The F-35 program is nearly a decade behind schedule, has failed to meet many of its original requirements and become the most expensive defense program in world history--around $1.5 trillion before its 2070 phase-out. The cost per plane, above $100 million, is twice what was promised. And yet, the U.S. is still throwing money at it, arguing that just because taxpayers have flushed more than $100 billion down the proverbial toilet, we must continue to throw billions more down that same toilet.   read more

Once the Senate confirms President Trump's board nominees, Republicans will control it for the first time since 2007. The likely candidates suggest the board will be much friendlier to business interests under the Trump administration and will probably overturn many Obama-era precedents that favored unions. But it could go further and roll back pro-union decisions dating back decades. This could be devastating to unions and nothing short of the end of the labor movement could be at stake.   read more

At OPM, Nesterczuk once worked to implement NSPS, a Heritage Foundation-inspired pay-for-performance system making it easier to install political appointees to civil service jobs and circumvent union protections. The president of the National Federation of Federal Employees now says of Nesterczuk: “I sincerely hope [his] nomination [to lead OPM]...is not the start of NSPS 2.0, although I fear it might be. ...I think it’s safe to say we are likely to have some philosophical differences with him.”   read more

Kangas worked for the State of Michigan for over 20 years in different positions, including 9 years as a combat medic in the Michigan Army National Guard; service as Trauma Coordinator, where he led efforts to create Michigan’s first statewide all-inclusive trauma system; and as Regional Healthcare Administrator for the Michigan Department of Corrections. He also served a one year stint in Iraq as an advisor to a Provisional Reconstruction Team for the State Department in 2007-2008.   read more

Nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2015, Lee--a first-generation Chinese-American, engineer and attorney--became the first woman to be USPTO director. But she was in something of a limbo after Donald Trump was inaugurated as president. It took a Freedom of Information Act request to confirm in March 2017 that she still was in charge of the USPTO. She abruptly resigned her post on June 6, 2017.   read more

Beginning in 1994, Posset served as head of the ceremonial service in Benin's State Protocol Directorate, coordinating all of the official ceremonies of the president and was named the president’s head of protocol in 1996. The next year, he was made first counselor in Benin’s embassy in Ghana. When he went to Washington in June 2011, in addition to his other duties, Posset was Benin’s representative to the Organization of American States, where it has observer status.   read more

President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris climate accord claiming the pact would prevent our nation from further developing its fossil fuel reserves. Yet tens of thousands of Americans die annually from air pollution generated by burning of fossil fuels. Between 7,500 and 52,000 Americans meet early deaths due to power plant emissions. That’s huge. An analysis of switching from coal to natural gas found it would save tens of thousands of lives and tens of billions of dollars each year.   read more

Citing “great concern” about the North Korean missile threat, the Missile Defense Agency asked the House Armed Services Committee Wednesday to approve its $7.9-billion budget request. It includes $1.5 billion for the $40-billion ground-based defense system that successfully destroyed a mock ICBM above the Pacific Ocean last week. Despite the program's 40% success rate, agency director Syring said the test showed the American people "that we can defend them 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”   read more

MacDougall has a history of being overwhelmingly pro-employer in disputes with workers. Fresh out of law school, she went to work for Krukowski & Associates (now Ogletree Deakins), a “boutique” law firm representing employers against workers. She later was a partner at Baker & Daniels (now Faegre Baker Daniels), which also represented employers against workers. Relocating to Florida, MacDougall practiced pro-employer labor law as an of counsel at Ford & Harrison in Melbourne from 2011 to 2012   read more

Redl spent the first five years of his career working for CTIA, the leading lobbying group for major telecom companies. In 2011, he left CTIA to work as Republican counsel for the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. In 2013, he became chief counsel for the newly created Subcommittee on Communications and Technology. Redl is a member of the Federalist Society, an ultra-conservative, neoliberal association of lawyers founded by prominent Republican politicians, lawyers, judges, and academics.   read more

In 2014, Khalid flew Royal Saudi Air Force missions against ISIS targets and in Saudi Arabia’s ongoing war in Yemen before an injured back took him out of the cockpit. He then worked as an adviser to the Ministry of Defense before leaving for Washington in 2016. Khalid is a full brother to Mohammed bin Salman, his nation’s minister of defense. Khalid’s appointment is seen as a way of establishing a high-level personal relationship between the Saudi ruler and President Trump.   read more

In 2006, Kmoníček was appointed ambassador to India. Among his many responsibilities was helping a Czech scientist who had been arrested by Indian officials for illegally collecting rare beetles. The scientist later discovered a beetle in China, which he named Anthaxia Kmoníček--for Kmoníček. Kmoníček has predicted that “Donald Trump’s administration will be a combination of the aggressive isolationism of Andrew Jackson together with the strategy of Richard Nixon minus Kissinger.”   read more

Zulhasnan became Federal Territories minister in 2006 after his predecessor was convicted of corruption charges. When a top Malaysian official, en route to address the UN General Assembly, was forced at L.A. Airport security to remove his shoes and belt, Zulhasnan demanded that U.S. government officials be subjected to the same treatment when they traveled to Malaysia. Later, Zulhasnan became executive director of a company specializing in property development and the production of palm oil.   read more

President Kennedy famously said “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” This was a rallying cry for over a million Americans to serve, and contributed to creation of services like Peace Corps. Today, President Trump proposes getting government out of the business of national service. Yet in today's divided nation, new research demonstrates that national service programs can bring people together.   read more

As Foreign Ministry spokesperson in 2013, Chaudhry found himself in an awkward position when secret documents were published showing that the Pakistani government had cooperated with the CIA’s drone bombing program inside Pakistan’s borders. Chaudhry was left to explain that even if this was true, the current government, installed four months earlier, would not continue the complicity, stating “We regard such strikes as a violation of our sovereignty as well as international law."   read more

Bakradze was named ambassador to Greece in 2012. He returned home in 2014 to become state minister on European and Euro-Atlantic Integration. Early in his short tenure as ambassador to Greece, Bakradze, along with five other ambassadors, has requested U.S. help in stopping Russian interference in the countries’ internal affairs. Bakradze cited Russian broadcasts into Georgia, a former Soviet republic, urging its citizens to oppose Georgia becoming a member of NATO.   read more