Q&A: Danielle Brian, Project on Government Oversight executive director

Danielle Brian is the executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, a non-profit organization that aims to expose government corruption and waste. She was on campus on Monday for a private dinner with the American Whig-Cliosophic Society and sat down with The Daily Princetonian to discuss her experiences and government accountability.

The Daily Princetonian: How have your work experiences prior to the Project on Government Oversight informed the work you do now?

Danielle Brian: I started as an intern. It was between my sophomore and junior year, and I came back after undergrad — I went to Smith [College] — and thought that I wanted to work in government or journalism and did a little bit of work on Capitol Hill, and for a television investigative magazine, and concluded that I actually really preferred the non-profit space, so I have actually been there for 30 years.

DP: What was the nature of the work you were doing on Capitol Hill?

DB: I worked for the Arms Control and Foreign Policy Caucus. I thought I was going to go into arms negotiations. It was before the Cold War ended, and that to me was the most important thing, and I actually went to grad school at Johns Hopkins in national security studies thinking this was what I was going to do. But I was actually working part time [at] POGO's predecessor organization ... the Project on Military Procurement, and I sort of thought that was just my temporary job until I got a real job. And when I worked on the Hill, working exactly in the field I thought I really wanted to work in — in arms control — I realized I hated it. So I was lucky to realize that when I was young. And what I hated about it was, even then — and this would be in the late eighties — it was already then so polarized politically on the Hill. And think about how much more it is now. But then, if a really good idea was coming from someone in the other party, people would just dismiss it because it wasn't their idea, and I thought, aren't we trying to fix problems? And that's what I also found not that exciting about journalism, where I then thought I'd go: you have to have a very unusual platform in journalism to be an advocate as well, and I realized I wanted to fix things. So that's why I ended up coming back and staying for all this time.

DP: Internally, what steps does POGO take to remain nonpartisan? Do you have certain ethics codes for the organization?

DB: We do. And actually being nonpartisan is important, but for non-profits, it's almost more important — and less recognized — to maintain your integrity as an organization in terms of who has a financial interest in the outcome of your work. The political partisans have their organizations and their parties, but there's a less understood part of the non-profit world which is actually just a front for people with financial interests. So one of the things that we think is really important is we articulate who all our donors are on our annual report. We don't take any money from corporations or governments ... or labor unions. ... In fact, there was someone last week who was very wealthy who offered to be a donor, but they had a financial interest in some of the work were doing, and I said I just can't take your money.

DP: What are some of the biggest challenges within your line of work?

DB: One is that we're clearly outfunded by the entities, public or private, [for which] we're trying to ... either expose wrongdoing or slow the revolving door between the two.

DP: What reform in government do you think has worked especially well, and why?

DB: I would say there are two things that I think are very important. One is the Freedom of Information Act ... [It] has been a central and hallmark feature of American democracy that other countries admire. ... Another one that I think is important is the creation of the Inspectors General offices across the agencies.

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DP: Lastly, as students and young adults here, what can we do to hold government accountable?

DB: Well, the easy answer for me to say is to join what we call our army of good government advocates. And we send out emails that let people know when something's happening that they could get involved in. And ... letting your members of Congress know how you feel actually really does matter. It matters a lot. And finally, I would encourage everyone to consider coming and working in Washington. We don't have enough people coming to Washington with the purpose of helping to make government work. Many of them are there to put in some time so that they can make money, but if they can see [good governance] as a goal in itself, then that's what I would most encourage people to do. We need more young people in government. I would encourage people to consider non-profit advocacy as a career as well.