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Are defense contractors' political contributions bearing fruit in the National Defense Authorization Act?
We can't help but wonder now that the Associated Press is reporting that GOP freshmen are taking care of their districts in the new defense bill and bringing in millions of dollars for programs the Pentagon doesn't want in some of their districts.
Continue reading "Defense Contractors: PACing Political Spending?" »
Where there's smoke, there's fire. POGO's Morning Smoke is a collection of the freshest 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.
Contract Oversight
GAO: Billions in stimulus contracts went to tax delinquents
Bernie Becker, The Hill
Contractor can't account for $9.8 million in project to aid Iraqi farmers
Laurel Adams, iWatch News
Supreme Court overturns A-12 ruling against contractors
Marcus Weisgerber, Federal Times
Defense
Pentagon moves on new long-range bomber
Global Security Newswire
Pentagon Audit Hits Boeing Overcharges Such As $393 For $25 Part
Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg Government
GOP frosh take care of districts in defense bill
Donna Cassata, Associated Press
Congress to DoD: Keep Better Books
Kate Brannen, Defense News
Public Health
FDA Oversight Of J&J Is ‘Deeply Troubling’
Canadian Regulator May Disclose Advisor Conflicts
Ed Silverman, Pharmalot
Financial Sector Oversight
Barclays Capital Hires Former Fed Official
Ben Protess, DealBook
Businesses criticize whistleblower reward plan
David S. Hilzenrath, The Washington Post
Whistleblower Advocates Urge SEC to Resist Business’s Call to Undermine New Whistleblower Program
Digital Journal
Whistleblower Issues
NSA Whistleblower: Government Wants To Send 'Chilling Message' On Leaks
Ryan J. Reilly, TPMMuckraker
Revolving Door
51% Think It’s Bribery When A Company Offers A Government Regulator A Job
The FINANCIAL
Nuclear Power
Nuclear industry faces regulatory setback
Amy Harder, National Journal
Open Government
Open information may mean more errors get published
Joseph Marks, Nextgov
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A new POGO podcast is now available! Our latest podcast is a conversation with POGO Investigator Michael Smallberg about POGO's latest report and accompanying database on the revolving door between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the financial industry.
Image: timsnell
A host of inconsistencies in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC's) oversight of spent nuclear fuel storage is leading to increased public health and safety risks, according to a new report issued by the Commission's Inspector General (IG).
The report, released May 19, found that the training and expertise of NRC staff who inspect independent spent fuel storage installations (ISFSIs) is mixed:
Current ISFSI safety inspector training does not provide inspectors with a consistent understanding of NRC’s inspection requirements. Specifically, NRC staff do not have a consistent understanding of the agency’s requirements relating to ISFSI inspections, the use of enforcement at ISFSIs, and the role of resident inspectors at sites with ISFSIs.
As the IG points out, this lack of consistent training seems to contradict the Commission's own policies:
Continue reading "Do NRC Inspectors Have the Training and Expertise to Do Their Jobs?" »
When the subject of national security whistleblowers came up at a White House meeting in March, "the President shifted in his seat and leaned forward," my boss Danielle Brian told The New Yorker's Jane Mayer. "He said this may be where we have some differences. He said he doesn't want to protect the people who leak to the media war plans that could impact the troops."
Mayer also wrote that my boss:
felt that [the President] might be misinformed about some of the current leak cases. She warned Obama that prosecuting whistle-blowers would undermine his legacy. Brian had been told by the White House to avoid any 'ask's on specific issues, but she told the President that, according to his own logic, Drake was exactly the kind of whistle-blower who deserved protection.
Why did Obama appear misinformed? Thomas Drake, a former senior executive at the highly secretive National Security Agency (NSA) who is being prosecuted by the Justice Department under the Espionage Act, did not leak information that could give our enemies any sort of advantage. Instead he blew the whistle on a failed multi-billion dollar intelligence program called Trailblazer that came at the expense of a cheaper, more effective intelligence program known as ThinThread that had civil liberties-protecting technology built-in, according to Drake.
A few weeks after the aforementioned White House meeting, the Justice Department dropped its investigation into Thomas Tamm, a former Justice Department attorney who blew the whistle on the warrantless wiretapping in the previous administration. But DOJ's prosecution of Drake continues.
Continue reading "Justice's Case Against Tom Drake: Flawed Arguments and Broader Systemic Issues" »
Is it time for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program to put up or shut up to show taxpayers that they're getting value for the billions of dollars invested in the program so far? At yesterday's Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Mike Sullivan from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said the "time has come" for the JSF program to meet expectations on performance and schedule. "Significant risks in the program went unaddressed" until recently, and while the program seems to be turning around, scheduling delays and cost risk in technology development are still significant.
