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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
GTSI Is Back In Business: SBA Lifts Suspension of Major Contractor
Less than three weeks after tech firm GTSI Corporation was suspended from federal contracting for allegedly defrauding the small business contracting program, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has lifted the suspension. GTSI is eligible once again to win new federa...
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Analysis
Tea Party Nightmare: The Defense Budget
For the last two weeks, the advocates of higher defense spending have shown their nervousness that the times may be changing—that the defense budget may go south after the elections.
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Analysis
Pentagon Action Against Lockheed Part of Larger Crackdown on Contractors
Over the last few days, word got out that defense industry giant Lockheed Martin has lost government approval for its cost and schedule tracking systems on the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) and F-16 programs. The Pentagon has said problems with Lockheed’s system are part of the ...
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Analysis
Senate Report Says ArmorGroup Funded Warlords In Bed With the Taliban
"Money is ammunition; don't put it in the wrong hands," Gen. David Petraeus warned in an August memo that gave counterinsurgency (COIN) guidance. But apparently the U.S. government is doing just that. Yesterday, the Senate Armed Services Committee released a report d...
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Analysis
Congress Compromises with Executive Branch on Oversight of Intel Community
The Senate last week approved the FY 2010 Intelligence Authorization Act, signaling that Congress has reached a compromise with the executive branch on the issue of oversight of the intelligence community. In lieu of a provision directly clarifying the Government Accountabilit...
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Analysis
Obama Signs SEC Secrecy Repeal into Law
We just got word that President Obama has signed into law a bill to strike language from the financial reform legislation that had given the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sweeping new powers to hide its records from public scrutiny. As we stated when Congress passed...
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Analysis
Expert Agrees: Over 300 Metric Tons of Highly Enriched Uranium is Surplus to U.S. Needs
It is the one week anniversary of POGO's release of its latest investigation into the US Nuclear Weapons Complex: How the Country Can Profit and Become More Secure by Getting Rid of Its Surplus Weapons-Grade Uranium.
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Analysis
U.S. Chamber of Commerce Selling SEC Secrecy
POGO has learned that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is shopping another legislative proposal to give the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) the ability to hide information on wrongdoing by brokerage firms, hedge funds, financial advisors, and all other financial entities ...
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Analysis
What Did the Rumsfeld/Gates Pentagon Do with $1 Trillion?
In 1998, the Pentagon budget was at a 23-year low at $361 billion (in constant 2010 dollars). For 2010, the DoD budget was $697 billion (also 2010 dollars, as are all the rest that follow), explains CDI's Winslow Wheeler.
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Analysis
GSA Scheduling Conflict
GSA schedules are beneficial as intended, but are they a government nightmare in reality? The schedules offer pre-negotiated contracts to federal and state agencies looking to buy commercial goods and services.
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Analysis
Brokerages Demand Greater Transparency from Self-Regulatory Organization
You don’t often hear about regulated entities calling on a regulator to be more open and transparent about its oversight activities. Yet that’s exactly what happened last week at the 2010 annual meeting of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), a private self-reg...
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Analysis
Brass Creep: It’s More Than Just Money
Secretary of Defense Gates' recommendation to downsize the U.S. military's senior officer corps by a modest 5 percent, or 50 generals and admirals, is being discussed by the press as if it were a matter of bureaucratic efficiency and money. It should be seen as far more than j...