Government Executive - Oversight

VA’s former EHR lead indicted for concealing contractor gifts

Alexandra Kelley — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 12:49:40 -0400

A senior executive working within the Veterans Affairs Department was charged with failing to disclose a slew of different gifts given to him by contractors working with the agency on its health records modernization, the Justice Department announced on Wednesday.

John Windom served as the executive director at the Office of Electronic Health Record Modernization within the VA from 2017 to 2021.

The Justice Department alleges that, while working on the $16 billion acquisition and deployment of the VA’s new electronic health records solution, Windom accepted a number of gifts, including thousands of dollars of cash, casino chips, gift cards and other items from contractors while helming the project.

Windom failed to report the gifts, which were both given to him and allegedly demanded by him during his tenure helming the VA office. Notably, the indictment states that, based on his previous employee training, Windom was “fully aware” of ethics laws that prohibited him from accepting gifts from contractors working with the VA.

The indictment charges him with concealment of material facts, false statements and falsification of a record or document following his failure to report the gifts.

“As alleged, the defendant exploited his senior position for personal gain and concealed gifts and financial relationships that created serious conflicts of interest in the health care of our nation’s veterans,” said U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro. “Such conduct is not only a betrayal of the public trust — it undermines confidence in the institutions dedicated to serving those who have sacrificed for this country. Our office will continue to aggressively investigate and prosecute public corruption wherever it occurs, and we remain steadfast in our commitment to protecting the integrity of the programs that support America’s veterans.”

Penalties for each charge vary. The charge of falsification of records and documents carries a maximum of 20 years in prison, and making false statements carries a maximum of 5 years. Both additionally carry potential financial penalties.

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Inspector general group to be led by former Trump administration adviser

Sean Michael Newhouse — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 14:24:16 -0400

Updated at 10:00 a.m. ET March 26

A former Trump administration official who is now serving as a department inspector general will soon lead a central group for the watchdogs that the president has previously sought to defund.

The Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency on Tuesday announced that Veterans Affairs IG Cheryl Mason has been elected as its next chairperson.

Her tenure will last from April 6 through the end of the calendar year to finish out the current chair’s term. CIGIE will hold another election later this year for the next leader whose two-year term will begin on Jan. 1, 2027.

CIGIE chairs are selected by the more than 70 IGs across the federal government.

Mason was confirmed as an IG by the Senate along party lines in summer 2025. Democrats and good government groups questioned her ability to provide independent oversight of the department because she previously served as a senior adviser to VA Secretary Doug Collins.

She will replace Tammy Hull, the IG for the U.S. Postal Service, who has been serving as acting chair of CIGIE since January 2025.

The Washington Post reported that the CIGIE chair race was uncontested and that Hull was not interested in the position after the Trump administration blocked fiscal 2026 funding for the group. Officials reversed that decision, however, after pressure from Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Susan Collins, R-Maine.

Still, the news outlet found that CIGIE is now required to request funding every quarter from Trump officials.

“The administration is putting more of a thumb on the scale of CIGIE,” said Faith Williams, the director of the Effective and Accountable Government Program at the Project on Government Oversight nonprofit.

Williams argued that Mason’s selection and the quarterly funding approval requirement will “further marginalize” the central watchdog group, which provides training to IG employees and reviews allegations of wrongdoing against the oversight officials.

“CIGIE helps IGs become the most effective they can be, but we also need some kind of back stop for these inspectors general,” she said. “They should be independent from political interference, not necessarily independent from the guidelines and ethics standards that we hold them to.”

Since the start of his second term, Trump has fired 19 IGs, including at the VA. Most of the president’s nominees who have been confirmed to serve in the oversight role have previously worked in his administration.

Mark Lee Greenblatt, one of the IGs who was removed by Trump and a former CIGIE chair, said that “having a former political appointee lead the Council runs the risk of subverting independence in favor of partisanship.”

“American taxpayers can only hope that Ms. Mason appreciates the critical importance of independence and continues the strong track record of prior Council chairs who have led the IG community in an apolitical manner,” he said in a statement to Government Executive.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., has introduced legislation that would prohibit the president from nominating an individual who has previously served as a political appointee in their administration to an IG position. The senator specifically cited Mason’s confirmation as an example of why her measure is necessary.