Ashton Carter, the Under Secretary for Defense Acquisitions, Technology, and Logistics agreed that the projected costs for the program are "unacceptable and affordable," and that the Pentagon is working with contractors to bring costs down.
"A lot of us saw these problems coming," said Ranking Member John McCain (R-AZ).
If there was a key word from the hearing, it was alternatives. As part of the re-evaluation of the program required by a Nunn-McCurdy cost breach and the Weapon Systems Acquisition Reform Act, the Pentagon had to certify that there weren't alternatives to the JSF program. But that wasn't enough for many senators on the Committee, and Chairman Carl Levin (D-MI) asked Carter to not only explain how the Pentagon will know that they are truly adding discipline to the program to improve cost and schedule performance, but also to explain how the Pentagon will proceed if they are unsuccessful.
What do you think, should we wait another year to see if the JSF program improves, or are more draconian measures needed?
Mandy Smithberger is a POGO Investigator.
Image: Medill DC.
This week's release: Statements filed between 2006 and 2010 by former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) employees who went to work for Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, LLP (WilmerHale) and returned to appear before the SEC on behalf of WilmerHale's clients within two years of leaving government.
Agency: Securities and Exchange Commission
Document Dates: 2006 – 2010
President Obama announced this week that he is nominating Daniel M. Gallagher, a partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, LLP (WilmerHale), to serve as a Commissioner at the SEC.
The announcement fits in nicely with the SEC's efforts to recruit "more staff with specialized expertise and real world experience." At the same time, Gallagher's nomination also serves as the latest example of the revolving door between the SEC and the securities industry, and the particularly cozy connections between the Commission and WilmerHale, aka "SEC West."
A few months ago, Matt Taibbi ran down the list of WilmerHale alumni who had recently been named as senior officials at the SEC: General Counsel Mark Cahn; Deputy General Counsel Anne Small; Division of Corporation Finance Director Meredith Cross; and Enforcement Division Chief Counsel Joseph Brenner. You could also add SEC Deputy Secretary Cathy Ahn and Associate General Counsel Jeffrey Singdahlsen to the list. And if confirmed as Commissioner, this would actually be Gallagher's second time going to the SEC after working for WilmerHale.
Where there's smoke, there's fire. POGO's Morning Smoke is a collection of the freshest 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.
Inspectors General
Lawmakers to Obama: Appoint watchdogs now
Lucy Madison , CBS News
Government Secrecy
Government Insists on Right to Censor Book
Transforming Classification, or Not
Steven Aftergood, Secrecy News
Campaign Finance
President considers trade association donation disclosure for contractors
Fredreka Schouten, Federal Times
Revolving Door
Obama's New SEC Chief: In Through the Revolving Door
Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone
Federal Advisory Committees
Where Have All The FDA Panelists Gone?
Ed Silverman, Pharmalot
Open Government
Could Pass-The-Hat Kill Open Government?
Joseph Marks, Nextgov
Defense
F-35 update for Senate panel likely to be upbeat
Bob Cox, Star-Telegram
Army says avoiding costly weapons system cancellations is a priority
John T. Bennett, The Hill
Nuclear Weapons Complex
Life span of U.S. nuclear weapons will increase under plan
Walter Pincus, The Washington Post
Contracting
Wartime Contracting: Contingency or Continuing?
Matthew Leatherman and Mariah Quinn, The Will and the Wallet
As the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster in Japan continues to unfold, POGO, like many others, is concerned about the effectiveness of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) oversight of nuclear power here. The NRC's internal watchdog, the NRC Office of Inspector General (OIG), has questioned the aggressiveness of the NRC’s oversight as well. Case in point: an FY 2009 NRC OIG investigation close-out memo on the “Adequacy of [NRC] Staff’s Handling of Generic Safety Issues” that POGO obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
The OIG looked into this matter because the “lengthy review process caused the OIG to question the effectiveness of” the NRC’s system for managing generic safety issues.
The NRC’s “generic safety issues” are safety problems that the NRC has identified as applicable to a wide-range of nuclear power plants. According to the memo:
generic issues are potential safety concerns involving the design, construction, operation, or decommissioning applicable to several, or a class of, NRC licensees, certificate holders, or other entities regulated by or subject to the regulatory jurisdiction of NRC.
The OIG found that the NRC’s Generic Issues Program, which is used by NRC to analyze and recommend solutions related to generic safety issues, “does not clearly assign ownership for each issue to a particular NRC office and is not transparent to NRC senior management or the Commission.” Also, the safety issues were not always “well-tracked.”