American Oversight

News Roundup: Rising Coronavirus Fears and Sinking Public Trust Administration for Children and Families, Agency for International Development, Briscoe County – Texas, Bureau of Land Management, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services, Cobb County – Georgia, Criminal Division, Customs and Border Protection, Department of Commerce, Department of Defense, Department […]

News Roundup: Rising Coronavirus Fears and Sinking Public Trust Administration for Children and Families, Agency for International Development, Briscoe County – Texas, Bureau of Land Management, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services, Cobb County – Georgia, Criminal Division, Customs and Border Protection, Department of Commerce, Department of Defense, Department […]

Every week seems to bring a new example of President Donald Trump’s disdain — or fear — of independent oversight. He has fired agency watchdogs, rebuffed congressional requests, and is obsessed with political loyalty and his own electoral prospects. His latest move, announced late last Friday, was to replace the inspector general at the Department […]

News Roundup: Rising Coronavirus Fears and Sinking Public Trust Administration for Children and Families, Agency for International Development, Briscoe County – Texas, Bureau of Land Management, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services, Cobb County – Georgia, Criminal Division, Customs and Border Protection, Department of Commerce, Department of Defense, Department […]

Like many things in today’s politics, mail-in voting has become a political flashpoint as the November election looms larger. It doesn’t matter that voter fraud is just as rare through the mail, or that, as the election looks to take place during a probable resurgence of the coronavirus, a new poll found that most Americans […]

Not even the coronavirus pandemic has prevented the Trump administration from continuing to roll back gender protections in health care. Last week, Politico reported that the Department of Health and Human Services is gearing up to release a final rule revising a key nondiscrimination regulation. American Oversight recently published the calendars of key officials involved […]

President Donald Trump has seemingly failed to learn that no amount of political spin can minimize his administration’s mismanaged pandemic response. Nor can the promotion of miracle cures that have not been proven effective erase the costly failure to institute early testing for the novel coronavirus. On Thursday, American Oversight filed two new lawsuits against […]

On Thursday, American Oversight filed two lawsuits against the Trump administration for failing to release records related to its response to the coronavirus pandemic. The lawsuits seek records of White House efforts to control public information about the pandemic as well as emails of senior health officials concerning coronavirus testing.  These are the second and […]

By HART W. WOOD American Oversight’s investigation into the president’s influence over a multibillion-dollar government project has been met with delaying tactics, inadequate searches, and unjustified document withholding. But two recent federal court decisions have ruled that federal agencies cannot continue to stonewall and avoid transparency. The decisions are the first in a series of […]

Who stands to gain? That question is at the core of so many investigations into corruption and misconduct in the Trump administration, from agency officials’ industry ties to the president’s own financial conflicts. And as the administration’s tragically mismanaged response to the coronavirus outbreak continues to lurch onward, the answers to that question are more […]

Publish Date: April 13, 2020 The Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus and the crisis overwhelming state health-care systems has created a situation ripe for abuse. On Monday, American Oversight joined other watchdog groups in issuing a number of recommendations for greater transparency about what resources have been provided to each state and what criteria […]

News Roundup: Rising Coronavirus Fears and Sinking Public Trust Administration for Children and Families, Agency for International Development, Briscoe County – Texas, Bureau of Land Management, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services, Cobb County – Georgia, Criminal Division, Customs and Border Protection, Department of Commerce, Department of Defense, Department […]

As the nation battles the coronavirus pandemic, President Donald Trump is apparently counting on the public to be too distracted to pay much attention to his continuing dictator-like purges of government officials and his brazen rejection of oversight.  First, Trump announced late last Friday that he would nominate White House lawyer Brian Miller to be […]

Last February, American Oversight reported that at least 14 federal agencies had created no official guidance for when employees should — or shouldn’t — spend taxpayer money at President Donald Trump’s properties. In the more than a year since, we have received multiple responses to additional requests that paint the same picture of ethical indifference. […]

According to President Donald Trump, the federal government is merely a “backup” for states wrestling with frightening shortages of medical equipment and protective gear. In fact, he contends, governors critical of the administration’s mismanaged response to the coronavirus pandemic are just “complainers” with “insatiable appetites.”  Of course, it shouldn’t be surprising that the president, who […]

New emails obtained and released by American Oversight and others show senior federal health officials were increasingly alarmed about the rapidly spreading coronavirus in late February and early March — even as President Donald Trump and other top administration officials were publicly downplaying the threat and spreading false information. Among the records released by King […]

By KHAHILIA SHAW, CHRISTINE MONAHAN and AMANDA TEUSCHER This op-ed was originally published at the American Constitution Society’s Expert Forum blog. During a public health emergency such as the coronavirus pandemic, information about the government’s actions isn’t just necessary to maintain a functioning democracy — it also saves lives. But as the nation learns more […]

During ordinary times, government transparency is what maintains a functioning democracy. But during a public health emergency like the coronavirus outbreak, it can also save lives. As both the federal and state governments take extraordinary steps and exercise broad power in response to the coronavirus, holding officials accountable for their decisions is vital — especially […]

As the calendar advances through the primary season toward the November elections and beyond, American Oversight today announced that it is expanding its state-level investigation of threats to democracy to include actions in Wisconsin and New Hampshire. In 2019, we launched our State Accountability Project in Florida, Georgia, and Texas, to bring its extensive open […]

President Donald Trump has demonstrated over the past month how much higher of a value he places on the stock market and his poll numbers than on the lives of his fellow Americans. In fact, his entire presidency has provided example after example of his own financial enrichment and political interests superseding the public good […]