action for New Directions, WAND

Mary Byrd Davis
Director
Yggdrasil Institute

cc: Members of House Committee on Resources Enclosure