The Paper Trail: September 13, 2024

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Announcements

Working with Agency & Industry Counsel on Oversight & Investigations: POGO’s virtual training on how to work cooperatively with investigative subjects to achieve your oversight goals will be held TODAY at 12 noon EDT. This event is only open to staff in Congress, GAO, and CRS. Register HERE.

Top stories for September 13, 2024

Election officials warn that widespread problems with the U.S. mail system could disrupt voting: State and local election officials from across the country warned that problems with the mail delivery system threaten to disenfranchise voters in the upcoming election, telling Postmaster General Louis DeJoy that the Postal Service hasn’t fixed persistent deficiencies. (John Hanna and Christina A. Cassidy, Associated Press)

Elon Musk’s misleading election claims reach millions and alarm election officials: In the two years since Musk bought Twitter/X, he has transformed it into a primary source of false election rumors, both by spreading them on his own account and lowering some of the site’s guardrails around misinformation. His false and misleading election posts add to the deluge of inaccurate information plaguing election officials across the country. (Sarah Ellison, Amy Gardner, and Clara Ence Morse, Washington Post)

🔎 See Also: Additional security will be in place for the Jan. 6, 2025 certification of the presidential vote (Jennifer Shutt, Government Executive)

Boar’s Head plant posed an “imminent threat” years before listeria outbreak: Inspectors discovered rusted equipment, condensation dripping on the floor, and mold on the wall at the Boar’s Head plant in Jarratt, Virginia, two years before a deadly listeria outbreak. Despite the violations, the plant continued to operate. (Rachel Roubein, Washington Post)

9/11 responders are getting dementia. They want the government to help: Only recently have scientists begun to find that cognitive impairment and dementia are also afflicting first responders at rates far higher than in the general population. Physicians and advocates are pushing the government to include dementia among the illnesses covered by the World Trade Center Health Program. (Dan Hurley, Washington Post)

🔎 See Also: HHS expands health benefits eligibility for 9/11 responders under new rule (Carten Cordell, Government Executive)

🔎 See Also: 23 years after 9/11, families of cancer victims fight for benefits (Claire Fahy, New York Times)

Capitol Police watchdog reports emerge into public view, but slowly: U.S. Capitol Police reports were mostly kept under wraps until a year ago. Now 38 of them are available on the Web. It’s an improvement but still a drop in the bucket, advocates say, citing a lingering culture of secrecy. More than 100 reports have yet to be released. (Justin Papp, Roll Call)

Federal employees can resolve EEOC complaints without litigation. But is the alternative process fair?: An EEOC report on the federal government’s use of alternative dispute resolution found that agencies may not be implementing it in a way that makes employees feel like they are fairly heard and represented. (Sean Michael Newhouse, Government Executive)

Insurrection

Feds arrest soldier at Schofield Barracks for Jan. 6 assault on police — a day after he was booted: More than 100 January 6 defendants — 12% of the total — had military connections. (Drew F. Lawrence, Military.com)

Defense and Veterans Affairs

Defense spending bills see another surge in unrequested items: Members of Congress have added over $38 billion for 1,499 military research and procurement programs in fiscal 2025 that the president didn’t seek. In recent years, the number of enacted congressional additions to defense research programs alone — not counting procurement — has increased 66%. (John M. Donnelly, Roll Call)

Staff shortages and training faults hamper Navy ship upkeep at sea, sailors tell GAO: According to the GAO, the Navy doesn’t have enough manpower and training to keep its surface ships, aircraft carriers, and submarines in shape for combat. (Alison Bath, Stars and Stripes)

Lack of guidelines scuttled VA’s goal to expand access for substance use disorder treatment: An inspector general report found that less than 30% of the approximately 520,000 veterans with substance use disorder diagnoses received care in the prior year. (Carten Cordell, Government Executive)

The war crimes that the military buried: A database of possible war crimes committed by U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan shows that the military-justice system rarely punishes perpetrators. Of 781 cases, nearly two-thirds were dismissed by investigators who didn’t believe that a crime had even taken place. Even in the 151 cases in which investigators found probable cause to believe a crime had occurred, meaningful accountability was rare. (Parker Yesko, New Yorker)

🔎 See Also: The Haditha massacre photos that the military didn’t want the world to see (Madeleine Baran, New Yorker)

Business and Finance

Boeing workers vote overwhelmingly to strike, in defeat for troubled company: The strike risks derailing Boeing’s recovery from ongoing financial and safety challenges and could cost the cash-strapped company an estimated $1 billion per week (Rachel Lerman, Lori Aratani, and Ian Duncan, Washington Post)

