2000-2009

Failures : Full List

• Consumers & Workers

  • Limited Ability To Block Dangerous Imports
  • FDA Enforcement Actions Way Down
  • USDA Challenged Over Meat Safety
  • Lack of Adequate Foreign Drug Oversight
  • Problems in Oversight of Food Safety
  • OSHA’s Laissez-Faire Attitude
  • FDA Failure To Ensure Drug Safety
  • Failure To Protect Consumers From Unsafe Products
  • Oversight Collapse Leads To Mine Safety Issues
  • Agricultural Quarantine Inspection Stumbles
  • Eroding Budget Erodes Consumer Safety
  • Lack of Quorum at the CPSC

• Contracting & Workforce

  • A Failure of Whistleblower Protection
  • Labor Relations Authority: Low Morale, Backlogged Cases
  • Contractors Failing Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan
  • Human Capital Issues Plague Government
  • Surge in Outsourcing Creates Problems in Performance, Oversight
  • Chronic Understaffing at the EEOC

• Education

  • No Child Left Behind: A Few Bumps in the Road
  • Reading First: Scandalous and Ineffective
  • Student Loan Scandal Costs Students

• Elections

  • Paralysis at the Federal Election Commission
  • “McCain-Feingold” Fails To Solve Campaign Finance Problem
  • Election Assistance Commission Has Not Met Mandates

• Emergency Management

  • Hurricanes Expose FEMA Woes
  • FEMA Trailers Filled With Formaldehyde
  • We Can’t Afford Another Flood
  • SBA Emergency Assistance Failed for Katrina
  • Flood “Protection” in New Orleans

• Energy

  • No Robust, Sustained Alternative Energy Policy
  • Foreign Oil Dependence Has Grown
  • Refinery Bottleneck Puts Squeeze on Gasoline Supply
  • Move to a 21st Century Electricity Grid Is Stalled

• Entitlements

  • Unsustainable Medicare Spending
  • Failure To Reform Social Security
  • Social Security Disability Backlogs

• Environment

  • Climate Change: Hide the Assessment
  • Failure To Advance Climate Change Policy
  • EPA Deprives Public of Information on Toxics
  • Science Policy Politicized
  • Politicization at Department of Interior
  • EPA Stalls on Perchlorate Regulation
  • Mountaintop Coal Mining Alters Appalachia
  • EPA and OMB Slow Toxic Chemical Risk Studies
  • Scandal, Incompetence at Minerals Management Service
  • EPA Misleads on Air Quality After 9/11 Attacks
  • EPA Ignores Advisers on Particulate Matter Standards
  • Everglade Restoration a Man-Made Disaster
  • Superfund Program Loses Funding, Momentum
  • Toxic Mercury From Coal Plants Unregulated
  • Nuclear Waste Problem Unsolved
  • EPA Fails To Put Children First
  • Failure To Launch: Satellite Delays
  • EPA’s Free Pass for Aging Power Plant Emissions

• Finance

  • Shaky Start for Troubled Asset Relief Program
  • Skyrocketing Deficit
  • Oversight Fails To Keep Pace With a Changed Market
  • Lax Oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
  • SEC Allows Investment Banks To Go Unregulated
  • More Corporations Pay Less in Taxes
  • Audit Rates of Rich Fall, Audits of Poor Spike
  • Lack of Regs Fueled Accounting Scandal
  • U.S. Companies Hiding Revenue Offshore
  • Mismanagement and Cronyism at HUD

• Health

  • Medicare Fraud Out of Control
  • 45 Million Americans Without Health Insurance

• Information Protection

  • Failures in Cybersecurity
  • Millions in Equipment Missing From Indian Health Service
  • An Epidemic of Missing Laptops

• Justice & Security

  • Too Close to the Edge on Torture
  • CIA Renditions Draw Controversy
  • Politicization of Department of Justice
  • Failure To Protect Sensitive Technology
  • Arbitrary Detention at Guantanamo
  • Osama bin Laden Still at Large
  • Lack of Progress on Immigration Reform
  • WMD Nonproliferation Needs More Attention
  • National Security Agency Mismanages Info Technology
  • $30 Billion Virtual Border Fence Faces Problems
  • First Responders Still Can’t Communicate
  • FBI Abuses Power To Request Personal Information
  • Agencies Failed To Share Intelligence on 9/11 Terrorists
  • Pakistan Remains an Al Qaeda Haven
  • FBI Failure To Create a Modern Computer Network
  • Nuclear Sites Lack Adequate Security
  • Losing the Battle for Hearts and Minds
  • DHS Still Getting Up to Speed
  • Terrorist Watch List Mismanaged
  • Poor Retention of Counterterrorism Staff
  • Inability To Track Foreign Visitors to U.S.
  • Lack of Due Process for Terrorism Suspects
  • FBI Struggles To Confront Multiple Threats
  • NORAD, FAA Unprepared for Aerial Attack
  • U.S. Guns Arming Mexican Drug Cartels

• Military

  • False Premise for Going to War
  • Abu Ghraib Prison Scandal
  • Mismanagement at National Reconnaissance Office
  • Poor Health Care for Veterans
  • Failure To Regulate Security Contractors
  • Pentagon Office’s Misleading Intelligence
  • Military Failure To Secure Iraq After Invasion
  • Lack of Armored Protection for Troops
  • Pentagon’s Slow Adaptation to a War-footing
  • Inadequate Planning for Post-Invasion Iraq
  • Failure To Secure Weapons in Iraq
  • Mismanagement of Major Weapons Acquisitions
  • Veteran Disability Claims Languish
  • Delay in Opening U.S. Embassy in Iraq
  • Air Force Failure To Maintain Nuclear Weapons Accountability
  • Taliban Resurgence in Afghanistan
  • 190,000 Missing Weapons in Iraq

• Other

  • NASA Inspector General Lack of Oversight
  • NASA’s Failure To Ensure Safety in Human Space Flight
  • Massive Backlog at Patent Office
  • Census 2010 Stumbles at the Starting Line
  • FCC Chairman Martin Under Fire

• Transportation

  • Failing To Modernize Air Traffic Control
  • Human Fatigue in Transport Accidents Still Unaddressed
  • Close Calls on the Runway
  • FAA in the Dark on Maintenance
  • Record Delays in Air Travel
  • FAA Inspectors Cozy Up to Airlines
  • Highway Funding Woes

• White House

  • Controversial Assertion of Executive Power
  • Excessive Executive Secrecy
  • Signing Statements Thwart Congressional Intent
  • Vice President’s Office Exempts Itself From Information Safeguards
  • Executive Office of the President “Loses” E-mails