The President’s decision to name one of his own staff lawyers to serve as the independent Inspector General overseeing the disbursement of hundreds of billions of federal dollars in coronavirus crisis emergency aid smacks of the proverbial ‘fox guarding the henhouse.’
This appointment is especially troubling given the President’s signing statement indicating that he plans to resist the oversight procedures in the CARES Act, which were overwhelmingly agreed to on a bipartisan basis to prevent corporate misconduct and abuse.
The objective of this Inspector General is to ensure this recovery is transparent, fair, and equitable. The appointment of a current White House lawyer to this role calls that objective into question.
This is why we need a Select Committee to ensure that there is robust oversight of how taxpayer money is spent and to protect against fraud, abuse, and profiteering.
