President Trump fires independent agency watchdogs
President Trump fired as many as 17 agency inspectors general (IGs), including at the Departments of State, Health and Human Services, Defense, Veterans Affairs, Education, Housing and Urban Development, and the Environmental Protection Agency, among others. IGs serve as independent federal watchdogs and provide a layer of objective oversight in agencies, working to prevent and detect waste, fraud, and abuse, and to improve the efficiency of government programs. Senators Chuck Grassley and Richard Durbin submitted a bipartisan letter outlining President Trump’s failure to notify Congress of the dismissals per federal law and seeking additional information on the dismissals.