Weekly Spotlight: Shining a light on corruption

WAR POWERS

If Congress opens its purse, it surrenders its power

Congress did not authorize the ongoing war in Iran. And when the executive branch went behind its back to wage that war, Congress failed to seize back its war powers — multiple times.

Now, embroiled in a costly and deadly conflict with no off-ramp in sight, the White House is poised to approach Congress with a collection plate, requesting, according to reports, at least $200 billion more of your taxpayer dollars to fund an illegal war. “Sending billions more to an illegal, unpopular war would be an affront to every single taxpayer and every single service member whose life and livelihood depends on the government listening to and working for them,” said POGO’s Greg Willams on our website. Republican lawmakers were already debating the merits of using the budget reconciliation process to fund a war they never formally authorized. But this audacious price tag is untenable. And the cost of Congress surrendering its power of the purse — its best remaining hope of reining in an overreaching executive branch — would be even more detrimental.

• PARTY LINE PUT ON HOLD: Several Republican lawmakers are hesitant to commit to writing blank checks for the White House’s war and to put their names on yet another big spending package. “Reconciliation is complicated and has to be paid for,” Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) told Punchbowl News. “And I think that would be difficult.”
• THE POWER OF THE PURSE: “In our nation’s founding documents … the founders made the case that the branch most accountable to the public should control spending as a check on executive power,” writes POGO’s Faith Williams. “But over time, Congress has yielded some of this power to overzealous presidents, diminishing what ought to be a fundamental check on executive power.”

FOLLOW THE MONEY

No corruption? Don’t bet on it!

Prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi have boomed into multibillion dollar businesses. And when there is money to be made predicting real-world events, including war activities and government shutdown dates, the danger of corruption, and those who have the tools to leverage nonpublic information to gain monetary advantages, loom.

Your representatives and government officials should be making decisions that serve your interests and your safety in the exact moments they are needed — not making decisions and influencing timelines to enrich themselves. The potential for corruption and conflicts of interest is too dangerous to leave unregulated.

• POGO supports the End Prediction Market Corruption Act from Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), which would ban the president, vice president, members of Congress, and other public officials from betting on prediction markets and trading event contracts.
• “The American people deserve unwavering ethical standards from their government officials. Officials have a responsibility to avoid not only actual conflicts of interest but even the appearance of impropriety. POGO is pleased to endorse the End Prediction Market Corruption Act, which will further prohibit covered government officials from exploiting nonpublic information for personal gain in prediction markets,” said POGO’s Janice Luong.
• We have monitored corruption and conflicts of interest for decades. We will not sit idly by as this emerging market threatens to shape policy decisions. Your representatives must be held to account — and any of their prediction market accounts need to be closed.
• POGO also continues to monitor prediction markets as a threat to both democratic governance and independent media. Bets are being made suspiciously close to real-world political events and war activities, and bettors are threatening journalists whose reports could cost them. Keep watch on your inbox for what you can do next.

SURVEILLANCE STATE

Protecting you and your data

As of now, government agencies can access a massive portfolio of your personal data without a warrant and without telling you they have it. All they need to do is purchase it from a data broker.

On Friday, POGO led a coalition of over 130 organizations urging Congress to close the data broker loophole and provide privacy protections before reauthorizing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). For years, we have demanded reform on laws that allow sweeping surveillance on everyday Americans, violating your constitutional rights to privacy and free expression.

• Dive Deeper: Congress’s Renewed Clash Over a Major Surveillance Law, Explained, from the New York Times.
• We are still awaiting records that will reveal just how often and to what degree Section 702 has been violated in recent years. A Cato Institute Freedom of Information Act lawsuit has led to a court order directing the Department of Justice to release noncompliance incident records by April 10. We will be monitoring this closely.

POGO INVESTIGATES

Declassified Report Reveals NSA Broke Surveillance Rules

(Illustration: Ren Velez / POGO)

Years after Edward Snowden’s jaw-dropping disclosures of sweeping domestic surveillance, the National Security Agency (NSA) continued to violate key rules limiting the government’s ability to conduct warrantless searches, according to a declassified internal watchdog report obtained by POGO Investigates. Read more on pogo.org.

• SHINING A LIGHT ON CORRUPTION: Today is the last day of Sunshine Week, when a coalition of our peers calls attention to the importance of a transparent government and the role of public records in exposing corruption and abuses of power. Bringing to light records (like the report above) is a central tenet of the work of POGO Investigates, our independent, nonprofit newsroom. It’s work that wouldn’t be possible without your support and your commitment to government accountability.

OVERSIGHT AT DHS

A new nominee

Despite a heated hearing on Wednesday, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has advanced the nomination of current Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) to become the next secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Mullin’s nomination follows the removal of former Secretary Kristi Noem — a removal we called for due to the “abuses of power, abuses of people, and apparent corrupt acts” that dogged her short tenure at the agency. But pressing questions about Mullin’s qualifications and his willingness to block harmful practices and policies coming down from White House Deputy Chief of Staff and Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller.

• FOLLOW THE LAW: “The expectation is that if a court issues an order, he will follow it,” POGO’s Katherine Hawkins told Bloomberg. “Senators should be asking what he plans to do differently and whether he will restore oversight and transparency at DHS.”
• DISSENSION IN PARADISE: A group of Florida Republican sheriffs and police chiefs are pushing back against the White House’s mass deportation campaign, and particularly against raids that have targeted immigrants who have not committed crimes beyond entering the country without documentation. Of ICE’s violent tactics one sheriff remarked, “We’re not out … just raiding business and homes, but unfortunately, when ICE gets involved, you have the collaterals.”
• IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: DHS Assault Cases Spiked to a Record High. Experts and Judges Have Raised Alarms.