White House Fails to List Transparency Meeting on President's Public Schedule

By Danielle Brian

Come to find out, Monday's meeting between myself, four other open government advocates, and President Obama wasn't listed on the White House daily schedule. Surprising, considering that the first meeting was listed on that calendar, and the President even noted that we would be listed on the White House visitor logs.

As I told The Washington Post, it was sheer stupidity that the meeting wasn't listed on the calendar. But this was not exactly a "secret meeting," as some reports have implied. It had been on the President's public daily schedule when it was initially slated for March 16. We had expected that the rescheduled meeting would be open to the press—but it is an overreach to say that the integrity of the meeting was compromised when we found out (right before the meeting) that it would not be open to the press. A White House videographer was taping the meeting, and we understood that video footage of the event would be available soon. I also thought that between the five of us—most of whom had planned ahead of time to write about the meeting—we'd have it pretty well covered. 

There are plenty of reasons to criticize Obama and his administration for their shortcomings in the open government arena—issues much bigger than the mistake of not putting this meeting back on the calendar once it was rescheduled. If the hullabaloo over our meeting with the President has focused attention on these bigger issues, even better.

So, while it's upsetting the way the White House bungled an opportunity to practice the transparency that it preaches, I stand by our reason to meet with the President—both to thank him for his commitment and highlight our priorities for what still needs to happen—and reject the notion that our principles have somehow been compromised by the meeting. I'm encouraged that it might produce tangible results in advancing important open government initiatives.

Danielle Brian is POGO's Executive Director. Read her first post about the meeting with the President here.

Morning Smoke: "Shockingly Bad" Guidance for GAO Intell Oversight

Where there's smoke, there's fire. POGO's Morning Smoke is a collection of the previous day's investigations, scoops, and opinions related to the world of government oversight. Have a story you'd like to see included? Contact POGO's blog editor.

Secrecy

DNI Drags Heels on GAO Access to Intelligence
Steven Aftergood, Secrecy News

Financial Oversight

Left Hand, Meet Right Hand: The government sues bankers over offenses government regulators once ignored
Bethany McLean, Slate

In Debate Over Bank Capital Regulation, a Trans-Atlantic Gulf
Jesse Eisenger, Deal Book / ProPublica

Defense

Taking Aim at the Pentagon Budget
Robert Dreyfuss, The Nation

Dutch Debate Buying Second Test F-35
Robert Wall, Aviation Week

In Case You Missed It

Scott Bloch Gets One Month in the Slammer

Questions about Coziness between Nuclear Industry and NRC Echo Past Concerns

By Nick Schwellenbach

The nuclear tragedy in Japan has led many in that country and ours to question the coziness of Japanese nuclear regulators with the Japanese nuclear industry. In this week’s New Yorker, Evan Osnos penned an article with one passage that resonated with the work we do here at POGO:

I frequently heard comparisons of Japan’s nuclear lobby to the American entanglement with defense contractors. As Tetsuo Jimbo, the Internet TV reporter, put it, “In the U.S., you have a big military industry. Well, we don’t have a big military, but we have a big nuclear industry.” He added, “Nuclear is a big industry with a few large companies, so there is a circle of industry leaders and regulators who try to protect and promote the nuclear program in Japan.”

Scott Bloch Gets One Month in the Slammer

By Bryan Rahija

News just came in on Scott Bloch's sentencing:

Michael wrote a great post that gives more background, including Bloch's greatest hits (against whistleblower interests).

UPDATE: POGO Executive Director Danielle Brian has issued the following statement on Bloch's sentencing:

Today’s sentencing of Scott Bloch sends an important message that there are consequences for lying to Congress. The contempt of Congress charge is just one of the many lowlights of Mr. Bloch’s time as the head of the Office of Special Counsel. Considering all that Mr. Bloch did to make a mockery of his position, it’s fitting that he’ll have some time to reflect about his misdeeds in a federal prison.

Bryan Rahija edits POGO's blog.

Is Nunn-McCurdy Working?

By Mandy Smithberger

In order to control and increase oversight of cost growth, the Nunn-McCurdy Amendment in the 1982 Defense Authorization Act requires the Pentagon to inform Congress when major weapon systems costs increase beyond certain thresholds.

