Weekly Spotlight: What happens now?

CHECKS AND BALANCES

The 120th Congress

Facing an ongoing illegal war, high costs of living, a health care crisis, and federal agents and troops on our streets for a violent immigration crackdown, the American people still uplifted government corruption as a key concern ahead of the midterm elections. That concern is well founded: The 119th Congress largely failed in its duty to check corruption. It ceded far too much of its power to the White House and did little to prevent officials from breaking rules and laws, both in the executive branch and within its own ranks. The incoming Congress has a mandate from voters to make things right. That starts with uncompromising, rigorous, bipartisan oversight of everything from illegal military actions to White House officials openly grifting, a weakened inspectors general system, and untraceable federal spending. POGO has developed a guide to help your representatives get started.

• Dig Deeper: When the Executive Branch Resists: Five Questions Congress Should Ask. POGO’s Congressional Oversight Initiative Director Tim Stretton gives practical recommendations to the new Congress. (Just Security)
• Oversight is an essential duty. Here are eight constitutional principles every member of Congress must uphold.
• “Americans want a government they can trust. But restoring trust requires more than rhetoric. Trust is earned through accountability, transparency, and integrity,” says POGO Interim Executive Director Isabel Munilla in a new statement.
• Among the oversight the 120th Congress will need to take on is the Iran War. “Rigorous oversight would not restrict military operations by itself but could raise the political costs of the war beyond what the president or other key officials are willing to endure,” POGO’s David Janovsky tells Al Jazeera.

PENTAGON WATCH

“The Future of Warfare” is up for discussion. Who gets to have a say?

In a memorandum earlier this fall, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth commissioned Project Meridian, a committee tasked with advising the Pentagon on what weapons and technology the United States will need “to maintain global dominance.” And who did the Pentagon tap to “map the trajectory of future warfare”? Defense and AI industry leaders who could potentially turn a massive profit by drawing the map in their favor. The majority of the 21 members of the panel have financial ties in the defense sector, including two of the co-chairs of the panel, billionaires Elon Musk and Palmer Luckey. POGO sent a letter to Hegseth urging him to appoint a national security and government accountability expert to the committee (we recommended our principal advisor, Bill Hartung) to balance the overrepresentation of industry interests and warning that a failure to balance the panel violates the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA).

• The defense secretary did not respond. So we sued. In case you missed our email, POGO joined forces with Public Citizen and the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) to sue the Pentagon over its violation of FACA.
• “Stacking Project Meridian with industry leaders will further skew national security policy toward corporate priorities and away from the public interest. We cannot afford more wasteful defense spending,” said POGO’s Isabel Munila. Read more from our co-filers in our press statement.
• Dig deeper: Read coverage of our lawsuit in Military Times, Federal News Network, and Common Dreams.

OP-ED

How the Iran War Compounded the US Navy’s Maintenance Crisis

"As the costs of the Iran War mount and the administration asks for a record Pentagon budget, it is time for lawmakers to assert their constitutional and legal rights," writes POGO’s Bill Hartung in a new op-ed for National Interest. Read now.

POGO INVESTIGATES

How DOD Insiders Opened Doors for a Firm Selling ‘Predictive’ AI

Retired generals and defense officials helped sell Rhombus’s AI tools to the U.S. military. The pitch didn’t always match reality. Read the new investigation from POGO's Kyle Rempfer on pogo.org/investigates.

SHOUT OUT – Celebrating a Big Win for POGO Investigates We are proud to announce that Senior Investigator René Kladzyk has been awarded the 2026 Joe Galloway Award, one of the highest honors at the Military Reporters and Editors (MRE) Awards. The MRE Awards recognize outstanding journalism on the U.S. military, national security, veterans, and the people affected by war. René won the top prize for her March 2026 investigation Inside the Fight for Safe Military Housing: Military Families Battle to Hold a Texas Housing Empire Accountable. The investigation is part of her award-winning series, Duty, Honor, Mold: Military Housing in Crisis, which has over the past three years brought national attention to unsafe conditions and unfair contracting practices in privatized military housing, and to the military families forced to live with these government failures. “I hope our reporting will spur greater understanding of what so many military families around the country are experiencing as they fight for safe housing,” says René.