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VIS News

Unfiltered Analysis. Uncompromising Reporting.

Latest Articles

The Consultants at the Catastrophe: How Private Firms Turned Federal Disaster Policy Into a Revenue Stream
Election Integrity

The Consultants at the Catastrophe: How Private Firms Turned Federal Disaster Policy Into a Revenue Stream

Major management consulting firms have quietly positioned themselves as the primary designers of America's federal disaster response infrastructure — drafting FEMA protocols, shaping reconstruction spending priorities, and advising on resilience frameworks — while simultaneously serving construction, insurance, and real estate development clients who profit when those frameworks are activated. VIS News examines how this dual role has compromised the independence of disaster policy and who bears

Poacher Turned Gamekeeper: Oil and Gas Defense Attorneys Now Directing Federal Environmental Enforcement
Political Analysis

Poacher Turned Gamekeeper: Oil and Gas Defense Attorneys Now Directing Federal Environmental Enforcement

The Environmental Protection Agency's enforcement division — the arm of the federal government responsible for holding polluters accountable — has increasingly been staffed at its senior levels by attorneys who built their careers defending energy companies against precisely the kinds of violations they are now charged with prosecuting. VIS News examines how that personnel shift has altered the character of federal environmental enforcement and what it means for communities living near the facil
Architects of the Bailout: The Goldman Alumni Who Wrote Washington's Financial Crisis Playbook
Investigative

Architects of the Bailout: The Goldman Alumni Who Wrote Washington's Financial Crisis Playbook

When the 2008 financial crisis arrived, the officials entrusted with designing the federal government's response were, in many cases, veterans of the very institutions standing to benefit from their decisions. A VIS News investigation traces the career paths of senior Treasury officials and examines how their Wall Street origins shaped a rescue framework that shielded major banks while leaving ordinary Americans largely on their own.
The Warrantless Data Market: How Federal Agencies Are Buying Their Way Around the Fourth Amendment
Investigative

The Warrantless Data Market: How Federal Agencies Are Buying Their Way Around the Fourth Amendment

Federal law enforcement, immigration authorities, and intelligence agencies have quietly built a parallel surveillance infrastructure by purchasing Americans' personal data from commercial brokers — a practice that sidesteps constitutional warrant requirements and operates with almost no public oversight. VIS News obtained contract records and internal agency communications that reveal the scale and mechanics of this arrangement.
Fossil Fuel Veterans Inside the Climate Bureaucracy: A Conflict of Interest the Energy Department Won't Address
Investigative

Fossil Fuel Veterans Inside the Climate Bureaucracy: A Conflict of Interest the Energy Department Won't Address

Dozens of officials now shaping federal climate and energy policy arrived at the Department of Energy and the EPA carrying the professional fingerprints of the fossil fuel industry. An investigation by VIS News maps their career histories, their policy decisions, and the troubling pattern connecting the two.
Indebted to the Industry: Student Loan Servicers Have Taken Seats at the Policy Table They Were Never Meant to Occupy
Political Analysis

Indebted to the Industry: Student Loan Servicers Have Taken Seats at the Policy Table They Were Never Meant to Occupy

The companies that collect payments from America's 43 million student loan borrowers have quietly embedded their executives and lobbyists inside the Education Department's policymaking apparatus. The result is a federal default and repayment regime that consistently favors servicer revenue over borrower relief — and a regulatory environment that the industry has effectively written for itself.
Brain Drain at the IRS: How Big Accounting Firms Hollowed Out America's Tax Enforcement Agency
Investigative

Brain Drain at the IRS: How Big Accounting Firms Hollowed Out America's Tax Enforcement Agency

A VIS News investigation reveals how the nation's most powerful accounting and tax advisory firms have spent decades systematically recruiting senior IRS officials, stripping the agency of its most experienced enforcement talent. The result is a tax collection apparatus increasingly unable to audit the wealthy clients those very same officials now represent. What emerges is not a coincidence but a blueprint.
Pharma's Foothold: When the Drug Industry's Veterans Set the NIH Research Agenda
Investigative

Pharma's Foothold: When the Drug Industry's Veterans Set the NIH Research Agenda

Senior officials with deep ties to the pharmaceutical industry now occupy leadership positions across the National Institutes of Health, raising pointed questions about whether federal research priorities are being shaped by public health needs or private market interests. VIS News analyzed grant allocation records and financial disclosures to trace the networks connecting NIH leadership to the companies that stand to benefit most from their decisions. The findings suggest a system in which the

The Pension Trap: How Investment Firms Are Profiting From the Public Retirement Crisis They Helped Create
Political Analysis

The Pension Trap: How Investment Firms Are Profiting From the Public Retirement Crisis They Helped Create

Across the United States, public pension systems are in fiscal distress — and the investment firms managing their assets are collecting record fees while advocating for the policy changes that caused the shortfalls in the first place. VIS News traces the financial networks connecting former government pension administrators to the Wall Street firms now steering retirement funds toward private markets. What emerges is a portrait of a system engineered to fail on behalf of those positioned to prof
The Fellowship Pipeline: How Donor-Funded Policy Institutes Are Engineering the Federal Judiciary
Election Integrity

The Fellowship Pipeline: How Donor-Funded Policy Institutes Are Engineering the Federal Judiciary