But does it actually control or deter cost growth? From the Government Accountability Office (GAO):

Of the 47 programs that breached, as shown in table 3, 18 programs breached more than one time. Only one of the programs with multiple breaches—the Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter—was not recertified after a breach of the critical cost growth threshold. The Navy Area Theater Ballistic Missile Defense was also not recertified and was terminated because of poor performance and projected future cost and schedule problems. Other programs that have experienced a breach—including Advanced Seal Delivery System, Army Tactical Missile System-BAT, Comanche Reconnaissance Attack Helicopter, Land Warrior, and the VH-71 Presidential Helicopter Replacement—have also been terminated, but it is unclear whether the breach precipitated the termination. (Emphasis POGO's)

Is the primary purpose to restructure the programs to control cost? What role does cancellation play in accountability? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Mandy Smithberger is a POGO Investigator.

Quote of the Day: On Perverse Incentives in Defense Acquisition

By Nick Schwellenbach

From the written testimony of John Young—former Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics—who testified at yesterday's Senate subcommittee hearing on defense acquisition:

The military promotions system will reward a requirements officer who pushes for more requirements and punish a military acquisition program manager who resists making costly changes to a program. Similarly, civil servants who want successful careers are cautious about hard issues.

Nick Schwellenbach is POGO's Director of Investigations.

Morning Smoke: Pentagon Management Failures Add $70 Billion to Major Weapons Costs

Where there's smoke, there's fire. POGO's Morning Smoke is a collection of the previous day's investigations, scoops, and opinions related to the world of government oversight. Have a story you'd like to see included? Contact POGO's blog editor.

Defense

Audit of Pentagon Spending Finds $70 Billion in Waste
Christopher Drew, The New York Times

Money DoD saves may be cut from budget
Rick Maze, Military Times

The Pentagon and Its Bogus Bomb-Zapper: A Love Story
Noah Shachtman, Danger Room

Financial Oversight

Where the Bailout Went Wrong
Neil M. Barofsky, The Opinion Pages, The New York Times

'Insider' Is Charged at FDA
Alicia Mundy and Brent Kendall, The Wall Street Journal

Investment firms tell SEC: No systemic risk here
Chris Frates, Politico

Open Government

Obama Administration FOIA Running on 2 Tracks
Scott Hodes, The FOIA blog

Group worries that open government sites could be cut
Juliana Gruenwald, NextGov

Watchdog: US Homeland Security’s political reviews of requests for gov’t files were wasteful
Associated Press

In Case You Missed It

Open Government Advocates Meet with POTUS: A Firsthand Account
Danielle Brian

Hearings

"Examining the Spending Priorities and the Missions of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE), and the President’s FY 2012 Budget Proposal"
House Committee on Natural Resources

• Check @POGOblog for live tweets.

"State and Municipal Debt: The Coming Crisis?"
House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

What's Bothering Stan Soloway Now?

By Neil Gordon

According to Stan Soloway, president and CEO of contractor trade association the Professional Services Council, due process and fairness are becoming “increasingly quaint notions” for federal contractors.

Soloway’s commentary in this week’s Washington Technology is full of outrage. The target of his ire is the Commission on Wartime Contracting (CWC), which in its February interim report recommended automatic suspensions of contractors who are indicted for “contract-related” misconduct.

Soloway likens this to “declaring guilt before all facts are known.” Yet this sort of shoot-first-ask-questions-later approach seems to be acceptable behavior in the private sector. Back in January 2010, POGO blogged about defense contractor Agility, which had been accused—but not yet convicted—of defrauding the government. According to the U.S. Army Contracting Command, Agility was fired as a subcontractor on LOGCAP IV by DynCorp International. DynCorp’s contract with Agility stipulated that an indictment for any reason could result in termination.

Bloomberg: "Cost Overruns Plague One-Third Of Pentagon's Biggest Programs"

By Nick Schwellenbach

Indefatigable Pentagon correspondent Tony Capaccio scored a good story today for Bloomberg Government. Entitled "Cost Overruns Plague One-Third Of Pentagon's Biggest Programs," his story is based on leaked Government Accountability Office (GAO) testimony for a hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee today. The story is behind a paywall, so here are a few notable paragraphs from the story:

About one in three major U.S. Defense Department weapons programs since 1997 have had cost overruns of as much as 50 percent over their original projections...

The overruns, found in 47 of 134 programs included in a study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, were enough to trigger a law that requires congressional notifications and potential termination. Only a single program has been terminated during that review process—the Bell Helicopter Textron $6.78 billion Army Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter, the GAO said.

The GAO's findings are not the biggest surprise—it has presented a similarly shocking picture of defense acquisition in the past. It will be interesting to see if either of the first two panel witnesses—both from the Defense Department (DoD)—will argue if things have substantially improved at the DoD. 

