The White House Just Defunded a Federal Watchdog
The decision to close two federal watchdog agencies has drawn criticism from a pair of Republican senators.
As the federal government entered a shutdown on Wednesday, the website for a key federal watchdog also went dark.
But when the shutdown inevitably ends, the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency likely won't be back.
The White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) told the council and the committee last week that its funding would be cut when the new fiscal year began on October 1, The Washington Post reported at the time. On Wednesday, as the new fiscal year began, the council's website seemed to be offline, except for a brief message: "Due to a lack of apportionment of funds, this website is currently unavailable."
Before being shut down, the Council of Inspectors General was a shared resource for the dozens of inspectors general's offices located in various government agencies across the executive branch. It provided training for investigatory staff and ran a tip line to collect reports of waste, fraud, and abuse.
By shutting down the council, the White House may have also shuttered the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC), which was created as part of the CARES Act and operated as a subcommittee of the council. (However, its website was still active on Wednesday morning.)
The PRAC was tasked with overseeing pandemic relief spending—which was absolutely rife with fraud—and was recently reauthorized by Congress until 2034 as part of the 2025 tax bill.
The White House's decision to close the two federal watchdog agencies has drawn criticism from at least two Republican senators. "We urgently request an explanation for these actions and ask that you to promptly reverse course so that CIGIE and PRAC can continue their important oversight work uninterrupted," wrote Sens. Susan Collins (R–Maine) and Chuck Grassley (R–Iowa) in a letter to OMB Director Russell Vought this week.
"Absent immediate action, CIGIE and PRAC will need to furlough staff and terminate important functions that help prevent and detect waste, fraud, and abuse throughout the government," the senators added.
Does the Trump administration have the power to do this? It seems so. John Vecchione, an attorney with the New Civil Liberties Alliance, told the Post that the OMB has discretion over the council's budget.
The better question to ask is not about the legality of this move, but whether it is prudent. Like with the earlier attempt at firing dozens of inspectors general from their posts, this latest effort at undermining the viability of the government's watchdogs suggests the Trump administration is less interested in draining the swamp than in pushing aside people who might sound the alarm about corruption.