Navient reaches $120 million settlement for misleading student loan borrowers: Navient, once one of the country’s largest student loan servicers, was permanently banned from servicing federal student loans. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau alleged Navient misled and harmed borrowers. (Jonathan Franklin, NPR)

Broken blades, angry fishermen and rising costs slow offshore wind: The collapse of a giant wind turbine blade off the Massachusetts coast raises concerns about the safety and reliability of this clean energy source. (Stanley Reed and Ivan Penn, New York Times)

Tech

$5.6B lost to cryptocurrency fraud schemes last year: Americans lost more than $5.6 billion in 2023 from fraud schemes involving cryptocurrency — a 45% increase over the prior year. (Miranda Nazzaro, The Hill)

Job rate for women in tech has hardly budged since 2005, EEOC finds: In 2022, women made up 22.6% of workers in the high-tech industry — less than 1% higher than in 2005. The EEOC also found that while overall racial diversity in the high-tech workforce increased from 26% in 2005 to 40% in 2022, Hispanic and Black workers remained significantly underrepresented in the field. (Naomi Nix, Washington Post)

Social media fuels fentanyl crisis as drug dealers take to platforms to connect with minors: Experts, law enforcement, and children’s advocates say Snap, TikTok, Telegram, and Instagram aren’t doing enough to keep children safe from tainted, fake prescription drugs. (CBS News)

Health Care

High toxin levels are illegal in public water. But not for Americans using private wells: An estimated 43 million Americans get their drinking water from private wells, which aren’t subject to federal safety regulations. (Silvia Foster-Frau, Washington Post)

What warning labels could look like on your favorite foods: Some nutrition experts and lawmakers say the labeling options under consideration by the FDA aren’t clear enough to protect Americans’ health. (Lauren Weber and Rachel Roubein, Washington Post)

Doctors give Black women unneeded C-sections to fill operating rooms, study suggests: A study found healthy Black women with low risk factors were far more likely to get C-sections than white women with similar medical histories. The additional operations put Black patients at higher risk for serious complications, as well as higher medical bills. (Sarah Kliff, New York Times)

These states tried, and failed, to cut food waste. One succeeded: Reducing the amount of food that gets tossed in the trash, one of the most seemingly straightforward ways to tackle climate change, is in practice a tough problem to solve. (Anna Phillips, Washington Post)

ICYMI

Project 2025:

→ Project 2025 went viral. Oops.

Immigration and Border Security:

→ Haitian families in Ohio under attack as racist claims spread

→ Uvalde school shooting report reveals border officers couldn’t access school map or keys

→ How immigrants navigate their digital footprints in a charged political climate

Other News:

→ Judge throws out two charges Trump faces in Georgia election subversion case

→ Iran turns to Hells Angels and other criminal gangs to target critics

→ The estimated Social Security increase for 2025 keeps dropping

Because It’s Friday

Bobbleheads, Magic 8 Balls, chairs and other artifacts in the Smithsonian reveal the historical significance of presidential debates: The political history collections at the National Museum of American History include several objects that can help answer the question of whether presidential debates matter. (Claire Jerry, Government Executive)

Upcoming Events

📌 Holding the SBA Accountable: Testimony from Small Business Administrator Guzman. House Committee on Small Business. Wednesday, September 18, 10:00 a.m., 2360 Rayburn House Office Building.

📌 Oversight of Extremism Policies in the Army. House Committee on Armed Services; Subcommittee on Military Personnel. Thursday, September 19, 1:00 p.m., 2212 Rayburn House Office Building.

Hot Docs

🔥📃 DOJ OIG: Audit of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Contract Actions Reported by Contracting Officers into the Federal Procurement Data System - Next Generation. 24-104 (PDF)

🔥📃 GAO - Payment Integrity: Significant Improvements Are Needed to Address Improper Payments and Fraud. GAO-24-107660 (PDF)

🔥📃 GAO - Critical Materials: Action Needed to Implement Requirements That Reduce Supply Chain Risks. GAO-24-107176 (PDF)

🔥📃 GAO - National Defense Stockpile: Actions Needed to Improve DOD’s Efforts to Prepare for Emergencies. GAO-24-106959 (PDF)

Nominations & Appointments

Nominations

• Ben Cardin - U.S. Representative to the United Nations General Assembly
• Lanhee J. Chen - Member, Amtrak Board of Directors
• Tanya Leigh Flores - U.S. Representative to the United Nations General Assembly
• Adam Gamoran - Director, Institute of Education Sciences, Department of Education
• Gordon Hartogensis - Governor, United States Postal Service Board of Governors
• Dan Sullivan - U.S. Representative to the United Nations General Assembly
• Michael Trager - U.S. Representative to the United Nations General Assembly