Weekly Spotlight: Reading the Signs

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Editor’s Note: There will be no Weekly Spotlight next weekend. We will be back in your inbox on December 6. Happy holidays!

EXECUTIVE POWER GRAB

Reading the signs

(Illustration: Ren Velez / POGO)

Just two weeks ago, President Trump told 60 Minutes that he doubted the country would go to war with Venezuela. His noncommittal response has not been comforting in these past few days, with the administration reportedly authorizing more covert CIA operations in the country and set to designate yet another Venezuelan group of questionable veracity as a foreign terrorist organization. Congress is teeing up for a third vote on War Powers to bar any unauthorized military action in Venezuela. The stakes are high, and we can only hope our representatives get it right this time.

• ANALYSIS Guilt by Association: Trump’s Illegal Boat Strikes: U.S. strikes on alleged drug boats are a new level of lawlessness — but Congress has the power to intervene, writes POGO’s David Janovsky.
• So far, the United States has killed 83 people alleged to be “narco-terrorists” in lethal boat strikes since September 2.

President Trump threatens lawmakers

President Donald Trump made a series of posts endorsing violence and death threats toward a group of lawmakers after they shared a video message urging members of the armed services and the intelligence community to refuse unlawful orders and defend the Constitution. Threats of political violence are unacceptable, always, no matter who they come from. These threats coming from our president are unnerving and alarming. “We have seen time and again the human cost when people in power stoke flames of division. We cannot become a country where speaking out against unlawful orders and standing up for the Constitution causes people to fear for their lives or the lives of their families,” said POGO’s Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette in a statement.

National Guard deployments falter in the courts

In both Tennessee and Washington, DC, we saw the rule of law prevail, with judges in those two major cases ruling this week that the administration’s deployment of the National Guard was, in both cases, unlawful. These are now the third and fourth National Guard deployments to be blocked in court, following in the footsteps of Illinois and Oregon. It’s a victory for our system of checks and balances. “[Deploying] the military into U.S. cities is not something that can be done lawlessly. It is a good sign that the courts are standing up and saying that,” POGO’s David Janovsky told NPR.

• The Supreme Court could rule at any time on the legal limits to how, when, and where the president can deploy the National Guard.
• Read More: Hundreds of National Guard troops deployed to Portland, Chicago are being sent home (Associated Press)

FOLLOW THE MONEY

Industry pulls a hail mary

As negotiations on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) reach the final and most crucial stage, the defense industry is trying to do whatever it can to sabotage military right-to-repair. With strong right-to-repair provisions in both the Senate’s and House’s versions of the NDAA — and bipartisan support for right-to-repair not just in Congress, but from SecDef Hegseth and the Trump administration — defense industry companies are trying to minimize damage by throwing their weight behind one faulty House provision that gives them far too many concessions to be effective.

• “The Senate’s version of right-to-repair gets warriors the information they need to repair their own equipment when and where they need it. The House’s version risks information being unavailable during wartime, when forces are in the field, or if the vendor goes out of business.” POGO’s Greg Williams told Roll Call. POGO’s Virginia Burger added: “If the ‘data-as-a-service’ model requires internet connectivity to reach the information needed to maintain or fix equipment, we’ve all but doomed those forward operating in a combat environment to work with broken equipment.”
• ACT NOW Tell Congress: Put Military Personnel Over Contractor Profits Contracting companies are trying to weaken a key reform in the annual defense bill. We need to urge Congress to hold its ground. Email your representatives now.

POGO INVESTIGATIONS DESK

$99,999 DHS Contracts Balloon Under Kristi Noem’s Directive

(Illustration: Ren Velez / POGO)

Secretary Noem requiring her sign-off on spending above $100,000 has reportedly created backlogs of DHS contract awards. Some awards appear to skirt her review, writes POGO’s Nick Schwellenbach. Read the new investigation on pogo.org.