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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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Testimony
Statement of Danielle Brian, POGO’s Executive Director Minerals Management Service Workshop on Oil Valuation Regulations
In June 2000 the Department of Interior implemented a final oil valuation rule that collected $70 million more annually from companies drilling oil from federal and Indian lands. As a result, the oil industry's decades-long practice of cheating the taxpayers and Indians ended....
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Testimony
Testimony of POGO’s Danielle Brian at the Congressional Forum at Marymount, New York regarding nuclear power plant security and safety
I would first like to thank Representative Lowey for convening this important forum, and asking me to speak to the physical security inadequacies at Indian Point, which are legion. POGO is a non - partisan government watchdog group, which takes no position on nuclear power. Bo...
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Testimony
Economic Impacts of the National Security Build-up: Government Procurement Practices
The federal government is the biggest consumer of goods and services in the world and relies heavily on free-market forces to ensure fair prices. But a large portion of federal dollars buy goods and services that are not affected by these market forces. Because the government ...
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Testimony
Testimony of Danielle Brian, POGO Executive Director : Preventing Nuclear Terrorism before the House Subcommittee on National Security, Veterans Affairs, and International Relations, Committee on Government Reform
The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) has spent the last 18 months investigating the adequacy of security at U.S. nuclear weapons production facilities, National Labs, and transportation of weapons and Special Nuclear Material, as well as most recently the security at U.S...
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Testimony
Testimony of Eric Miller, Senior Defense Investigator, Project On Government Oversight, on Missile Defense Oversight Before the House Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, Veterans’ Affairs, and International Relations
While we take no position, pro or con, on missile defense, we nonetheless have serious concerns that recent missile defense program changes at the direction of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld are not in the best interest of our nation's security or the U.S. taxpayer. Today, ...
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Testimony
Testimony of POGO’s Danielle Brian, on the EPA National Ombudsman’s Office before the Senate Committee Environment and Public Works
POGO first became aware of a problem when citizens from Lake Township,Ohio, brought the Industrial Excess Landfill (IEL) Superfund site to our attention more than five years ago. From the beginning, citizens, public officials, and independent scientists have raised legitimate ...
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Testimony
Testimony of POGO’s Danielle Brian, before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee
Just prior to September 11, we completed our report U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex: Security at Risk, concluding that our nation's ten nuclear weapons facilities, which house nearly one thousand tons of weapons-grade plutonium and highly-enriched uranium, regularly fail to prote...
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Testimony
Written Testimony of POGO’s Danielle Brian, before the House Subcommittee on Government Efficiency, Financial Management, and Intergovernmental Affairs
Today we are talking about waste, fraud, and abuse at the Department of Defense - the agency that can't account for one in four dollars it spends. I know defenders of DOD accounting procedures claim that this is an unfair criticism - that the missing $1.1 trillion is only a pa...
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Testimony
Testimony of POGO’s Danielle Brian for the House Government Reform Subcommittee on Technology and Procurement Policy Legislative Hearing on H.R. 3832, The Services Acquisition Reform Act of 2002 (SARA)
George Orwell would be proud of the Acquisition Reform community. It has created such Orwellian concepts for the acquisition of goods as "competitive" one-bid contracting; "commercial items" that are only bought by the government; information about cost and...
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Testimony
The Paul Revere Forum: National Security Whistleblowers Speak; Remarks by Frank Serpico, retired New York City Police Detective
I am particularly fond of the name POGO, not only for the great and necessary work this organization is doing but also because I once had a dog named Pogo. He was my loyal companion, and although quite small, warned me of intruders. In today's forum, we pay homage to revoluti...
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Testimony
The Paul Revere Forum: National Security Whistleblowers Speak; Darlene Catalan
In 1998 I was running a railroad smuggling investigation. This investigation was being managed under a large scale, multi-agency operation with the Union Pacific Railroad Police, the Burlington Northern Railroad Police, The San Bernardino Police Department, and Customs. This o...
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Testimony
The Paul Revere Forum: National Security Whistleblowers Speak; Bogdan John Dzakovic
The reason I am here is to point out that the terrorist attacks on September 11 could and should have been completely avoided. But the manner in which the Federal Aviation Administration failed to execute its mission to protect the flying public made it inevitable that terrori...