govtoversight-blog

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Spending $1 TRILLION on #nuclear #weapons is insane! Stop the nuke #budget madness! http://thndr.it/1Dss4SF

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It's what we do. It's who we are.

http://www.pogo.org

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The military is returning 15 bases and facilities back to their host nations.

Closing 15 bases in Europe will save the Pentagon $500 million a year. We hope the Pentagon will continue to look for ways to save money by reevaluating its infrastructure.

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High Airfare

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New Mexico officials issued fines Saturday of $54 million against two contractors for errors in handling nuclear waste that led to a shutdown earlier this year of the nation's only operating dump for nuclear weapons waste.

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“They’re likely being hired for their contacts and their knowledge of process, rather than just their policy expertise.”

- Professor Tim LaPira, on why members of Congress get hired for lobbying jobs. It isn’t about policy. (The Hill)

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Sens. Patrick Leahy and John Cornyn say the plan "should raise great concern.”

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Gary D. Bass, Danielle Brian, and Ambassador Norman Eisen counter the notion that transparency and open government efforts impede governing. Bass, Brian, and Eisen respond to the critics of transparent government and disabuse advocates for a return to behind-closed-doors deal-making and smoke-filled rooms far from the public’s view.

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"A little-known provision of the Patriot Act, overlooked by lawmakers and administration officials alike, appears to give President Obama a possible way to keep the National Security Agency’s bulk phone records program going indefinitely — even if Congress allows the law on which it is based to expire next year."

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A plan to revamp the way the federal government purchases some $80 billion in information technology products every year looks as though it might finally make it to the president’s desk.

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An audit by the State Department’s Inspector General found lapses in the Department’s oversight of a contract with Aegis Defense Services for protection of the U.S. embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan.

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Second Open Government National Action Plan

The Open Government Partnership, launched in the summer of 2011 can trace its roots to President Obama’s challenge to the members of the United Nations General Assembly in September of 2010—a challenge to work together to make all governments more transparent, collaborative, and participatory.  

The United States issued its first Open Government National Action Plan in September of 2011 and the National Archives participated in the process.  In December of 2013, the White House issued the Second Open Government National Action Plan, committing to work with the public and civil society organizations to implement initiatives to increase public integrity, to manage resources more effectively, and to improve public services.

I’m pleased (and proud) to report that five of the ten action items addressing public integrity have the National Archives written all over them!

Read the full post on the AOTUS blog.

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SEAL Team 6 veterans Matt Bissonnette and the SEAL known as the “Shooter” are facing a backlash from the military over going public with their accounts about the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, but former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is reportedly receiving lighter treatment when it comes to his own memoir.

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No, retiring the tried-and-true attack jet is not the key to acquiring new stealth fighters

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Meet Alayne Fleischmann, the woman JPMorgan Chase paid one of the largest fines in American history to keep from talking.

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The head of naval intelligence has not been able to view classified information for an entire year.

"If classified information is being discussed at a meeting, the director of naval intelligence has to leave the room.

If Branch drops by a subordinate’s office, the space must be sanitized of any secrets before he enters."

Read more.

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Tents, tanks, toilets—everything must go. In Afghanistan, the U.S. is winding down its longest war. This summer, when local temperatures soared past 100 degrees, the Pulitzer Center’s multimedia coordinator Meghan Dhaliwal accompanied Milwaukee Journal Sentinel staffer Meg Jones to Afghanistan to document the dismantling of the U.S. war-fighting infrastructure. Their stories and photos ran in the Journal Sentinel and on Foreign Policy’s website.  

“Some equipment will be given to Afghan security forces; building materials like plywood will be offered to Afghan civilians. Items that have outlived their usefulness or are so degraded that they’re worthless will be destroyed,” writes Meg.

“And a lot of equipment will return to the United States, including mine-resistant ambush-protected (MRAP) combat trucks, which will be given to law enforcement agencies in the United States under a Defense Department program that has caused controversy recently following the protests in Ferguson, Missouri, as some question why communities need to arm their police departments with such massive firepower.”