Weekly Spotlight: Mail-in meddling
Reporting back on our lawsuit against the USPS, plus our FY2027 NDAA recommendations revisited and setting the standard for strong oversight for your members of Congress.
REPORTING BACK POGO sues for information. POGO Investigates filed a FOIA request demanding the expedited release of documents related to the new system for screening mail-in ballots. The U. S. Postal Service (USPS) has yet to reply. POGO is now suing USPS, and we’ve asked the court to force USPS to comply with our request. Back in March, President Trump issued an executive order that likely exceeds the role of USPS in federal elections. The subsequent rule was struck down by a federal court, but the USPS was allegedly carrying forth with the plan anyway, putting the integrity of the upcoming midterm elections at serious risk. The Supreme Court ruled against the administration’s new rules as a temporary measure on Monday, but the issue will continue to be debated in courts, and the public still deserves full transparency into the administration’s actions surrounding elections. We will share updates as they come. Stay tuned.
Oversight — the essential duty
(Illustration: Luna Velez / POGO)
You understand the critical importance of oversight. As a watchdog, POGO does its share of overseeing the actions of the federal government; ringing the alarm bells, demanding accountability, and presenting a path forward when we see something wrong. And Congress has the same duty. Checks and balances are foundational to our system of government, and oversight is how Congress holds the executive branch in check. In a new analysis, POGO’s Tim Stretton outlines eight core principles of oversight that we should expect members of Congress to uphold.
- ANALYSIS What It Means to Be a Pro-Oversight Member of Congress: Here are eight constitutional principles every member of Congress should embrace to strengthen oversight, accountability, and checks and balances.
- Read more about POGO’s Congressional Oversight Initiative (COI), our series of monthly trainings and biannual bootcamps for congressional staff, teaching the skills of conducting effective oversight. To date, COI has trained thousands of staffers — on both sides of the aisle and in both chambers of Congress — on the best practices of this fundamental duty.
Suspicious gifts
(Illustration: Luna Velez / POGO)
Financial records made public by the president last week revealed that he’d given extremely generous holiday gifts to four of his closest White House aides — three of them receiving gifts of $45,000 in cash, which amounts to a near-third of their salary. There are no other recorded instances of serving presidents giving cash gifts to staffers, according to the Washington Post. It is also against the law for federal workers to receive supplemental compensation from outside sources while serving in office. But this sort of brazenly unethical behavior is like nothing we have ever seen. That’s why, in a testimony before members of Congress this week, POGO’s Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette outlined what your representatives can do right now to draw a hard line against this or any future president’s corruption. It starts with commonsense reforms to 18 U.S.C. Section 208, the criminal conflict of interest law that currently applies to every official in the executive branch except the president and vice president.
- TESTIMONY The Corruption Vortex: When high-ranking government officials can profit from the crypto industry, prediction markets, and stock trading, corruption can thrive, writes POGO’s Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette.
- WATCH “A sickness in the body of the federal government”: In case you missed it, catch Dylan’s testimony on YouTube.
Horrific details of detention in “Alligator Alcatraz”
(Illustration: Luna Velez / POGO)
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) inspector general released a 33-page report on what conditions were like inside the Florida detention center once coined “Alligator Alcatraz.” The report reveals the detention center’s “failure to comply” on nearly every set of standards possible, from environmental health and safety to personal hygiene and recreation. There were reports of 79 people being detained in outdoor cages, just 7'9'' tall and 4'3'' wide (facility members called these “calming areas”). Detainees reported even more brutal allegations to Amnesty International last year; they were not re-interviewed for the inspector general’s report. “Alligator Alcatraz” was shut down in June of this year. But we know such incidents are not isolated to just this one place. What is happening in detention centers across the country amounts to nothing short of a human rights crisis. The administration has gutted watchdogs, and the inspection system is deeply flawed; we desperately need oversight. DHS itself has long known about unsafe conditions and rights violations in detention facilities across the country. This inspector general report needs to be a catalyst for immediate scrutiny and congressional intervention.
- POGO INVESTIGATES DHS’s Secret Reports on ICE Detention (2023): Records confirm abuses, medical and mental health care failures, and extensive use of solitary confinement at immigrant detention centers across the nation. From Freddy Martinez and POGO Investigates’ Nick Schwellenbach.
- POGO INVESTIGATES Inside ICE’s Broken System for Inspecting Detention Facilities: New data reveals a twisted ICE detention oversight system where facilities get glowing grades, even amid deadly conditions. From Isabel Del Mastro and POGO Investigates’ René Kladzyk.
In case you missed it
(Photos: Getty Images; Illustration: Leslie Garvey / POGO)
- SHOUTOUT Norman Ornstein, a champion of democracy and a member of POGO’s board of directors, was honored at the 2026 Hubert H. Humphrey Public Leadership Awards. Congratulations to Norm on this well-deserved recognition. We are grateful to walk alongside you in this work.
- On Monday, a report from the Pentagon’s inspector general revealed that the war in Iran has led to a munitions shortfall, with industry bottlenecks affecting efforts to resupply. As POGO’s Virginia Burger wrote in July, “Congress should seriously and meaningfully consider the realities of munitions expenditure and procurement in their decision making going forward.”
- ANALYSIS POGO’s FY27 NDAA Recommendations, Revisited: In February, we sent Congress concrete ideas for a more effective and more cost-effective national defense. The NDAA is almost done; here’s where things stand. By POGO’s Virginia Burger.
- Golden Dome Is Bad For Defense, And Bad For Taxpayers, writes POGO's William Hartung in Forbes.
