The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) Blog

POGO Blog Has Moved

As you can see, the POGO blog is not looking as pretty as it once did. This is because we have moved our blog to a new site. The new POGO blog can be found at http://www.pogo.org/blog/. Our new blog has lots of new features and a closer integration with our site, which also has updated navigation to make it easier for you to find all our content. In addition, you will be able to find blog posts by author, and it will be easier to share your favorite posts.

We are still transferring our content to our new system. This blog will serve as an archive of all our old content until everything is trasferred, but no new content will be posted here. For now, the best way to find old blog posts is through this blog. Old comments will not be able to be transferred to our new blog. If you would like to resubmit old comments, they will be approved and published shortly.

There are some slight design changes to our site at pogo.org, which means we have had to change the layout of this blog to a simpler design.

Thank you for your patience while we work through this transition. We are excited about our new changes, and we hope they will provide you with better access to all of POGO's content.

President Opposes Nuke Facility, Threatens to Veto Defense Bill

The President said he will veto the National Defense Authorization Act as it is currently written because it includes, among other things, funding for a costly nuclear weapons facility, according to a statement the White House released yesterday.

The Administration “strongly objects” to efforts to construct the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility (CMRR) in 2013, according to the President.

“The Departments of Defense and Energy agree that, in light of today's fiscal environment, CMRR can be deferred for at least five years, and funds reallocated to support higher priority nuclear weapons goals,” the President wrote.

The November 29 statement echoes the President’s latest budget request, which proposed delaying construction of the nearly $6-billion facility and using existing facilities to fulfill its missions. The CMRR-NF would produce and store plutonium pits, a primary component of nuclear weapons.

DoD Contractors Cost Nearly 3 Times More than DoD Civilians

See the inforgraphic below for all the data

Last month, the Project On Government Oversight sent a letter to government officials poking holes in the Department of Defense’s (DoD) claims that it utilizes a cost-effective workforce, and that congressional prohibitions have prevented it from implementing greater cost efficiencies. DoD’s own documents prove otherwise and support POGO’s 2011 finding that, on average, the federal government is wasting money by hiring service contractors.

POGO’s review of DoD service contracting budget and spending data found that contractor employees cost 2.94 times more than an average DoD civilian employee performing the same job. In fact, although the number of employees in both workforces is relatively balanced, spending on the workforces is not: DoD service contracts cost $253.8 billion and DoD’s civilian workforce cost $72 billion (base) or $108 (base plus overhead) in FY 2010.

Comparison of contractors to military personnel results in similar ratios, although this comparison is complicated by such cost considerations as pay, housing, subsistence, change-of-station expenses, education assistance, veteran’s benefits, tax advantages, and non-monetary benefits to military members

Video: Freeman on the Revolving Generals

By ANDRE FRANCISCO

What do top U.S. generals do after they retire from the military? Maybe relax on a golf course somewhere after decades of service? Some may, but 70 percent of three and four star generals go to work for defense contractors or consulting firms after them leave the military, according to a new report from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

This is hard evidence of the revolving door in Washington between public agencies and private companies that do business with the government. Project On Government Oversight investigator Ben Freeman went on HuffPost Live yesterday to discuss this revolving door with John Amick and Michael Hastings. Watch the full video above.

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

Follow @andrefrancisco

EPA Sends a Message With BP Suspension

The federal contracting community is abuzz today with the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) announcement that energy company BP P.L.C. and several of its affiliates have been suspended from federal contracting.

The EPA justified its action citing BP’s “lack of business integrity” as demonstrated by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. That one incident killed 11 people and caused a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, for which BP recently pleaded guilty to 14 criminal counts and agreed to pay more than $4.5 billion in penalties. BP still faces civil lawsuits filed by the federal and state governments.

The suspension prevents BP from getting new contracts. It does not affect BP’s existing federal contracts, a point BP makes abundantly clear in its public statement today. The suspension will be lifted when BP can show the EPA that it is responsible and meets federal business standards. In the meantime, the Department of Interior has also disqualified BP from winning new leases to drill for oil or gas on federal land.

