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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
It’s O-Fish-al: POGO Thinks Past Performance Information Should be Made Public
GAO reveals past performance information about a contractor—the kind of information DoD has refused to turn over to POGO.
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Analysis
What the Pentagon’s Top Tester Said About the F-35B
Two weeks ago, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced that the Marine Corps’ version of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is in trouble. While “two of the JSF variants, the Air Force version and the Navy’s carrier based version, are proceeding satisfactorily,” Gates said, “by...
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Analysis
New Report Shows Some IRS Contractors Are Not Paying Their Taxes
Consider the double threat posed by a contractor that owes taxes: First, it deprives Uncle Sam of needed revenue. As of 2007, the Government Accountability Office estimated that contractors owed over $7 billion in federal taxes. Second, a mounting delinquent tax liability can ...
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Analysis
How a Red Herring about WikiLeaks Killed Whistleblower Protections
WikiLeaks killed our whistleblower protections bill—sort of. After an unbelievable roller coaster of fear and fallacies, votes on and off, and a flurry of activity, when the lights went out in the Capitol Building on December 22, the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act wa...
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Analysis
Littoral Combat Ship: Looking for Congressional Oversight
Among the final acts of the last Congress was approving a continuing resolution that authorized the Navy to buy 20 sea frames of both the Lockheed Martin and Austal USA versions of the Littoral Combat Ships (LCS).
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Analysis
Never Mind the WikiLeaks, Here’s Subsidy Tracker
The current furor over Wikileaks has triggered an intense discussion of government and corporate transparency and accountability issues (for example, check out POGO’s latest podcast), which has been great, but it has also drawn attention away from other notable recent developm...
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Analysis
Leaked Assessment Says Deficiencies Have Plagued the Military Whistleblower System
Leaked Assessment Says Deficiencies Have Plagued the Military Whistleblower System
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Analysis
New Report Discloses Recent Investigations by SEC Inspector General
Twice a year, Inspectors General are required to submit reports to Congress describing their recent audits and investigations, and these reports are made available to the public. In the case of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Office of Inspector General (OIG)—whic...
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Analysis
The Case of the Missing Inspector General Reports
Inspector General (IG) investigations expose some of the most egregious examples of misconduct by federal officials—everything from whistleblower retaliation to the abuse of taxpayer dollars—and the public has every right to see the (non-classified, non-redacted) results of th...
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Analysis
Romney’s Remarkable Defense Budget
As unwarranted as President Obama's historically rather overstuffed 2013-2022 defense budget is, Mitt Romney's is simply remarkable--totally out of proportion to anything that has occurred since the end of World War Two.
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Analysis
The Alternative to Unconvincing Defense Reform and Budget Cuts
Despite challenges from the money-heaving right, there is an emerging consensus that the Pentagon budget, now at post-World War II highs, is soon to experience reductions. The Pentagon is trying to avoid them; its device is to simulate reform with insignificant reductions in M...
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Analysis
Stimulus Act “Lettermarking” at the Defense Department
The Center for Public Integrity unveiled a wallop of a story on Sunday afternoon—dozens of Members of Congress who decried the Recovery Act, better known as the “stimulus,” were simultaneously sending letters to government agencies asking for a piece of the action. The Center...