About
All Americans deserve a government that is effective, ethical, responsive, accountable, and transparent.
The Oversight Summit is being held after Americans cast their ballots in this November, because this is about getting answers to questions that anyone from any party can ask—and everyone, regardless of political party, should want to know.
Practitioners of government oversight, from across sectors and from every point on the political spectrum, will come together for this day long summit to talk about the challenges they face and the opportunities they have discovered in conducting effective government oversight, and to chart a path forward for working together.
Engage Events
Check back for upcoming Community: Engage events, or watch past events below:
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3:30 p.m. ET
Oversight of Federal Support for State and Local Law Enforcement
Experts discuss major federal grant and equipment transfer programs which benefit non-federal law enforcement, and explain how to obtain information on what particular local agencies have received from them.
Presenters:
Billy Easley II – Senior Policy Analyst at Americans for Prosperity.
A former aide to Sen. Rand Paul, Billy discusses DOJ’s Byrne JAG program, which sends over $250 million to local agencies annually for equipment, technology and more.
Emily Manna – Policy Director for Open the Government.
Emily recently completed a report on DHS-funded state and local fusion centers. Emily discusses DHS’s Preparedness Grant programs, which sends over $1 billion to local agencies.
Wayne McElrath – Senior Investigative Adviser at POGO.
Formerly GAO’s Director of Forensic Investigations, Wayne discusses the Department of Defense’s 1033 program, which transferred nearly $300 million in surplus DoD equipment. Wayne was co-lead on GAO’s 2017 investigation into the 1033 program.
The session was moderated by Justin Rood, director of POGO’s Congressional Oversight Initiative.
Presented by
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3:30pm ET
Oversight of State and Local Law Enforcement Conduct & Policies
In this session, experts discussed what policies, records and other information are useful in understanding conduct—and misconduct—within state and local law enforcement. Presenters explained how to obtain that information and documentation, through formal requests and open-source research.
Presenters:
Beryl Lipton – Senior Reporter, MuckRock, and self-described “Queen of the FOIA Freaks.” MuckRock is a collaborative non-profit news site that makes government more transparent by bringing together journalists, researchers and others to request and share official documents.
Freddy Martinez – Policy Analyst, Open the Government. Freddy is an activist, security engineer, and was previously a physicist. Prior to joining OTG, Freddy was the executive director of Lucy Parsons Labs, a Chicago-based police accountability non-profit.
The session was moderated by Justin Rood, director of POGO’s Congressional Oversight Initiative.
Presented by
Partners
We are proud to partner with these organizations:
We develop comprehensive strategies for government, private sector, and civil society to defend
CLC is adamantly nonpartisan, holding candidates and government officials accountable regardless of
Demand Progress and our more than two million members seek to protect the democratic character of
Levin Center at Wayne Law educates future attorneys, business leaders, legislators and public
The Lugar Center is a platform for an informed debate on global issues.
OTI works at the intersection of technology and policy to ensure that every community has equitable
We lead proactive efforts to make the federal government more effective.
Protect Democracy is a nonpartisan nonprofit with an urgent mission: to prevent our democracy from
R Street Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, public policy research organization.
The Sunlight Foundation is a national, nonpartisan nonprofit organization that advocates for open
TechCongress gives talented technologists the opportunity to gain first-hand experience in federal
The Summit is made possible with support from:
