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Latest Policy Publications
POGO’s experts push policymakers to enact commonsense reforms that tackle waste, corruption, and abuse of power; hold those who’ve violated the public trust accountable; protect our constitutional rights; and make the government work for all people.
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Analysis
Dangerous Chemical in Texas Explosion Poorly Regulated
Ammonium nitrate fertilizer, the suspected culprit behind the April factory explosion in West, TX, has a deadly history well known to government agencies. Despite that, the Environmental Protection Agency has yet to add it to the list of Extremely Hazardous Materials.
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Analysis
DOE Contracting Mismanagement Cost Taxpayers Over $450,000
The Department of Energy has mishandled yet another nuclear lab contractor, paying hundreds of thousands of dollars without requesting or recording a single deliverable.
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Analysis
Shining Light on Closed Doors
Although some Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) subcommittees have slowly begun to open their NDAA markups to the public, POGO continues to wait for the day the SASC will open all its closed NDAA discussions to the public.
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Analysis
When Will the Contractors Contract?
Does privatization work as predicted by the neo-liberal ideologues?
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Analysis
Government Errors Hurt Small Businesses
Government errors are making it impossible for small businesses to compete as contractors.
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Analysis
Final Inspector General’s Report Cuts References to Panetta’s Disclosure of “TOP SECRET” Info
The Department of Defense Inspector General’s final report on what kind of access the Zero Dark Thirty filmmakers had to classified information omits any reference to then-CIA Director Leon Panetta’s disclosure of “TOP SECRET” and other sensitive information at an event attend...
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Analysis
Cap Fight! Debate Continues Over Contractor Compensation
This week, the House Armed Services Committee took up the long-debated issue of setting the contractor compensation benchmark in the FY 2014 National Defense Authorization Act. Section 813 includes language to set the cap at its current level of $763,029, but allows for cost a...
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Analysis
Lost? The Guards at Y-12 Can Help
Yet another security breach at the Y-12 nuclear complex highlights the need for meaningful security changes.
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Analysis
Booz in the News and Whistleblower Blues
The revelation that it was Edward Snowden, an employee of National Security Agency contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, who blew the whistle on the NSA’s surveillance programs has thrust Booz Allen Hamilton into the spotlight. Unfortunately, their track record of business ethics an...
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AnalysisUnauditable, Unaccountable and Unaffordable
See below an important commentary by Chuck Spinney at Time's Battleland blog; it addresses how much worse the Pentagon is managed--by itself, Congress and the White House--than the 1980's when grotesquely bad DOD management was the daily fodder of political cartoonists.
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Analysis
Call Me Maybe
GSA's new wireless agreement is being applauded for its cost savings and efficiencies. But does it really answer the call, especially after taking years to award?
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AnalysisF-35 Cost Findings, Recommendations and More (Part 5 of 5)
The fifth (last) installment of my F-35 unit cost series is at Time's Battleland at http://nation.time.com/2013/06/07/on-final-approach-to-fighter-fiscal-sanity/ and below. At the end of part 5 are links to each of the previous parts, but Mark Thompson at Time has done such a...