KBR November Litigation Round-Up

By NEIL GORDON

November has been a very bad month for defense contractor KBR.

KBR is the federal government’s primary logistics support contractor in Iraq, receiving tens of billions of dollars in business from the Department of Defense over the last decade, much of that under the U.S. Army’s monopolistic Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP) III contract.

In early November, an Oregon federal jury returned an $85.2 million verdict against KBR for exposing military personnel to toxic chemicals at an Iraqi water treatment facility in 2003. The jury found that KBR had “acted with reckless and outrageous indifference to a highly unreasonable risk of harm and conscious indifference to the health, safety, and welfare” of the plaintiffs. A case raising similar claims is pending in KBR’s hometown of Houston, Texas, and will soon go to trial.

Star Creeps: Petraeus & the Price of the Top-Heavy Pentagon

Gen. David Petraeus

In addition to extramarital affairs and “flirtatious e-mails,” the General Petraeus sex scandal highlighted another of the Pentagon’s dirty little secrets – generals live like billionaires, and taxpayers are footing the bill.

As the Washington Post reported on Saturday, these perks “befitting a billionaire,” include, “palatial homes, drivers, security guards and aides to carry their bags, press their uniforms and track their schedules in 10-minute increments. Their food is prepared by gourmet chefs. If they want music with their dinner parties, their staff can summon a string quartet or a choir.”

Lavish perks bestowed to generals increase with higher ranks, as Raymond Dubois, former DoD director of Administration and Management from 2002 to 2005, told Air Force Times. “A four-star has an airplane. A three-star often doesn’t…Can a three-star get an airplane when he needs it? Not always. Does a four-star get an airplane when he needs it? Always. Many times he’ll already have a G5 sitting on the runway, gassed up. There are the kinds of costs that are fairly significant when you add them all up,” according to Dubois.

Taxpayers are paying for this largesse, and they keep paying long after the generals retire—even if they are receiving other salaries and benefits.

General Petraeus, for example, will reportedly receive a $220,000 annual pension for the rest of his life. Petraeus is reaping the benefits of a 2007 provision that dramatically increased the pensions of top generals and admirals, but not the lower ranking soldiers they command. The Pentagon’s press office told POGO, for the average three-star general or admiral that retires from the military, “the annual difference in retired pay between the old and new criteria is about $39,900,” per year.

Wyden Pumps the Brakes on Anti-Leaks Legislation

By SUZIE DERSHOWITZ and ANGELA CANTERBURY

Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) is holding firm on free speech rights. Last week, the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 (S. 3454) was “hotlined”—the first step in clearing a bill for unanimous consent in the Senate. Usually, if there are no objections to the hotlined bill within a given amount of time, and leadership agrees, it is passed. But Wyden put the brakes on this legislation due to his concerns about the bill’s so-called anti-leak provisions.

Many of the provisions in Title V of the bill would reduce access to information the public has a right to know, put whistleblowers in jeopardy, and threaten government accountability. Thanks to Wyden’s objection, the Senate was unable to fast-track this far-reaching bill. In June, the Project On Government Oversight and more than 25 of our allies sent a letter to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees objecting to the bill’s anti-speech provisions, which diminish government transparency and jeopardize whistleblowers’ rights. The letter states:

While we recognize that leaks of appropriately and properly classified information are a serious problem, the American public requires access to some information about government conduct in order to foster an informed and meaningful national discussion, particularly about such issues as the use of drones to kill American citizens and other persons.

POGO and our allies in the government accountability community are currently organizing another letter thanking Senate leadership for delaying action on the bill until these concerns can be fully addressed. Any legislation intended to stop leaks of classified information should be carefully considered through an open process that provides ample opportunity for engaging in debate.

Stop U.S. Involvement in Human Trafficking

By ANDRE FRANCISCO

Twenty million—that’s about how many men, women and children are victims of human trafficking around the world. But what you probably didn’t know is that your U.S. tax dollars are supporting human trafficking on U.S. military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, where thousands of foreign nationals working for U.S. government contractors and subcontractors are victims of human traffickers.

