Dangers to civil liberties

 

Last month, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced that it would require Americans to use face recognition software to access their tax records online. Given that such a requirement would create significant privacy concerns, POGO sent a letter to the IRS urging the agency to cease deployment of face recognition technology until it can solicit input from civil liberties and technology experts. Face recognition systems are prone to error and are more likely to misidentify women and people of color. Additionally, ID.me, the IRS’s company of choice, has experienced serious problems with accuracy. Several lawmakers on both sides of the aisle also spoke out against the IRS’s plans. And on Monday, the agency announced it would shut down not only its plans to use ID.me, but its plans to use any facial recognition software altogether. This is a win for civil liberties; however, other agencies still use face recognition technology—including many law enforcement entities. That is especially concerning when the government’s use of face recognition for surveillance is bound by no federal rules or limits. We will have more to come on the government’s use of face recognition technology, but in the meantime, you can read our letter to the IRS here. Sarah Turberville Director of The Constitution Project Project On Government Oversight

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Lawmakers’ financial conflicts of interest

 

February 12, 2022

This week on Capitol Hill we saw more momentum behind legislation to limit the ability of members of Congress to own and trade stocks. POGO had already thrown its weight behind two bills, one introduced by Reps. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) and Chip Roy (R-TX) and another introduced by Sens. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and Mark Kelly (D-AZ). Both bills would ban stock trading for members of Congress and their spouses. As conversation grew about the need to reduce lawmakers’ financial conflicts of interest by limiting their stock ownership, more lawmakers came forward with proposals this week. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Steve Daines (R-MT), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) introduced legislation this week that would ban lawmakers and their spouses from owning individual stocks. This goes a bit further than the previous bills, which stop short of an outright ban on owning stocks. Crucially, leadership in Congress appears to be making this a priority. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) this week asked senators to produce a single bill to address stock trading and said he hoped the Senate would act on the matter soon. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said he was open to legislation on stock trading. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who previously opposed efforts to ban members from trading stocks, also came out this week in support of legislation to address congressional stock ownership. Now we’ll be working to ensure that a final bill includes the provisions needed to ensure lawmakers truly cannot trade stocks. INVESTIGATION Homeland Security’s Embattled Watchdog Faces Probe Homeland Security’s top watchdog, Joseph Cuffari, faces a previously undisclosed and escalating investigation into whether he illegally “retaliated” against his internal critics. Read More LETTER Coalition Calls for Transparency in DOT&E’s Annual Weapons Testing Report A broad coalition of organizations from across the ideological spectrum urges the Director of Operational Test & Evaluation to include all unclassified information in their public annual report. Read More QUOTE OF THE WEEK “When a tech like facial recognition doesn’t work, which it disproportionately doesn’t for women and people of color, then there’s a human cost, and that cost is augmented when these types of backup systems fail.” Jake Laperruque, Senior Policy Counsel, in the Verge OVERHEARD ONE LINERS “I’m glad this [push to ban insider trading] is happening. ... And if it’s happening because people see political opportunities and advantages of doing it, that’s OK as long as we end up with strong policy.” Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, Government Affairs Manager, in Business Insider   “We have a court that, by my assessment, is essentially comprised of too few people who hold too much power for too long. So reforms need to address those structural deficiencies.” Sarah Turberville, Director of The Constitution Project at POGO, on Wisconsin Public Radio   “Calculating the cost of an F-35 is always a bit of a challenge.” Dan Grazier, Jack Shanahan Military Fellow, in Vice   “I have a hard time justifying both the award and how Mr. Cruzan was going to be able to perform on this contract in an objective way due to the fact that he had been in offices that were involved with the BIA's detention centers.” Scott Amey, General Counsel and Executive Editorial Director, in NPR   “The biggest danger is that some senators opposed to meaningful reform will try to water down these bills.” Walt Shaub, Senior Ethics Fellow, in Business Insider

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This may have flown under your radar

 

