The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) Blog

Road Show with Senators, Brought to You by Pentagon Contractors

 

By ANNA MEIER and SUZANNE DERSHOWITZ

Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Kelly Ayotte hit the road this week in Florida, New Hampshire, Virginia and North Carolina to preach against looming Pentagon spending cuts. Call it the “Misinformation Road Show” brought to you by defense industry contractors.

The trio of Republican senators are throwing out words like “devastating” and “draconian” to describe the potential across-the-board spending cuts, known as “sequestration.” Graham even warned people in Fayetteville that “Y'all are about to get screwed if this thing happens.”

Ah, nothing like a little fear and loathing to rile up swing state voters. Too bad, their message mostly parrots the talking points of the major defense industry contractors.

House Votes to Stop Future Funding of Rosoboronexport

By ANDREW WYNER

The House of Representatives voted to cut off future government deals with a Russian government-owned arms contractor that has provided more than $1 billion in arms to the Syrian government. The contractor, Rosoboronexport, has supplied weapons to a brutal Syrian regime led by Bashar Al-Assad and currently has a contract with the Department of Defense (DoD) worth nearly $1 billion to supply helicopters to Afghanistan.

Representative Jim Moran (D-Va.) offered an amendment to the FY 2013 defense appropriations bill (H.R. 5856) which directs that no funding may “be used to enter into a contract, memorandum of understanding, or cooperative agreement with, make a grant to, or provide a loan or loan guarantee to Rosoboronexport.” The amendment passed with a resounding 407-5 vote. POGO hopes the Senate passes a similar measure.

Last month, POGO documented our concerns with the Rosoboronexport contract, under which the U.S. Army originally procured 21 Mi-17 helicopters for $377 million and later exercised an option worth $550 million to procure an additional 12 helicopters. While Representative Moran’s amendment does not affect the remainder of the current contract, it bars all future Pentagon business dealings with Rosoboronexport.

Mission Impossible? Not for 82-year-old Anti-Nuclear Weapons Activist

Michael R. Walli, 63, Megan Rice, 82, Greg Boertje-Obed, 57, succeeded in a disarmament action at the Oak Ridge Y-12 Nuclear facility before dawn.

 

[Update: The federal contractor who runs the Y-12 facility has put the complex under a "security stand-down," the Knoxville News Sentinel reports. Click here to read more.]

By MIA STEINLE

When a nuclear weapons facility can’t stop infiltration by an octogenarian nun, it’s time to reassess its security standards.

The 82-year-old nun, accompanied by two other anti-nuclear activists, broke into Tennessee’s Y-12 National Security Complex early Saturday morning, the Knoxville News Sentinel first reported.

“The Department of Energy has repeatedly claimed that security at the site, which houses 300 to 400 metric tons of bomb-grade uranium, is robust enough to defend against more than a dozen heavily-armed terrorists with inside knowledge of security procedures” Peter Stockton, a nuclear security expert at the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), ironically observed.

“It looks like the Boy Scouts could have done a better job” securing the site, he added.

After cutting through three fences surrounding the facility, the activists “posted a banner on one of the buildings and poured human blood on the premises,” the News Sentinel reported. The activists were arrested under federal trespassing charges and will remain in jail until a hearing this Thursday, according to the newspaper.

Morning Smoke: Afghan Reconstruction Criticized by Inspector General Report

MORNING SMOKE

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 online producer

Government Oversight

U.S. Construction Project in Afghanistan Challenged by Inspector General's Report
Rajiv Chandrasekaran, The Washington Post

Financial Oversight

Bill Would Dramatically Jack Up SEC Fines on Securities Firms
Mark Schoeff Jr., Investment News

Law's Big Weapon Sits Idle
Michael Rapoport, The Wall Street Journal

Britain Begins Review of Libor
Mark Scott, The New York Times

Energy Issues

Drillers in Utah Have a Friend in a U.S. Land Agency
Eric Lipton, The New York Times

National Security

The Army Tank That Could Not Be Stopped
Aaron Mehta and Lydia Mulvany, iWatch News

How to Defeat the Air Force's Powerful Stealth Fighter
David Axe, Danger Room

Revolving Door

Lobbyists for General Dynamics Who Passed Through the Revolving Door
Ajani Winston, iWatch News

Watchdogs Raise Issues with GOP Armed Services Aide
Jeremy Herb, The Hill

Leave the Multi-Billion-Dollar Nuclear Decisions to the Experts

Plutonium pits, used in nuclear weapons, being created at Los Alamost National Laboratory

 

When the president released his Fiscal Year 2013 federal budget proposal earlier this year, opponents of government waste took heart: the budget zeroed out funding for a proposed nuclear weapons facility that had been plagued by massive cost overruns and schedule delays for about a decade. Now it seems that eight senators are trying to undermine the president’s proposal and put funding back into the New Mexico facility, even though the agency and congressional overseers who know the project best say it’s unnecessary.

