Weekly Spotlight: From Your Pockets to Their Profits

OVERSIGHT AT DOJ

Watchdogs with no bite

Since the very beginning of this second term, the Trump administration has gutted the inspectors general system, undermined oversight bodies, and created a hostile environment for whistleblowers. It’s a classic case of people in power punching down to avoid accountability. And the hits keep coming. A report from the New York Times reveals that the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General has ignored upwards of 20 cases of potential wrongdoing, with a whistleblower’s lawyer calling the office’s inaction “a failure of nerve and a shirking of duty.”

You deserve a government that is held accountable to the rule of law and to the people it serves. Without accountability, your tax dollars, your public services, and your rights are unprotected. Congress and the courts must get off the ropes and put their gloves up, not only to protect public servants trying to do their jobs and uphold their oaths, but to protect the public at large.

• Congress Can Shield Whistleblowers from Schedule Policy/Career
• IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Trump’s First Year of Attacks on Government: What Can Be Fixed.
• “Whistleblowers help Congress and the public identify and understand what corruption in our government looks like,” testified POGO’s Joe Spielberger to a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform task force. “Their disclosures fuel investigations and allow us to address wrongdoing and hold those responsible to account.”

WAR POWERS

The president applauds his illegal war

In an address to the nation on Wednesday night, President Trump made two things abundantly clear: The “conflict” in Iran is a war — and he has no plans to get Congress's approval. His explicit comparison to the relative lengths of past wars and vivid descriptions of offensive acts of war completely abandoned the pretense that this was a legal operation to stop an “imminent threat.” His claim that Iran was “right at the doorstep” rang hollow in a speech where the president also claimed the U.S. had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear sites mere months before. Whether or not the president is right that the U.S. will complete its mission in Iran “very shortly,” we cannot overlook the shattered guardrails on the road to this moment.

“Win” or “lose,” this war was never legal. Lives have been lost without authorization. Taxpayer dollars were spent without approval. And more of both will likely be lost. There is a reason the Constitution protects against a single president — a single person — waging war. It is too costly a choice for one person to make and should never be made without the people’s branch weighing in. No speech — no matter how soaring, no matter how searing — can excuse your voice and your representatives being ignored.

• Why a Trillion-Dollar Defense Budget Won’t Buy Victory in Iran
• RECLAIMING CONGRESS’S WAR POWERS: Here’s why Congress can’t give up this key power — and how to take it back.
• IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: POGO’s Acting Director of The Constitution Project, David Janovsky, spoke with TIME about why the war in Iran is illegal and unconstitutional.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

Who profits from a costly war?

War places a heavy burden on people far from the halls of power. It carries immense costs, both human and financial. Wars should weigh heavily on the shoulders of those with the power to start or stop them — not weigh down their pockets with profits.

But several concerning stories have surfaced surrounding conflicts abroad and conflicts of interest at home. On Tuesday, the Financial Times reported that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s broker looked into making a multimillion-dollar investment in several major defense companies before the war in Iran kicked off. And several high-earning bettors on prediction markets seem to have insider information allowing them to profit off of recent acts of war in Venezuela and Iran.

If any of these stories prove true, such actions represent heinous abuses of power and blatant corruption. Your taxpayer dollars fund these military efforts. Your family members, friends, and neighbors step into harm’s way to complete them. Your representatives and your government officials shouldn’t be lining their pockets by gambling on your sacrifices.

• PREDICTABLE CORRUPTION: Predicting political events — including acts of war — has become profitable, and potentially by people with insider information. “As the legal and regulatory landscape currently stands, prediction markets create a serious risk of corruption, conflicts of interest, and regulatory arbitrage,” writes POGO’s Janice Luong.
• STOCK IN THEIR WAYS: After you helped us build immense momentum behind a bipartisan bill that would ban stock trading by members of Congress, a spineless piece of legislation was put forth in the eleventh hour. POGO’s Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette told Roll Call it is effectively “a paper tiger” riddled with loopholes. Now, even that effort to curtail congress members’ corruption has stalled. At a time when public trust in Congress has cratered, its inability to even accomplish symbolic reform is shameful. We will continue to fight for a meaningful ban on stock trading by members of Congress. We hope you will stick it out with us.

PREVENTING WASTE

Trillions of taxpayer dollars, zero accountability

On Friday, President Trump formally sent Congress the Pentagon funding request for fiscal year 2027. And not to be outdone by last year’s record-breaking budget, the request comes in at a staggering $1.5 trillion. The U.S. already towers over all other countries in terms of military spending; a $1.5 trillion budget would be upwards of five times as much as its nearest peer in China. It is a startling amount of your taxpayer dollars, and you deserve to know such an investment won’t go to waste.

But history suggests otherwise. Rampant Pentagon waste is the reason POGO started four decades ago — and remains relevant today. As POGO’s Center for Defense Information Director Greg Williams said in February, “The Pentagon does not need more money. It needs to reduce waste, be accountable for how it spends taxpayer dollars, and start doing more with less.”

• WHERE WE STAND: Congress cannot approve a reckless budget increase without a sound defense strategy and exit plan to the illegal war in Iran. Read POGO’s stance on why adding hundreds of billions of dollars to the Pentagon budget will waste your taxpayer dollars without making your communities safer.
• CALLING FOR BOTH SECURITY AND SENSE: Congress and the Pentagon must work together to achieve two critical mandates without compromising one for the other: to secure the nation and to steward its taxpayers’ dollars with responsibility and care. Read POGO’s powerful testimony to Congress on the Pentagon’s wasteful spending.
• HEGSETH’S HEARING: Thus far, lawmakers have largely stood on the sidelines while the executive branch wages an illegal war without Congress’s authorization, passing on opportunities to make Trump administration officials testify publicly to the war’s merits and endgame. But now, Defense Secretary Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Dan Caine are set to attend the Pentagon’s annual budget hearing before the House Armed Services Committee on April 29. Your representatives should demand clarity and answers on both fronts: Why was this war waged without consulting the people’s branch? Why should Congress open its purse for a record-breaking Pentagon budget if its war powers are being ignored and disrespected? You deserve to have those answers before another cent of your hard-earned tax dollars is spent.