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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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Policy Letter
POGO Joins Over 100 Groups in Voicing Concerns Over NSA Spying
We write to express our concern about recent reports published in the Guardian and the Washington Post, and acknowledged by the Obama Administration, which reveal secret spying by the National Security Agency (NSA) on phone records and Internet activity of people in the United...
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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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Policy Letter
POGO and Partners Call for Disclosure on Secret Laws
We are very glad that the Board has been fully constituted, and we greatly appreciate your immediate attention and work in response to the recent disclosures concerning NSA surveillance. We understand that you are meeting to consider the impact of these NSA programs on pri...
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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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Policy Letter
Bipartisan Groups Urge House to Pass Smart Spending Amendments on NDAA
As you prepare to vote on H.R. 1960, the National Defense Authorization Act of FY14 (NDAA), we hope you will consider ways to spend in accordance with the current law. The current bill authorizes $552 billion for defense—$54 billion above current law spending caps. Whether or ...
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Testimony
Testimony of POGO’s Scott Amey on Using the Suspension and Debarment System Effectively to Avoid Risky Contractors
Since the 1990s, there have been several major shifts in federal procurement, including increased contract spending, a stretched acquisition workforce, spending on services outpacing spending on goods, and a host of acquisition reforms implemented to make spending easier. ...