In a letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, the senators argued that the proposed Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility is necessary to fulfill “critical national defense mission requirements.” They urged Panetta to put $300 million back into the facility for fiscal year 2013 and to begin planning for the following years even though the president’s proposal called for a delay of at least five years.

But why should they favor the president’s proposal? Well, for one, it’s backed by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the Department of Energy agency that oversees all nuclear weapons projects. And the agency’s stamp of approval in this case is no small matter—it fought for years to build the nuclear facility, but concluded this year that “existing infrastructure” is a workable substitute for the brand-new, nearly $6 billion facility.

The senators’ letter exemplifies the current power struggle over this project in the House and Senate. On one side are the Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittees, which draw up the nuclear weapons budget each year and which have followed the evolution of this project for almost a decade. By not funding the facility in their latest appropriations bill, they essentially agreed with the president and NNSA that the nation neither needs nor can afford a new multi-billion dollar nuclear weapons facility.

On the other side are the Armed Services Committees, which typically oversee non-nuclear defense projects and which lack the expertise to make authoritative decisions about nuclear projects. They’ve already tried to put over $100 million back into the nuclear facility in the latest defense authorization bill. Five of the eight senators who signed the letter are members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, though the signature of Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) is notably absent.

McCain Spokesman: Senator is Proud of Ex Lockheed Lobbyist Appointed to Defense Oversight Role

POGO STAFF REPORT

The former Lockheed executive and lobbyist who Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) appointed to a key role overseeing the defense industry took the job only temporarily, a spokesman for McCain said.

The Project On Government Oversight reported Thursday that McCain, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, hired former Lockheed vice president Ann Elise Sauer to head the committee’s Republican staff.  As POGO noted, the committee oversees military spending, including major weapons systems that are central to Lockheed’s business.

In a financial disclosure form, Sauer listed almost $1.7 million of compensation from Lockheed during a reporting period spanning 2011 and early 2012.

In a statement to POGO after Thursday’s article was posted, McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said Sauer took early retirement from Lockheed in January 2011, which accounted for part of her compensation.

Safety Board Calls Nuclear Lab's Earthquake Resistance Analysis 'Technically Inadequate'

By MIA STEINLE

An ongoing government analysis of an important nuclear weapons laboratory’s ability to withstand earthquakes may be flawed, according to a federal oversight panel.

The analysis of how the plutonium facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory would hold up in a strong earthquake “is technically inadequate” in several ways, the oversight panel wrote in a July 18 letter to the Department of Energy.

“Timely action must be taken to fully understand if additional building modifications are required,” the oversight board said.

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board said in the letter that it “remains concerned by the seismic integrity of the Plutonium Facility,” adding that the ongoing analysis has “profound implications for ensuring public health and safety.”

The analysis in dispute is being performed by the Department of Energy’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and by the contractors that operate the New Mexico laboratory.

Asked for comment, NNSA spokesman Joshua McConaha said his agency is working on a response to the oversight panel.

"Regardless of any future improvements, the risk to the public from operations at [the Los Alamos plutonium facility] remains very small," he said, adding that "the facility is operating well within the safety objectives established by [Department of Energy] safety policy, and public safety is adequately protected."

The oversight panel’s criticism comes one month after the panel issued a report that found that Los Alamos National Laboratory had underestimated the amount of radiation that could leak from the plutonium facility as a result of an earthquake. As the Project On Government Oversight reported, the panel concluded that the radiation could be more than four times as intense as the laboratory had estimated.

Air Force Claims to Have Solved F-22 Mystery, However Some Questions Remain Unanswered

 

A U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor flies over the Nevada Test and Training Range for a training mission.

By DANA LIEBELSON

The Pentagon said this week that it has found the cause of health problems that are plaguing pilots of the F-22 stealth fighter jet and compromising their ability to fly. According to the Department of Defense, the mystery can be traced to malfunctions in the pilots’ air supply equipment.

But how does that explain the fact that members of ground crews have exhibited similar symptoms?

In response to questions from the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), Air Force spokesmen said that maintenance workers have gotten sick for an entirely different reason: exposure to the jet’s engine exhaust.  

“The incidents experienced by the maintainers are not connected with the physiological incidents experienced by the pilots,” 1st Lt. Sarah D.A. Godfrey, a spokeswoman for Air Combat Command, told POGO.

