National Legal and Policy Center - Government Integrity Project

Government Integrity Project

The Government Integrity Project exists to "'blow the whistle' on government officials and interest groups engaged in questionable activities". The project has raised questions about many individuals and organizations, often filing complaints against them with various government agencies and Congressional Ethics Committees.

Additionally, NLPC utilizes the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and the First Amendment as the basis for campaign finance reform.

NLPC is probably best known for exposing Boeing's tanker lease scandal. In 2003, NLPC upended the $30 billion plan for the Air Force to lease, rather than buy, 100 mid-air refueling aircraft. The lease-plan was killed, saving taxpayers at least $4 billion. NLPC unearthed evidence of cozy dealings between Darleen Druyun and Boeing. Druyun was the Air Force official who negotiated the deal and who went to work for Boeing shortly thereafter. In a Complaint to the Pentagon Inspector General, which resulted in a front-page Wall Street Journal story, NLPC detailed how the official sold her home to a Boeing executive and that Boeing had hired her daughter. In the wake of NLPC's revelations, Boeing CFO Michael Sears was fired and Boeing CEO Phil Condit resigned. Sears and Druyun served prison terms in 2005.

NLPC is highly critical of billionaire George Soros. It has criticized Soros for donating money to the Lynne Stewart Legal Committee, the American Civil Liberties Union, and "groups that promote illegal immigration". In 2004, the NLPC filed a complaint against Soros with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging "extensive apparent violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act".

The Project filed similar complaints against Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Reverend Al Sharpton, and Jim Moran (D-VA).

In early February 2004, NLPC filed complaints with the FEC for election law violations during his 2004 presidential campaign. A conciliation agreement made public by NLPC on April 19, 2009, described $509,188 in campaign-related expenses on Sharpton's American Express card. His campaign committee paid $121,996, leaving $385,192 in illegal payments from other sources, including $65,000 from unknown sources. NLPC Chairman Ken Boehm had accused Sharpton of running an "off the books" presidential campaign. Sharpton and his National Action Network (NAN) agreed to pay a $285,000 "civil penalty" for his campaign election law violations.

In 1998, the NLPC asked the House Ethics Committee to investigate Representative Jon D. Fox (R-PA) for "the appearance of impropriety in the granting of legislative favors in connection with an illegal loan".

The NLPC alleged, based on documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, that former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner David Aaron Kessler "routinely ... overcharged the taxpayer" for taxi rides. The NPLC further alleged "that the expense reimbursements are symptomatic of a larger pattern of FDA corruption under Kessler." Kessler ran the FDA under Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

The charges against Sean "Puffy" Combs stem from his youth voter education and mobilization project Citizen Change, whose slogan, "Vote or die" is alleged to be a "veiled marketing effort for his clothing brand". The NLPC further alleges that Citizen Change "may also have violated rules of nonpartisanship."

NLPC criticism of Representative Alan Mollohan (D-WV) focused on "250 misrepresentations and omissions" in his 2000 financial disclosure reports. However, the NLPC refused to release its full report and Congressman Mollohan has since released chronological documentation of his investments and sources of the money invested.

The NLPC asked the U.S. Senate Ethics Committee to investigate a land deal involving Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) in 2007.