Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) sent a letter to President Donald Trump on Tuesday requesting he explain the recent firings of 18 inspectors general across the federal government.
Grassley is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Durbin is the ranking member.
The pair demanded Trump send “case-specific reasons for removal, as required by law” for each inspector general who was fired, adding that the president must provide the reasons “immediately.” They said Trump did not give Congress a 30-day notice for the firings as legally required.
Grassley and Durbin also said that the explanation for each firing must contain “more than just broad and vague statements, rather it must include sufficient facts and the details to assure Congress and the public that the termination is due to real concerns about the Inspector General’s ability to carry out their mission.”
“This is a matter of public and congressional accountability and ensuring the public’s confidence in the Inspector General community, a sentiment shared more broadly by other Members of Congress,” the letter says. “IGs are critical to rooting out waste, fraud, abuse, and misconduct within the Executive Branch bureaucracy, which you have publicly made clear you are also intent on doing.”
The Trump administration said Saturday that the officials were fired as part of an effort to remove parts of the past Biden administration that don’t “align” with the new administration. “We’re cleaning house of what doesn’t work for us and going forward,” an official told NBC News.
An inspector general position is an oversight position in the federal government and serves to audit whichever agency they are housed in. They are nonpartisan appointees and can only be removed by the president.
The departments that saw their inspector general fired include the Defense Department, State Department, Department of Health and Human Services, and Department of Labor. The Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security kept their inspectors general.
The four noted firings were all appointed to their permanent positions by former President Joe Biden.
The DHS inspector general, Joseph Cuffari, was appointed by Trump in 2019, while the DOJ inspector general was appointed by former President Barack Obama in 2012.
Trump did fire at least one former administration inspector general, Mark Greenblatt of the Interior Department, whom he appointed in 2019. He told the outlet that he was worried the position would be politicized.
“The key question here is, who does the president appoint in the place of the IGs that he’s removed?” he asked. “We’re so-called watchdogs inside the federal agency. So does he appoint true watchdogs, or does he appoint lap dogs?”
Trump’s firing of the officials has drawn heavy scrutiny, though he brushed it off as a “very common thing to do.”
“Some people thought that some were unfair or were not doing the job. It’s a very standard thing to do, very much like the U.S. attorneys,” he said.
Durbin previously criticized Trump for the firings. “President Trump’s firing of at least 12 independent inspectors general at important federal agencies is a continuation of his efforts to reshape the federal government without oversight or accountability—and with loyalty to Donald Trump and Donald Trump alone,” he said in a statement.
“It is a brazen attempt to rig these offices to look the other way when violations of law take place. These dismissals clearly violate federal law, which requires the President to provide Congress with 30-day notice of intent and detailed reasons to fire inspectors general.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Grassley and Durbin, in their Tuesday letter, added that Trump must inform them of each official who will serve in an acting capacity for the fired officials and that he should “work quickly” to fill the positions.
“While IGs aren’t immune from committing acts requiring their removal, and they can be removed by the president, the law must be followed,” they said.
