Thread by @lizhempowicz

🧵Are you worried about government corruption?

Well let me introduce you to Inspectors General, the independent watchdogs that exist to identify government corruption. I'll also explain why Congress must give them removal protections to preserve their independence. 1/18

As I testified in the House yesterday, Congress created federal inspectors general because the previous approach of letting government agencies oversee themselves for waste and corruption was a failure. 2/18

Instead, Congress created federal inspectors general to root out corruption, waste, and fraud. These offices are in executive branch agencies but are removed from the normal agency chain of command to give them the independence they need to conduct objective oversight. 3/18

But, these overseers and their independence is structurally threatened by the president’s unfettered ability to remove IGs. Simply put, when the president has unlimited authority to remove independent overseers for any reason at all, they are no longer independent. 4/18

Last year, Donald Trump showed us exactly what this looks like. In a span of 6 weeks he fired or removed four independent IGs without sufficient justification, leading many to view these removals as politically motivated. 5/18

Let’s take a closer look at the IGs Trump removed in 2020. First was the Inspector General for the Intelligence Community, the same IG who made sure Congress got the whistleblower complaint that eventually led to Trump’s first impeachment. 6/18

The ICIG did nothing wrong. In fact, he followed the law when others around him wouldn't. On a personal level, it makes sense for the President to harbor some animosity towards that IG but it doesn’t justify undermining independent oversight to remove him. 7/18

Next, Trump replaced the acting IG at the Department of Defense, who had just been named to lead the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee - to lead efforts to independently oversee covid spending. 8/18

Trump made it clear that he didn’t see the purpose of independent oversight over this massive federal spending. This is when he said “I’ll be the oversight” and is also when the White House told agencies not to collect data about how COVID relief funds were being spent. 9/18

Tangent: That second point, about the White House telling agencies not to collect data about covid spending is why we will never know exactly how many jobs were saved by that relief. 10/18 latimes.com/politics/story…

OK, back to IGs. Next, Trump removed the State Department Inspector General. Among other things, that IG had been leading an investigation that eventually found that Mike Pompeo and his wife misused State Department resources for personal gain - over 100 times. 11/18

First, Trump said that he only removed the State Dept. IG because Pompeo asked him to. Then, perhaps realizing that that was a clear dereliction of the president’s duty (the law says that an agency head can’t remove an IG) the State dept later gave other reasons. 12/18

I won’t go into them here, but the other “reasons” given for this particular removal were so pretextual that it would be funny, except again - these removals were a HUGE blow to independent oversight. 13/18

Finally, Trump replaced the acting IG at the Department of Transportation, who like the State IG, was in the middle of an investigation that would eventually find that Elaine Chao (Mitch McConnell’s wife) also misused agency resources for personal gain. 14/18

These firings prompted immediate concerns from those throughout the IG community that they could be next. 15/18

When overseers have to worry that one misstep, one investigation into waste, fraud, or abuse of power that leads them to a political ally of the president may cost them their jobs, it spells trouble for taxpayers and the public. 16/18

It is time to close this loophole and require cause before a president can fire an IG. Thank you to @RepMaloney, @GerryConnolly, @RepJimmyGomez, @tedlieu, @RepKatiePorter, and @LeaderHoyer for introducing the IG Independence and Empowerment Act which would do just that! 17/18

And for those of you who made it through this whole thread, a gift in the form of a picture of my favorite watchdog. 18/18