Another interesting witness to watch will be John Young, a senior fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies. Young is the former head of DoD acquisition and was vocal in arguing during his latter days at the Pentagon that some of the GAO criticisms in its 2009 report (similar to the one coming out today) were overblown and that there had been substantial changes to acquisition policy.  Young also said the GAO glossed over in its 2009 report the fact that several programs initiated in 1996 or earlier were among the worst performing programs—you'll note the GAO testimony today focuses on programs initiated in 1997 or later. Today's GAO witness, Michael J. Sullivan, is the author of that 2009 GAO report and he and Young are both on today's second panel of witnesses.

This could get interesting.

Nick Schwellenbach is POGO's Director of Investigations.

Can We Trust Our Doctors' Ties to Industry?

By Paul Thacker

The stories about doctors on the take from industry never end. Multiple outlets today reported on a study which found that 56 percent of the physicians who wrote clinical guidelines for cardiology had a conflict of interest with industry. Medicine is trying to establish “evidence based” medical care and clinical guidelines set the standards for other physicians to follow.

Actually, this result is not surprising. A slew of studies and media reports have found that a majority of doctors have little problem dipping a hand into the corporate cookie jar. What did catch my eye was that 44 percent of the physicians had NO RELATIONSHIP WITH INDUSTRY.

Open Government Advocates Meet with POTUS: A Firsthand Account

By Danielle Brian

Updated 3/31/2011

Yesterday afternoon, POGO Executive Director Danielle Brian—along with OMB Watch Executive Director Gary Bass, OpenTheGovernment.org Director Patrice McDermott, National Security Archive Executive Director Tom Blanton, and Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press Executive Director Lucy Dalglish—met with President Obama about open government issues. The meeting was originally scheduled to occur during Sunshine Week, but was postponed. Here’s Danielle’s account of the meeting.

I approached our meeting with President Obama yesterday with trepidation. From my perspective the meeting would have been a dismal failure if my colleagues (OMB Watch Executive Director Gary Bass, OpenTheGovernment.org Director Patrice McDermott, National Security Archive Executive Director Tom Blanton and Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press Executive Director Lucy Dalglish) and I were simply given a photo op in the oval office as we honored the President for his stated commitment to open government. Our time with the President was expected to be short, and we were warned there is a rule that there be absolutely no "asks"—in other words no lobbying—in the Oval Office. We needed to be very careful with every word, both not to waste time, but also not to violate any ethics rules.

I believe strongly that POGO's effectiveness is enhanced by occasionally wielding a carrot while continuing to hold the proverbial stick in our other hand. With regard to the Obama Administration's progress on open government, there is no doubt we still have a long litany of problems. But if we take for granted a sitting President who has used his bully pulpit to emphasize the need to change the way we think about access to government information, our cause is likely to be forgotten among the many other presidential priorities. And some progress has undeniably been made in the past two years. The meeting was originally scheduled two weeks ago during Sunshine Week, but that meeting was postponed at literally the last minute. Some scoffed that this was evidence of his lack of commitment to the issue. It didn't help that ESPN ran a lengthy segment with the President making his March Madness picks that day.

Morning Smoke: Court Rules Against Watchdog Claims that Gov Unlawfully Blocks Access to Judicial Proceedings

Where there's smoke, there's fire. POGO's Morning Smoke is a collection of the previous day's investigations, scoops, and opinions related to the world of government oversight. Have a story you'd like to see included? Contact POGO's blog editor.

Divided Appeals Court Upholds Secrecy of Whistleblower Suits
Mike Scarcella, The Blog of Legal Times

At U.S. Nuclear Sites, Preparing for the Unlikely
John M. Broder, Matthew L. Wald and Tom Zeller Jr., The New York Times

Cost Overruns Plague One-Third of Pentagon’s Biggest Programs ($)
Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg Government

Dying Banks Kept Alive Among Secrets Fed Data Will Reveal
Craig Torres and Bob Ivry, Bloomberg

GAO: Implementing Dodd-Frank Could Cost $2.9 Billion
Victoria McGrane, Real Time Economics

Pentagon resists automatic suspension of indicted contractors
Robert Brodsky, Government Executive

FDA Officials Talk Tough About Accelerated Approval
Ed Silverman, Pharamalot

Regulators to Set Rules on Mortgage Securities
Floyd Norris, The New York Times

Indian Point nuclear plant violating safety rules: New York AG
Patrick Badgley, Platts

BP Denies Oil Spill Claims by Alabama Cities, Mexico States
Laurel Brubaker Calkins and Allen Johnson Jr., Bloomberg

Analysis: Oil majors, miners divided on U.S. corruption rules
Ed Stoddard, Reuters