We need you to urge your Members of Congress to include strong anti-trafficking enforcements in the final version of the National Defense Authorization Act that is sent to the President’s desk for signature so exisiting laws have enough teeth to make them effective. 

Help us end U.S.-supported human trafficking so not another cent of your tax dollars go to funding modern-day slavery.

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

Follow @andrefrancisco

ABC News: Paula Broadwell's Gun Commercial Raises Ethical Concerns

Watch More News Videos at ABC | 2012 Presidential Election | Entertainment & Celebrity News

By ANDRE FRANCISCO

Paula Broadwell, General David Petraeus' mistress, may have used her ties to Petraeus to promote a new lightweight machine gun for a defense contractor.

Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project On Government Oversight, said political influence should have no place in federal contracting.

"It's an uneven playing field. That is not how a contract should be decided," Brian said.

Watch the video above to see the ABC News story. Read the report at ABC News.

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

Follow @andrefrancisco

Coburn: Cut Wasteful Spending at the "Department of Everything"

By BEN FREEMAN

As fears of the impending “fiscal cliff” continue to mount, at least one Member of Congress is laying out proposals for cutting wasteful spending at the Pentagon, or, as Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) refers to it, the “Department of Everything.”

A new report released today by Coburn finds that the DoD could save $67.9 billion over ten years by making specific cuts to what he describes as “non-defense” defense spending.

The report targets “five areas of the Pentagon budget that have little to do with national security where taxpayer dollars could be saved and deficits reduced without impacting our national security.”

Not everyone may agree with everything Coburn recommends should be cut, but there are certainly some doozies in the report, including:

• An app that lets you know when it’s time for a coffee break.
• Research which found that “Fish could show the nation how to overcome political polarization and promote democracy.”
• $1.5 million for a Pentagon project “to develop its own brand of jerky treats that are the bomb!”

Congress Sends Whistleblower Reform to the President's Desk!

Congress finally enacted much-needed upgrades to whistleblower protections for federal employees. The Project On Government Oversight is ecstatic to report that yesterday the Senate unanimously passed the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA, S. 743, as amended by the House). At long last, this important legislation is on its way to the President’s desk for signature.

POGO has been advocating for the critical reforms included in this bill for more than a decade. The WPEA will ensure protection for legitimate disclosures of wrongdoing, increase government accountability to taxpayers, and save billions of taxpayer dollars by helping to shed light on waste, fraud, abuse, and illegality. This is a real victory for whistleblowers and taxpayers.

The WPEA closes arbitrary, judicially created loopholes and restores free speech rights. It expands coverage to a wider universe of government workers (including federal scientists and Transportation Security Administration officers). The new law also strengthens due process rights, ensuring fair judicial processes and practices. It provides compensatory damages for prevailing whistleblowers, incentivizing individuals to come forward. The WPEA also requires Inspector General Offices to designate Whistleblower Protection Ombudsmen to educate agency staff about whistleblower rights. Click here for more details on the reforms passed.

Our Nuclear Insecurity Complex

Back in July, an 82-year-old nun and two fellow peace activists breached the security at the Y-12 nuclear weapons facility in Tennessee. The red-faced federal officials who subsequently promised thorough oversight proclaimed they had "no tolerance" for that kind of negligence.

Since then, it's only gotten worse for the Department of Energy and its National Nuclear Security Administration — the semiautonomous agency in charge of securing nuclear materials at our national laboratories and weapons production facilities.

An inspector general's report found that a Y-12 security contractor got caught cheating just before a security performance evaluation administered after the break-in. Then last month, Nuclear Weapons and Materials Monitor and the Albuquerque Journal reported that a new and expensive security system at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is so botched it may require Congress to rescue it with up to $41 million in emergency funding.

The federal government did go ahead and fire that Y-12 security contractor, Wackenhut Oak Ridge. But that doesn't address its role in loosening oversight of the contractors who run our nuclear facilities. The hands-off approach to contractors championed by Energy Secretary Stephen Chu is one of the reasons why we're facing a security crisis in our nuclear weapons complex.