Announcing First Class of Congressional Oversight Fellows

The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is excited to announce the placement of the first two POGO Congressional Oversight Fellows, Jim Getz and Andrea Noble. They will each spend a year learning more about Congressional oversight by serving alongside professional staff on Congressional committees, engaging in oversight and investigative work.

"We are so proud to kick off this program with two incredible fellows who will be working in two important Congressional committees. Each fellow has impressive research and investigative skills, and is dedicated to learning more about Congress's oversight capabilities,” said Justin Rood, Director of the Congressional Oversight Initiative (COI) at POGO.

Andrea Noble will work with the majority staff of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Noble also comes from the world of journalism, and is an award-winning reporter with more than a decade of experience writing about law enforcement and legal affairs. She most recently covered the Justice Department for The Washington Times. Her beat covered immigration and surveillance issues, gun policy, and the investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Before that, she wrote for Maryland's Gazette newspapers and for The Times, where her investigative reporting earned top honors from the Virginia Press Association and the D.C. chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. A graduate of Webster University in St. Louis, she studied journalism and sociology.

Jim Getz will work alongside the minority staff of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. He brings a unique background of both law and journalism, with a Master's in journalism from The Ohio State University and a law degree from the University of Maryland School of Law, where he focused on environmental law. Getz covered environmental and regional issues at the Dallas Morning News, transportation at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and court cases throughout his career. Most recently, he was the Northern California state courts reporter at The Daily Journal, a statewide legal newspaper.

POGO’s Congressional Oversight Fellowship Program is geared towards mid-career professionals interested in learning more about Congressional oversight and investigations. The program seeks candidates who might be otherwise considered non-traditional for Congressional staffing, such as investigative reporters, professional researchers, issues experts from advocacy groups, and research-oriented academics.

POGO’s program is run according to the best practices for Congressional fellowships learned from our investigation, including proactively disclosing the stipend details for each fellow. POGO does not accept contributions from for-profit corporations, labor unions, any government, or anyone who stands to benefit financially from our work.

The Fellows will be with their Congressional offices until the end of the calendar year. If you or someone you know is interested in applying to the fellowship program for 2019, you can find more information here.