Morning Smoke: Navy Underestimating Ship Costs by Tens of Billions, Says CBO

MORNING SMOKE

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 online producer

National Security

Navy Low-Balled Cost of New Ships by Billions
Gary Robbins, The San Diego Union-Tribune

Senate's Move to Cybersecurity Means No Defense Bill Before Recess
Jeremy Herb, The HIll

Iraq Reconstruction Effort Cost 719 Lives, Audit Finds
Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg

Having Arrived in Japan, Ospreys Are Put on Ice
Philip Ewing, DoD Buzz

Sequestration Could Mean Another 100K-Troop Cut
Rick Maze, Navy Times

DoD: Civilian Workers Could Get Layoff Notices
Jeremy Herb, The Hill

What the Tea Party Can Teach Mitt Romney About Defense Spending
Dana Liebelson, The Week

Financial Oversight

Heavy Hitters Strike at Stock Act Employee Provisions
Joe Davidson, The Washington Post

How to Rip Off the Taxpayer: SIGTARP Shares Secrets
Jennifer Peebles, The Washington Examiner

Whistleblower Issues

Senate Intelligence Committee Adopts a Dozen Anti-Leak Measures
Steven Aftergood, Secrecy News

DHS Guidance on Contracting Meetings with Industry

By SCOTT AMEY

Jason Miller at Federal News Radio reported (click here for the audio) that the Department of Homeland Security’s National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD) has draft guidance on holding meetings with industry representatives. This is a great move considering that the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) issued two memos educating the federal acquisition workforce about ways it can better team with industry.

The draft guidance states that government and industry meetings should only be scheduled after agency officials receive information about those requesting the meeting, the meeting’s purpose, names and titles of those participating, contracting opportunities they are seeking as well as additional information about prior NPPD meetings with the entity, potential conflicts related to current and former DHS/NPPD officials, and the entity’s history of contracting with DHS.

If the government is serious about learning from industry throughout the acquisition process, there should be polices to ensure that those meetings are above reproach. The draft guidance by NPPD would do that. It would create a level playing field for all contractors and help acquisition employees avoid ethics violations, including violations of the Procurement Integrity Act, personal and organizational conflicts of interest, revolving door abuses, and violations of lobbying rules. The draft guidance might also help achieve OFPP’s goals to engage small businesses and subgroups of small businesses, and improve communications with contractors that the agency has not worked with before.

Ex Lockheed Lobbyist Now in Key Defense Oversight Role

 

By BEN FREEMAN, Ph.D.

A former executive and lobbyist for defense contractor Lockheed Martin has been appointed to one of the most powerful posts on Capitol Hill overseeing the defense industry.

Ann Elise Sauer, who left Lockheed last year, is now the Republican staff director at the Senate Armed Services Committee. The Committee oversees military spending, including major weapons systems that are central to Lockheed’s business.

Sauer received more than $1.66 million from Lockheed during a reporting period that encompasses this year and last year, according to a financial disclosure form she filed in April. The $1.66 million included salary, bonus, deferred compensation and a lump sum described in the filing as “RETIRED PAY.”

Sauer was appointed to the Senate staff position in February. Her financial disclosure form, recently noted by Legistorm, called attention to her appointment.

Lockheed Martin, the Department of Defense’s top contractor (in terms of total contract dollars awarded yearly), receives tens of billions of dollars annually from the Pentagon. Last year alone, the firm was awarded Department of Defense contracts valued at more than $33 billion. The company is responsible for some of the Pentagon's most expensive and troubled weapon systems, including the F-22 and F-35 fighter jets.

As minority staff director, Sauer reports to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

POGO Releases 2011 Annual Report

By ANDRE FRANCISCO

This week, we released our 2011 annual report covering some of our major accomplishments and our special 30^th Anniversary Gala. It was an amazing, and busy, year for the Project On Government Oversight. Some highlights from 2011 include:

• 

  Download a PDF of the full report here
  The release of our Revolving Door Database for the Securities and Exchange Commission
• Our report Bad Business: Billions of Taxpayer Dollars Wasted on Hiring Contractors, which sparked an important debate about the contractor workforce
• 8 testimonies before Congress by POGO staff
• Protecting national security whistleblower Franz Gayl
• POGO’s 30 Anniversary Gala featuring Lewis Black and a panel discussion with The Huffington Posts’s Dan Froomkin, Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), former Representative Chris Shays (R. Conn.) and Wall Street maverick David Einhorn.

You can find out more about POGO accomplishments in 2011, see beautiful photos of our hard-working staff, and read what others are saying about POGO in the full annual report.  

Andre Francisco is an online producer for the Project On Government Oversight.