We are still raising concerns about wasteful Pentagon spending programs like the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, but are also now focusing on creating a more effective national security policy that protects our country and the service members fighting for it rather than one that lines the pockets of defense contractors. In 2012 we added the Center for Defense Information (CDI) to our ranks. This initiative’s goal isn’t to point fingers when Members of Congress fail to do their part, but to help provide resources, knowledge, and skills that congressional staff need to do their job more effectively. In 2006, we launched the Congressional Oversight Initiative (COI) when we realized Congress needed help to become more effective at conducting oversight of the executive branch and to exercise its role in our democracy’s system of checks and balances.

Throughout that time, POGO’s work has been applauded by Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle, federal workers and whistleblowers, other nonprofits, and the media, and we’ve continued to grow and add to our programs and staff in order to be even more effective. So we decided to expand our mission, and have been keeping a watchful eye over the entire federal government for 29 years. We realized fairly quickly that waste, fraud, corruption, and abuse of power wasn’t limited to the Pentagon but was a widespread problem across the federal government.

Government watchdog websites