Weekly Spotlight: Three Times Worse

Announcement: We are welcoming Isabel Munilla as our interim executive director while POGO President and Executive Director Danielle Brian takes a step back from her regular duties to seek cancer treatment. Read their message.

ABUSING POWER AND RIGHTS

A critical opportunity to restrain DHS

Last week, hundreds of you joined our email campaign urging the Senate to reject an appropriations bill that would’ve given ICE another $10 billion in funding while the agency is breaking laws, violating rights, and terrorizing communities across the country. We secured a temporary win — the package that was passed only includes funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) until February 13. It is imperative that we use this coming week to pressure Congress to claw back the tens of billions of funds given to DHS through last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and immediately pass the sweeping reforms necessary to restrain DHS. POGO is calling for specific provisions, including restricting the purchase and use of invasive surveillance technology and creating enforceable and consequential accountability measures for law enforcement officers who violate your constitutional rights.

• TAKE ACTION Your representatives have the power to force meaningful change here. Inaction is intolerable and inexcusable. Join us in urging them to block funding for DHS and finally hold its components accountable.
• A federal judge blocked DHS’s attempt to prevent members of Congress from visiting detention facilities, affirming Congress’s crucial oversight duties. We applaud this ruling — and urge Congress to further strengthen oversight by funding the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman.
• Administrative subpoenas: The little-known “secretive legal weapon” that the DHS used to target an American for exercising his right to free speech.
• Failures at DHS extend beyond ICE and CBP. Mismanagement at FEMA is hindering disaster preparedness and response — and putting lives in danger.

POGO INVESTIGATES

Epstein Files Show Financial Ties to DOD Deputy Secretary Feinberg

Hundreds of documents in the newly released Epstein files shed light on connections between the sex offender and Cerberus Capital Management, a private equity firm formerly led by Department of Defense Deputy Secretary Steve Feinberg.

Read the breaking investigation on pogo.org.

REPORTING BACK

POGO joined Common Cause and four former government officials in filing an amicus brief in the Trump v. IRS case. President Trump is suing the government for $10 billion over leaked tax returns. The case presents serious legal flaws and, of course, a monstrous conflict of interest: He is both the plaintiff and the defendant, suing agencies that he himself is the leader of — and the agency officials involved have seen what happens to their peers when they don't pass the president’s loyalty test. This is a stunning, clear-cut attempt to abuse his privileged position, even stating that in another case he has against the government he has to “work out a settlement with myself.” We are fighting this to ensure no president can enrich themselves off of the taxpayers’ backs. It’s essential that the courts stand firm against this baseless case, even at this early stage.

GUTTING THE GOVERNMENT

The final Schedule Policy/Career rule is here

For over a year now, the Office of Personnel and Management (OPM) has been working on a plan for how to implement “Schedule Policy/Career,” a new class of federal employment announced by President Trump on his first day in office last year. On Thursday, OPM released the guidance, opening the door for a wave of reclassifications and potential firings across the federal government. Schedule Policy/Career is essentially the second coming of Schedule F, but worse. The policy would remove job protections for an estimated 50,000 senior civil servants across the federal government, making it easier for the White House to fire and replace employees who refuse to fall in line with the administration’s agenda — something we already saw happen many times over in 2025.

• “If we staff federal agencies based on partisan loyalty rather than merit and expertise, we can expect government services — and the people who rely on them — to suffer,” says POGO’s Faith Williams in a statement.

• Dig deeper:

  • The Dangers of Trump’s Schedule Policy/Career Executive Order: Schedule F attempted to replace nonpartisan federal workers with partisan lapdogs. Schedule Policy/Career is even worse.
  • Stop Attacking Civil Servants: Read POGO’s public comment opposing and dissecting the harms of the Schedule Policy/Career rule.
  • How politicizing and attacking federal workers could impact the essential services the government provides to rural communities and seniors.

FOLLOW THE MONEY

Last year’s blank check — but 3X worse

The House Armed Services Committee chairman announced his intention to rush $450 billion tax dollars to the Pentagon through the upcoming reconciliation process, seemingly in an effort to make progress towards President Trumps’ ridiculous demand for a $1.5 trillion defense budget next year. The notion of increasing the Pentagon’s budget by 50% in one year is bad enough. To actually write the check without adequate consideration, scrutiny, or bipartisan debate would be a crime against taxpayers. We are warning Congress that allowing this budget hike would be a serious breach of trust and integrity. It must firmly reject this and any future attempts to slip the Pentagon unchecked money.

• It is not normal for Congress to give the Pentagon extra cash outside the routine defense authorization process. In fact, last year was the first time it ever happened. POGO condemned the break from congressional norms, then. A year later, we’re witnessing how one abuse opens the door for more (three times more, to be exact).