POGO: An assault on our inspectors general

April 11, 2020

Over the past week, we’ve seen an alarming attack on our nation’s inspectors general—the independent watchdogs tasked with investigating federal agencies and holding them accountable to American taxpayers. It began when President Donald Trump removed Michael Atkinson as the inspector general for the intelligence community, and it continued as he attacked an inspector general report on supply shortages during the pandemic and stalled the operations of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee.   In response to this assault on government oversight, we have ramped up our calls for Congress to strengthen protections for inspectors general. We cannot expect these watchdogs to conduct effective oversight if the president is able to remove them on a whim. We’ve been pushing for inspectors general to have for-cause removal protections for a long time, and we’re urging Congress to act on this now. We led an ideologically diverse group of organizations to send a letter to congressional leaders on Friday urging them to pass legislation giving inspectors general these protections soon. We must have truly independent inspectors general to ensure that stimulus funds and medical aid go to those who need it the most. . ANALYSIS Commanding Integrity The removal of Navy Captain Brett Crozier, who wrote a letter to senior officials raising concerns about the safety of his sailors on the USS Theodore Roosevelt amid the coronavirus outbreak, appears to only be the latest example of how precarious it can be for members of the military to speak truth to power. Read more REPORT Preventing Train and Defeat in Future Conflicts The U.S. has engaged in security force assistance missions for over a century in countries all over the world. Despite all that experience, we have a mixed record advising host nation forces in the post-World War II era, with a largely successful effort in Korea but notable failures in Vietnam and Iraq. This history is repeating itself in Afghanistan. Interviews and government reports indicate that American advisors were hampered over the course of the two-decade-long conflict by their lack of knowledge. Read More ANALYSIS Former Bailout Cop Stood Up to Senior Feds and Bonus-Hungry Insurance Execs. Now He Tells POGO How to Oversee the $2 Trillion CARES Package. Neil M. Barofsky, a lifelong Democrat, was nominated by President George W. Bush as special inspector general of the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP), on November 14, 2008, in the middle of America’s last financial crisis. POGO asked Barofsky about the challenges a new special inspector general will face, and how the job will differ from the one he held.

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VIDEO POGO's Take on Congress's COVID-19 Crisis Response Last week, Executive Director Danielle Brian and Public Policy Director Liz Hempowicz spoke with supporters in a virtual town hall about the federal government's response so far to the COVID-19 pandemic. Watch

QUOTE OF THE WEEK “We wanted inspectors general because of an out-of-control president named Richard Nixon, and this president is trying to destroy them. ... What’s happened this week has been a total full-on assault on the IG system.” Danielle Brian, Executive Director, in The Washington Post

ONE LINERS “I cannot see how any inspector general will feel in any way safe to do a good job. ... They are all at the mercy at what the president feels.” Danielle Brian, Executive Director, in The New York Times   “His removal sends a really strong message that coming forward will end people’s careers. ... Before this I’d say that risk was more so implied through both social and professional retaliation. This is much more explicit.” Mandy Smithberger, Director of the Center for Defense Information, in ProPublica   “It's one thing to recognize the many companies that stepped up in the COVID-19 battle, it's another thing to cherry pick his supporters and provide them with an endorsement and free infomercial. ... The president shouldn't merge his election campaign and the needs of the public during the COVID-19 crisis and he seems to be doing that by giving his supporters airtime.” Scott Amey, General Counsel, in Business Insider   “As long as it’s not going to move markets, we should know why they’re meeting. They have so much money under their authority right now, they should be working to be more transparent, not less transparent.” Tim Stretton, Policy Analyst, in Politico   “Even though there has been this vulnerability, we haven’t seen a president taking advantage of it in the way we’re seeing right now with President Trump” Liz Hempowicz, Dircetor of Public Policy, in ProPublica   How can we expect someone to be seriously aggressive in their job if the president can fire them when they do something he doesn't like?” Danielle Brian, Executive Director, in NBC News   “There’s a big efficacy problem with this, for a few reasons. ... A lot of these tools are not going to get you sufficiently precise or meaningful location data or interactions.” Jake Laperruque, Senior Counsel for The Constitution Project at POGO, in StateScoop

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The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is a nonpartisan independent watchdog that investigates and exposes waste, corruption, abuse of power, and when the government fails to serve the public or silences those who report wrongdoing. We champion reforms to achieve a more effective, ethical, and accountable federal government that safeguards constitutional principles.

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