Oversight in your inbox
Weekly newsletter and updates
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.
-
Analysis
Export Reform Shouldn’t Mean Less Oversight
As Congress and the administration of President George W. Bush focus on the war in Iraq, the anniversary of Sept. 11 and debate whether to un-surge or not to un-surge, policy-makers and the public might have missed a burgeoning development: renewed efforts to reform the U.S. a...
-
AnalysisOversight Overlooked
The failure of the opponents to the war in Iraq to find more support stems from their failure to know and understand the facts. Congressional oversight hits a new low. Winslow Wheeler explains in a commentary that appeared in Politico on Oct. 1, 2007.
-
Analysis
The American Defense Budget
According to Pentagon data, the U.S. defense budget is now larger than at any other time since the end of World War II. And yet, our military forces are now smaller than at any point during that history. Why? Weapons’ costs (and other factors, such as personnel and maintena...
-
Analysis
International Defense Budgets and Nuclear and Tactical Forces
This Thursday, the Center for Defense Information will release its 2007 Military Almanac. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, CDI will release selected excerpts from the Almanac, including a chart that addresses worldwide nuclear forces, a chart that estimates the...
-
Analysis
Another Bar to Tactical Aviation Modernization
While its first love is the F-22, the Air Force (and the Navy and the Marines) is committed to the F-35 as the solution to aspirations to modernize tactical aviation. It is a proposition each of the military services should reconsider. Just as the F-22 took the Air Force a sig...
-
AnalysisCongress’ Busted September
Members of the U.S. Congress have had great fun berating the Iraqi parliament for their failure to address Iraq’s catastrophic problems. But, according to Straus Project Director Winslow Wheeler, at least the Iraqi legislature has compelling reasons for its factionalism and in...
-
Analysis
More CRS Reporting on Wars’ Costs
The Congressional Research Service has just sent to Congress its latest update on the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, “The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Operations Since 9/11,” dated July 16, 2007. Winslow Wheeler summarizes the report an...
-
AnalysisPork Reform: Stick a Fork in It
It is old, tired news, but until Congress changes, it needs frequent reminders: it has done nothing, repeat nothing, to reform itself despite its leaders' many oh-so heartfelt promises to do so. Winslow Wheeler reviews the state of affairs regarding earmark (pork) "reform...
-
Analysis
Defense Contractors Running Government: A Recipe for Disaster
If you missed 60 Minutes this week, the good news is you can still watch their feature segment online. The topic is the Coast Guard's so-far disastrous Integrated Deepwater System program, and 60 Minutes interviews two of the whistleblowers, Michael DeKort and Captain Kevin Ja...
-
Analysis
Is the V-22 Osprey Ready for Combat?
On April 13, 2007, the Marines announced they were sending the V-22 Osprey“tilt-rotor” transport into combat in Iraq later in the year. But with some problems with the aircraft continuing and others remaining fundamentally unaddressed, one must ask: Is the Osprey<...
-
AnalysisWhen Will the Money Run Out?
President George W. Bush and the Democrats in Congress are now facing off with each other over how and when to fund the U.S. “surge” in Iraq after the $70 billion—already appropriated—runs out sometime later this spring. Two documents occupy the center of this controversy: a C...
-
Analysis
U.S. Military Assistance to Countries Using Child Soldiers, 1990-2007
Report on U.S. assistance to countries that recruit child soldiers