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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
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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Public Comment
POGO Supports Effort to Stregthen Disclosure of Lobbying Contacts Within the Executive Branch
We appreciate the opportunity to comment on the SF-LLL, Disclosure of Lobbying Activities, as announced in the June 22, 2010 Federal Register. As organizations and individuals dedicated to government accountability and civic participation, we believe that the current form nee...
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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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Policy Letter
The Finances Of FDA Advisory Committee Members: If Information Must Be Withheld, Let It Be Done Openly
Avandia, a drug made by GlaxoSmithKline for the treatment of diabetes, has been at the center of controversy for years, long before last month’s meeting of an FDA Advisory Committee charged with making recommendations on the marketing and labeling of this drug. The long-standi...
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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...
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Analysis
Winslow Wheeler’s Take on Gates’ Announcements
Straus Military Reform Project Director Winslow Wheeler attended a meeting on August 9 with Defense Secretary Gates following his press conference of DOD spending cuts and offers his analysis.
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Policy Letter
Groups Support Bipartisan Senate Bill to Strike SEC FOIA Exemptions
On behalf of the undersigned organizations concerned with government accountability and transparency, we are writing in support of S. 3717, a bill to amend the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Investment Company Act of 1940, and the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 to provi...
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Policy Letter
POGO Joins Letter to President Obama On New Ethics Czar Bob Bauer
We write to applaud the work of Norman L. Eisen, Special Counsel to the President for Ethics and Government Reform and his role in fulfilling your mandate of openness and accountability in the federal government. Our organizations believe that Mr. Eisen has made a very positiv...
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Policy Letter
Groups Call on Congress to Remove SEC Secrecy Measure
We, the undersigned organizations concerned with government accountability and transparency, are writing to express our concerns about Section 929I of the recently passed Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the Dodd-Frank Act). If interpreted broadly, th...
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Analysis
On Wikileaks: I Wish the Leaker Had Come to POGO
Over the past thirty years, POGO has wrangled with whistleblowers who want to disclose classified information—not 92,000 pieces of information, mind you—but I keep wondering what we would have done if the individuals who shared the classified raw field reports from Afghanistan...