Highlights of the Center's Groundbreaking Investigative Journalism

1989
1990
1992
1995
1996
1997
1998
2000
2001
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
1989

  • Center for Public Integrity incorporates on March 30 and receives nonprofit status from the IRS on October 1.

1990
1992

  • The Center receives its first citation in the Congressional Record.

1995
1996

  • We publish the first edition of the Buying of the President, tracking for the first time the relationships between presidential candidates and the special interests who fund them. 

  • The Lincoln Bedroom becomes synonymous with graft when the Center publishes Fat Cat Hotel: How Democratic High Rollers are Rewarded with Overnight Stays at the White House. The piece names 75 of the overnight guests.

1997
1998

  • Executive Director Charles Lewis wins a MacArthur “genius” grant. 

  • We move to our current office location, 910 17th St, NW, Washington, D.C.

  • The first ICIJ award for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting is given out.

2000
2001

  • The Cheating of America is published, documenting how leading companies and super-wealthy individuals evade and avoid paying taxes.

2003

  • The ICIJ's Windfalls of War uncovers which American companies won the biggest contracts in postwar Iraq and Afghanistan. We identify Kellogg, Brown & Root, the subsidiary of Halliburton – which Vice President Dick Cheney led prior to being chosen as George W. Bush's running mate in August 2000 – as the top recipient of federal contracts for the two countries, with more than $2.3 billion awarded. 

2004
2005

  • The Center’s Well Connected project discloses the top telecommunications and media companies influencing national policy in Congress and at the Federal Communications Commission.

2006

  • The Center’s Power Trips investigation reveals that during a five-and-a-half year period ending in 2005, $50 million was spent on 23,000 privately funded trips by members of Congress and their staffs.  While some trips were educational, many appeared to be thinly veiled attempts by special interests to influence lawmakers and their advisers. Within six months of the publication of this Center project, privately funded congressional travel plummets and is eventually banned.

2007

  • Bill Buzenberg becomes executive director.

  • City Adrift, New Orleans Before and After Katrina is published, outlining the failure of the federal government to respond to the storm and its aftermath.

  • The Center’s Wasting Away investigation publishes a list of the 114 most toxic Superfund waste sites. Key findings: Cleanups are in decline, a backlog of sites is growing and details of which sites are the most dangerous are kept secret.

2008

  • The Louisiana state government and administration of Governor Bobby Jindal, relies heavily on the Center’s States of Disclosure project when crafting new financial disclosure and ethics rules. In total, 24 other states have improved their disclosure laws because of this project.

  • Our landmark study on the George W. Bush administration’s fomenting of the Iraq war captured political attention – and becomes a cultural touchstone. Iraq: The War Card uncovered 935 false statements by Bush officials and inspired the song “935 Lies” by comedian Harry Shearer. 

  • The ICIJ’s award-winning 10-country investigation Tobacco Underground takes on new players in the multibillion-dollar illicit trafficking of tobacco.

2009

  • The Center’s investigation Who’s Behind the Financial Meltdown? reveals that banks who fueled the subprime industry were not victims of an unforeseen financial collapse but enablers of the risky lending that threatened the financial system. The report identifies The Subprime 25 — the top 25 originators of the high-interest loans that accounted for nearly $1 trillion (or 72 percent) of industry-reported subprime loans made from 2005 through 2007.

  • The Center's Climate and Global Climate Change Lobby projects uncovered the powerful domestic and global special interests influencing U.S. climate legislation and support for — and against — an international climate change treaty in Copenhagen.

2010

  • The Center’s investigation on Campus Assault uncovers a pandemic of rape at American colleges and universities. Most striking finding: Most perpetrators are never punished.

  • The ICIJ’s investigation Dangers in the Dust blows the lid off the international manufacture and sale of toxic asbestos to developing countries. The joint series with the BBC is picked up by more than 100 news outlets in at least seven languages and sparks controversy from Canada to Brazil to India.

  • The Center story “Renegade Refiner” broke the news that two BP refineries were responsible for 97 percent of all flagrant violations found in the refining industry by government safety inspectors over the past three years. The story was discussed in White House press briefings and in more than 100 news outlets around the world.