Moves to defund oversight activities

Republicans decry White House moves to defund oversight activities

The Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency allows whistleblowers to report misconduct.

Hailey Fuchs

Top Senate Republicans are calling on the White House to reverse course in its plans to withhold funding for the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency — a key government entity charged with overseeing watchdogs across the executive branch.

In a letter Monday to Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, Appropriations Chair Susan Collins of Maine and Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley of Iowa said they were “urgently request[ing] an explanation” of a decision they said would “disrupt numerous important oversight functions.”

The lawmakers also cautioned that “effectively defunding” the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency was “contrary to congressional intent.” Collins has for months been pushing back against the Trump administration’s clawback of congressionally-approved dollars, while Grassley for decades has been a champion of federal whistleblower protections.

A spokesperson for OMB didn’t indicate Vought had plans to change his mind on the matter anytime soon.

“Inspectors general are meant to be impartial watchdogs identifying waste and corruption on behalf of the American people,” said the OMB spokesperson in a statement. “Unfortunately, they have become corrupt, partisan, and in some cases, have lied to the public. The American people will no longer be funding this corruption.”

The Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency alerted congressional leaders over the weekend that it had been informed by OMB that its funding would be withheld in the new fiscal year, which begins Wednesday. This decision would force the Council to halt its statutorily mandated functions and furlough 25 employees on Oct. 1, even though cash remains in an ongoing account for running the independent office.

The move is part of a broad effort by the Trump administration to pare back power from historically independent inspectors general, after Trump fired more than a dozen of those officials in just the first week of his second term. Some of those officials have sued to reclaim their jobs, arguing Trump did not have authority to unilaterally terminate their employment without proper notification to Congress.

“If unfunded, Oversight.gov and 28 supported OIG websites will be disrupted on October 1,” the Council’s acting chair, Tammy Hull, wrote to the leaders of key committees in the House and Senate. “Whistleblowers will likely not be able to file anonymous complaints online with these OIGs. Additionally, individual efforts by each OIG to re-launch their own legally required site will be incredibly inefficient and costly to the government.”

The letter was first reported by the Washington Post.

The Council was established in 2008 for interagency oversight that spans across the federal government and the jurisdictions of individual inspectors general. It also maintains a website, Oversight.gov, that serves as a clearinghouse for whistleblowers to submit complaints to dozens of inspectors general offices and trains thousands of inspectors general employees.