February 7, 2022

Editor’s Note: We’re experiencing some technical difficulties, which forced us to postpone sending this newsletter until today. We’re sorry for the delay, and we hope to be back on our regular schedule later this week. We saw some great news last week that may have flown under your radar. A key Senate committee has now approved three nominees to the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), setting the nominees up for a vote in the full Senate. If all three are approved, the board will have a quorum for the first time in five years. The MSPB is an agency that helps manage government whistleblowers’ claims that they have been retaliated against. And without a quorum, the MSPB is unable to grant those whistleblowers temporary relief or a final judgement on their claims of retaliation. It currently has a backlog of around 3,600 cases. The board is finally very close to being able to function again and provide much needed aid for whistleblowers who have been retaliated against for telling the truth. We hope to have more updates soon on the full vote. ANALYSIS Disclosing Oversight Recommendations: How Are Agencies Doing? New POGO research shows few federal agencies are fully compliant with requirements to disclose recommendations they receive from key government oversight offices. Read More LETTER POGO Submits Second Comment on Creation of New Federal Beneficial Ownership Database If set up well, a beneficial ownership database will help law enforcement agencies prevent bad actors from abusing the U.S. financial system. Read More QUOTE OF THE WEEK “We’re in kind of a post-Watergate era right now in some ways and I think that’s exactly the time you want to do something like a reform of government ethics.” Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, Government Affairs Manager, in Government Executive WATCHLIST Policy Counsel Melissa Wasser explains why we should care about the movement at the MSPB. ONE LINERS “All of this is stuff that is so insane, any person who has no interest in any of this would clearly say this should be against the rules, but then the people who get in the position to change the rules have these conflicts and they have no interest in solving them.” Walt Shaub, Senior Ethics Fellow, in E&E News   “This kind of review should include looking at places where the Department is inappropriately captured by the defense industry, and these selections show an appalling lack of diversity in perspectives to meaningfully evaluate how these processes continue to result in runaway spending and less bang for the buck.” Mandy Smithberger, Former Director of the Center for Defense Information, in Defense News   “It’s deeply troubling that a Justice of the Supreme Court would participate in something that’s kind of shrouded in secrecy that way.” Sarah Turberville, Director of The Constitution Project at POGO, in Orlando Sentinel   “Even if [Sen. Pat Toomey] did nothing illegal, it just looks really sketchy and really corrupt.” Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, Government Affairs Manager, in the Philadelphia Inquirer

pogo.org The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is a nonpartisan independent watchdog that investigates and exposes waste, corruption, abuse of power, and when the government fails to serve the public or silences those who report wrongdoing. We champion reforms to achieve a more effective, ethical, and accountable federal government that safeguards constitutional principles.

Project On Government Oversight 1100 13th Street NW, Suite 800 Washington, DC 20005 United States

Too important to wave the white flag

 

We saw a setback on the voting rights front this week, with attempts to pass voting rights legislation and changes to the filibuster both failing in the Senate. But despite this obstacle, we will keep pushing reforms to protect Americans’ freedom to vote — this issue is too important to wave the white flag on. And we’re also turning our attention to an issue that’s seeing some exciting momentum in Congress: legislation that would reduce the financial conflicts of interest for federal legislators. Last week, Sens. John Ossoff (D-GA) and Mark Kelly (D-AZ) introduced a bill in the Senate that would require members of Congress and their families to place stocks into a blind trust. We’ve endorsed the bill, and the proposed rules have support across the political spectrum. The legislation also includes transparency requirements that would make it possible for the public and watchdogs like POGO to see if a lawmaker’s blind trust sells off a stock. This could also incentivize members to sell off stocks upon taking office, as POGO’s Walt Shaub explained on MSNBC recently. There’s a good chance this bill or another introduced by Reps. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) and Chip Roy (R-TX) in the House could advance through Congress quite soon, so we'll be working hard to see these measures through. TESTIMONY Watchdog Report Makes Case For Pentagon Reforms Industry-written laws have led to even more defense contractor rip-offs; it’s time to fix the rules. Read More ANALYSIS The Pentagon’s Revolving Door Keeps Spinning: 2021 in Review In 2021, at least 36 officials left the Pentagon to join private defense firms. Those firms received over $89 billion in contract obligations in 2021. Read More QUOTE OF THE WEEK “This [pandemic] is a huge event that is causing pain and disruption in everyone’s lives. And it looked like there were some members of Congress who had advance knowledge of how bad it was going to be, and tried to use that knowledge to make sure that they didn’t feel as much pain as the rest of us.” Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, Government Affairs Manager, in Voice of America OVERHEARD ONE LINERS “[Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm]’s saying that she only just learned of the transactions … so it’s possible the ethics officials took that statement at face value.” Walter Shaub, Senior Ethics Fellow, in Insider   “This is on the government. These [KN95 masks] are sitting in shrink wrapped boxes, on pallets ready to go and ready to be used and it is in the middle of a pandemic where the public needs them.” Scott Amey, General Counsel and Executive Editorial Director, in KGW   “Congress exempted itself from the conflict of interest statute that applies to the executive branch, so they have nothing pushing them to divest stocks or to stop trading on the information that they had.” Walter Shaub, Senior Ethics Fellow, on MSNBC   “A lot of these lenders, they’ve made almost pure profit off of this program by basically letting fraudsters have access to billions of dollars in loan money. ... They probably won’t be held accountable, and it’s the bigger crime here, even though it won’t probably lead to charges.” Nick Schwellenbach, Senior Investigator, in Atlanta Journal-Constitution

pogo.org The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is a nonpartisan independent watchdog that investigates and exposes waste, corruption, abuse of power, and when the government fails to serve the public or silences those who report wrongdoing. We champion reforms to achieve a more effective, ethical, and accountable federal government that safeguards constitutional principles.

Project On Government Oversight 1100 13th Street NW, Suite 800 Washington, DC 20005 United States