Federal judgeships are lifetime appointments that shape American law for generations. A growing body of evidence suggests that the selection of candidates for those seats is being systematically influenced by a network of think tanks and policy institutes whose funding sources and coordination mechanisms remain largely invisible to the public.
Panel Captured: Inside the Financial Ties Compromising the FDA's Drug Approval Gatekeepers
Political Analysis

Panel Captured: Inside the Financial Ties Compromising the FDA's Drug Approval Gatekeepers

The FDA's advisory committees are supposed to provide independent scientific guidance on the drugs and devices Americans take into their bodies. A review of financial disclosure records tells a more complicated story — one in which the line between regulator and regulated has become difficult to locate.
Prosecutors for Profit: The Corporate Lawyers Now Running State Attorney General Offices
Investigative

Prosecutors for Profit: The Corporate Lawyers Now Running State Attorney General Offices

Across the country, a quiet transformation is reshaping who sits at the top of state prosecution hierarchies. Former corporate defense attorneys and business executives are securing attorney general appointments at an unprecedented rate — and the industries they once represented are noticing the difference.
The Anonymous Architects: Shadowy Nonprofits and the Quiet Rewriting of Criminal Justice Policy
Political Analysis

The Anonymous Architects: Shadowy Nonprofits and the Quiet Rewriting of Criminal Justice Policy

Across dozens of state legislatures, criminal justice bills are advancing with unusual speed—drafted in near-identical language, backed by well-funded advocacy campaigns, and traceable to a web of nonprofit organizations whose donor lists are largely invisible to the public. VIS News examines who is funding the movement to reshape sentencing, prosecution, and policing standards from the shadows.
Credentialed and Conflicted: The Hidden Corporate Ties of America's Most Influential Academic Experts
Election Integrity

Credentialed and Conflicted: The Hidden Corporate Ties of America's Most Influential Academic Experts

Tenured professors at major American universities regularly appear before Congress, advise federal agencies, and publish research that shapes national policy—while simultaneously collecting consulting fees from the industries their work affects. VIS News examines how inadequate disclosure requirements and institutional indifference have allowed this dual role to flourish, distorting both scientific inquiry and regulatory independence.
Brass and Boardrooms: How the Pentagon's Hiring Pipeline Serves Defense Industry Shareholders
Investigative

Brass and Boardrooms: How the Pentagon's Hiring Pipeline Serves Defense Industry Shareholders

Decades of evidence show that senior Pentagon officials routinely depart government service for lucrative positions at the very contractors they once oversaw. A VIS News investigation maps the career trajectories of defense industry executives who have moved into acquisition roles shaping hundreds of billions in military spending—and the systemic conflicts of interest that follow them through the door.
Cleared in Hours, Not Months: Inside the Quiet Dismantling of Federal Appointment Safeguards
Investigative

Cleared in Hours, Not Months: Inside the Quiet Dismantling of Federal Appointment Safeguards

Federal agencies are placing industry veterans into powerful regulatory roles through expedited appointment mechanisms that sidestep traditional congressional scrutiny. A VIS News investigation finds that legal workarounds dating back decades are being deployed at an accelerating pace, raising serious questions about who is actually governing — and on whose behalf.
Ghost Legislators: The Shadow Network of Ex-Staffers Writing Laws for the Clients Who Pay Them
Political Analysis

Ghost Legislators: The Shadow Network of Ex-Staffers Writing Laws for the Clients Who Pay Them

A close examination of legislative text, lobbying disclosures, and former staff career trajectories reveals a largely invisible layer of lawmaking in Washington: former congressional aides who draft legislation for sitting members while simultaneously representing the corporate interests that stand to benefit from those same bills. The arrangement operates in a legal gray zone, sustained by gaps in disclosure law and the deep institutional knowledge that makes ex-staffers uniquely valuable to bo
Ballots for Sale: The Shadowy International Money Networks Targeting America's 2024 Ballot Measures
Election Integrity

Ballots for Sale: The Shadowy International Money Networks Targeting America's 2024 Ballot Measures

Federal law prohibits foreign nationals from spending money to influence American elections, but a growing body of evidence suggests that prohibition has become increasingly porous at the state and local level. VIS News traced funding networks connected to foreign entities flowing into 2024 ballot initiative campaigns across multiple states, finding that shell corporations and charitable intermediaries have become the preferred instruments for circumventing restrictions designed to keep foreign

Equity Over Democracy: How Private Equity's March Into Government Is Reshaping Federal Power
Investigative

Equity Over Democracy: How Private Equity's March Into Government Is Reshaping Federal Power

A new class of financial titans is quietly embedding itself within the upper echelons of federal government—not through traditional lobbying, but through direct appointment to cabinet positions, advisory councils, and influential think tanks. Unlike the lobbyists who preceded them, these private equity executives often retain financial stakes in the very industries their policy decisions affect. The implications for labor regulation, antitrust enforcement, and federal economic policy are profoun
Silicon Valley's Secret Weapon: The Former Lawmakers Who Now Protect Big Tech From Washington
Investigative

Silicon Valley's Secret Weapon: The Former Lawmakers Who Now Protect Big Tech From Washington

A growing cadre of former members of Congress has quietly migrated from Capitol Hill to the payrolls of America's most powerful technology companies, leveraging intimate knowledge of legislative procedure and personal relationships with sitting colleagues to blunt regulatory action. VIS News examined dozens of post-congressional career transitions to uncover how this pipeline operates, who benefits, and what it costs the public interest.