Undaunted

The unsung heroes of the federal government

Until recently many Americans had heard little, if anything, about inspectors general. After the Musk-Trump regime swooped in to fire seventeen of them (and one more IG after he filed a critical report about the freeze on USAID funding), however, they have been much in the news. It turns out these are the unsung heroes in the federal government, now sidelined and prevented from doing critical work on behalf of taxpayers.

This week eight of the fired IGs filed a lawsuit alleging that they had been terminated without notice and a substantial reason, which are required by federal law. These are nonpartisan public servants, confirmed by the Senate. As the complaint explains:

IGs—who regularly remain in office across multiple presidential administrations—serve as independent watchdogs, playing a vital role in ensuring the effective and efficient operation of government. They do so by auditing and investigating their agencies’ operations and personnel in order to detect and prevent waste, fraud, and abuse, and by making recommendations for improved agency operations.

The terminated IGs’ track record is impressive. As the complaint outlines, they have not only saved tens of billions of dollars but “helped safeguard U.S. national security; stopped fraud (and helped to both recover the fruits of such fraud and put fraudsters in prison).” They also “helped to end mistreatment of some of the nation’s most vulnerable citizens; and ensured that veterans, farmers, senior citizens, disaster victims, and other Americans receive the support and services to which they are entitled by law.”

In other words, rather than fire IG’s improperly and substitute his overlord Musk (whose work is now the subject of over a dozen lawsuits) to steamroll through the executive branch without any grasp of how government functions, Trump should have given the IG’s a pat on the back and increased their staff—that is, if he really wanted to get rid of waste, fraud, and abuse. These people are professionals at rooting out obstacles to good government; unlike Musk they have no personal interest in government contracts. A brief review of their work, outlined in the lawsuit, underscores their value to taxpayers.

Robert P. Storch’s office at the Department of Defense, for example, “issued approximately 281 reports, made more than 970 recommendations for improvement to DoD programs and operations, and delivered a ‘monetary impact’ of over $10.8 billion.” Then he was fired.

Michael J. Missal, who had headed the office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) since May 2016, came up with about 10,000 recommendations to improve the VA, amounting to an impact of more than $45 billion. He was also fired.

Cristi A. Grimm’s tenure as Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services produced roughly 1300 reports, returning over $18.5 billion. Cardell K Richardson, IG for Department of State work, produced reports with a monetary impact of over $17 million—all in about 8 months. Both of them were fired as well.

Also canned: Education IG Sandra D. Bruce (approximately 739 recommendations with a monetary impact of over $1.2 billion); Agriculture Department IG Phyllis K. Fong (approximately 7,250 reports and delivered a monetary impact of over $19 billion); and Labor Department IG Larry D. Turner (over 400 recommendations for improvement of DOL programs and operations, with more than $75 billion impacted).

The eighth fired IG, Hannibal “Mike” Ware at the Small Business Administration (who since September 2024 also served as acting IG for the Social Security Administration, which Musk baselessly insists is rife with fraud) “delivered a monetary impact of over $14 billion, and was responsible for another $30 billion being either seized or returned directly to the U.S. Treasury.”

Perhaps most egregiously, USAID’s inspector general, Paul Martin, was booted out the day after he delivered a damning report documenting how Musk and his minions have been wasting taxpayer money and impairing the functioning of the agency. Martin found that “the Trump administration’s reduction of USAID personnel and its sweeping freeze on foreign assistance had made it more difficult to track and respond to potential misuse of $8.2 billion in US taxpayer-funded humanitarian assistance,” CNN reported. In particular, Martin found that almost $500M in food assistance was at risk of spoilage thanks to confusion and the freeze/unfreeze of funds Musk/Trump triggered.

The IG firings and lawsuit reveal that Musk/Trump either have no idea how to root out waste, fraud, and abuse (e.g. by deploying skilled IGs to investigate and nominating competent people), or that the new clique is interested in disabling government regardless of the harm inflicted on people. What these characters are plainly NOT doing is reforming government to safeguard the taxpayers’ money.

In bringing the suit, the IGs—sticklers for rules and procedures—may be rendering one more service to the American people, namely preservation of our democracy. They deserve our thanks for remaining, throughout their careers, undaunted in the battle against corruption, illegality, incompetence, and now, autocratic thuggery.