Ordering $1.5 trillion stakes, the Pentagon passes you the bill |
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(Illustration: Luna Velez / POGO) |
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth returned to Congress this week and immediately faced a bipartisan barrage of pointed questions about the Pentagon’s funding request and the illegal war in Iran. At center stage was the Pentagon’s proposed $1.5 trillion budget — a record-breaking sum that, if approved, not only promises to become a boondoggle of wasteful spending that doesn’t make us safer, but also punts critical expenditures to a broken reconciliation process, a particular point of contention for some Republican lawmakers. Hegseth failed to provide the details that would justify such a massive budget increase for the world’s most heavily funded military. “One would think that such a massive bump in spending would be accompanied by a detailed plan on exactly what this money would be used for, and a robust debate on how it will achieve our national priorities,” wrote Greg Williams, the director of POGO’s Center for Defense Information, for Federal News Network. You deserve to know why, where, and how your taxpayer dollars are spent on our nation’s defense. We will continue pressing members of Congress to wield their power of the purse responsibly and demand a more accountable Pentagon. |
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EXTREME DOME MAKEOVER: On Tuesday, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) produced a sobering report on the projected price tag for the “Golden Dome for America” — a missile defense system President Trump wanted “fully operational” by the end of his term. The president’s promise of a $175 billion Golden Dome is beset by a problem: The CBO estimates it would actually cost $1.2 trillion. This report should represent a dire warning, and a chance for Congress and oversight authorities to put accountability measures in place before your taxpayer money is mired in yet another high-cost and troubled weapons program. CONTRACTOR MONEY IN THEIR POCKETS, TAXPAYER MONEY OUT: A report from NOTUS reveals that 11 major defense contractors contributed nearly $5 million to members of Congress through PACs and other channels — and that’s just from January 1 to March 31. The money is flowing to members of both parties on influential defense subcommittees amidst pending legislation that would bolster and deregulate the defense industrial base under the guise of helping the economy. But as POGO’s Greg Williams told Military Times, “a dollar [spent on] defense creates far fewer jobs than dollars spent otherwise. And so the idea that you’re supporting the economy by supporting the defense manufacturing base … just doesn’t hold water.”
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The Pentagon’s shameless plea for Congress to empty its coffers to fund a department hellbent on undercutting its authority has also put the price of the illegal war in Iran under the microscope. In Tuesday’s testimonies, Pentagon Comptroller Jules Hurst III estimated the war had cost the U.S. $29 billion thus far — a low-ball calculation being contradicted even by officials on the inside. Until more detailed answers are given, any request for more money is untenable. |
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PLAYING WAR GAMES WITH WAR NAMES: The administration has apparently found a new solution to the war with Iran exceeding the 60-day limit established in federal law: renaming the military operation and claiming it’s new. The ploy follows Hegseth’s erroneous claim that the ceasefire stopped the War Power Resolution’s 60-day clock and his even more recent claim that President Trump “would have all of the authorities necessary” to restart strikes on Iran if he so pleases. Both of these statements are blatantly wrong and illustrate the executive branch’s disregard for Congress’s war powers and the Constitution. Congress must intervene — now. TARGETING DISSIDENTS: Hegseth has once again threatened Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) with Pentagon review and retribution. First, it was because Senator Kelly joined a contingent of Congress members who correctly pointed out that service members have a right and duty to refuse illegal orders. Now, Senator Kelly has drawn Hegseth’s ire for talking about weapons stockpiles on television, with the defense secretary claiming the interview betrayed information delivered at a classified briefing and the senator pointing out that the topic came up in public hearings.
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New ICE director enters through revolving door |
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(Illustration: Luna Velez / POGO; Photos: Getty Images) |
The White House has announced that David Venturella will serve as the next acting director of ICE. He is a familiar figure at POGO, and he arrives at ICE’s top job through a well-oiled revolving door. As recently as 2023, Venturella worked as a high-ranking executive at GEO Group, which runs facilities that hold approximately one-third of people detained by ICE. He subsequently led the ICE division that manages detention contracts — an apparent conflict of interest. Venturella was on POGO’s radar in 2018, when he used GEO Group funds at a luxury Trump hotel as he simultaneously lobbied for lucrative ICE contracts. And as POGO Investigates’ Nick Schwellenbach points out, that’s not the only time he warranted scrutiny. Even if the Senate hasn’t confirmed an ICE director in 12 years, we urge Congress to scrutinize this appointment, and revolving doors across the federal government. |
- ICE KEEPING EYES ON YOU: In the latest development of a mass surveillance initiative at DHS, ICE will be receiving more than 1,500 real-time eye-scanning devices connected to a database of “1.5 million unique individuals,” according to a sole-source contract reviewed by Project Salt Box.
- Mass Deportation Will Rely on Authoritarian Surveillance, from POGO’s Don Bell.
- ICE IN THE COURTS: A POLITICO analysis found that of the 11,600 court rulings in legal challenges brought by ICE detainees, judges have ruled against ICE more than 10,000 times. The report highlights a shocking level of illegality undergirding ICE operations across the country and underscores our position that the agency is out of control, overfunded, and lacking in oversight.
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Major progress toward reining in prediction market corruption |
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After the Senate moved to ban prediction market betting by senators and their staffs in April, the House has taken promising steps to do the same. On Monday, several House members formally requested an investigation into evidence of corruption and insider trading on prediction markets by government officials. Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight James Comer (R-KY) has since affirmed insider trading on prediction markets as “unethical” and vowed to pursue requesting information to uncover any undue activity by officials. On the same day, a bipartisan group of representatives signed a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson urging for House rule changes “to include a clear, enforceable ban on Members, their families, and staff trading in individual stocks and in prediction markets.” You deserve to know that decisions, votes, and closed-door discussions by your members of Congress are not influenced by the ability to turn a profit. For that reason, we celebrate these steps in the right direction. We are simultaneously urging House leadership to follow through on actions to regulate themselves, to work toward substantial legislation that limits all government officials’ use of prediction markets, and to better regulate this industry as it incentivizes insider trading behavior. |
- IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: POGO Policy Associate Janice Luong offers key ways Congress can prevent corruption and potential insider training enabled by prediction markets.
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