In a statement to Government Executive, Duckworth also criticized Mason’s selection as CIGIE chair.

“If the goal of this appointment is to curry favor with the Trump administration, IG Mason is certainly a clever pick,” she said. “Unfortunately, all the qualities that make her well suited to appeal to Trump political appointees — namely being one herself who advised Secretary Doug Collins — are the same qualities that render IG Mason unfit to effectively serve as an independent watchdog.”

Additionally, ethics groups and Democratic lawmakers have argued that Labor IG Anthony D’Esposito may have violated the Hatch Act due to reported plans that he is preparing for another congressional run.

And Homeland Security Department IG Joseph Cuffari has recently alleged to Congress that officials have “systematically obstructed” his office’s work.

This article has been updated with Mason’s correct term length and a statement from Mark Lee Greenblatt

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Inspector general’s reported plan to run for Congress is a Hatch Act violation, lawmakers and ethics orgs say

Sean Michael Newhouse — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 17:09:37 -0400

Good government nonprofits, congressional Democrats and ethics experts have raised concerns that Anthony D’Esposito, the inspector general for the Labor Department, may have violated the law that limits the political activity of federal employees, as he is apparently preparing for another congressional run.

“As a senior official tasked with investigating legal compliance at the Department of Labor, an agency mired in ethics scandals right now, it is that much more important that IG D'Esposito act within the law and respect the clear separation between politics and his duties as an executive branch official,” said Donald Sherman, president and CEO of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, in a statement to Government Executive. “This further undermines the public's trust in the Department of Labor and its watchdog, as America’s job growth numbers continue to lag."

D’Esposito was sworn in as IG on Jan. 5 after facing questions throughout the confirmation process about his ability to provide independent oversight of the Labor Department, considering he is a former GOP congressman.

On Wednesday, Newsday reported that an elections coalition of unions and left-leaning groups filed a Hatch Act complaint against D’Esposito over a Jan. 9 interview he gave with a New York radio host.

During the segment, the Labor IG said that “there’s no question that we’re exploring” a run for Congress and that “we’re doing the polling [and] we’re talking to people on the ground and we want to make sure that the resources are going to be there.”

He also called his successor, Rep. Laura Gillen, D-N.Y., a “disastrous member of Congress” and said that it’s important for GOP candidates to have funding to deliver effective campaign messaging.

Under the Hatch Act, there is a prohibition on federal employees from being candidates in partisan elections, which extends to preliminary activities such as conducting polls, having campaign strategy meetings or authorizing others to take such actions on their behalf. The law also bars government workers from engaging in political activity in their official capacity and from soliciting or receiving political contributions.

Republican leaders for the county that covers D’Esposito’s former district recently backed a former mayor, John A. DeGrace, as the party’s nominee for the seat.

Additionally, Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., ranking members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and its Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, respectively, on March 10 sent D’Esposito a letter asking if he has participated in any campaign activities since he was sworn in as IG.

“An inspector general is expected to maintain an even greater level of non-partisan independence than other federal employees,” they wrote. “You have a responsibility to be transparent with Congress and with the public regarding any political activity you have undertaken since taking office as inspector general.”

During his confirmation hearing before the panel in October 2025, Blumenthal asked D’Esposito why his campaign website was still up. In response, he said that it was not active and that no fundraising was being done.

In their letter, however, the two Democratic senators referenced Federal Election Commission data that shows the “D’Esposito for New York” campaign committee received contributions between Jan. 1, 2025, and Dec. 31, 2025.

Likewise, during a March 5 hearing, Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., asked D’Esposito if he was planning on resigning based on a March 4 Newsday report that he would soon launch a political campaign.

D’Esposito didn’t directly answer the question, saying “I am here on this panel today answering your questions as the inspector general.” He also added that he is “well aware of the Hatch Act.”

Based on that article and Peters and Blumenthal’s letter, Stephanie Rapp-Tully, a federal employment attorney, told Government Executive by email that “it does appear that IG D'Esposito may have violated the Hatch Act.”

“His actions prior to and after he took office as IG, especially given his testimony during his confirmation hearing, are reason for concern,” she wrote.

The Labor Department’s IG office did not respond to a request for comment.

The Hatch Act is enforced by the Office of Special Counsel. After a legal battle, President Donald Trump in 2025 fired the agency’s head, who was appointed by Joe Biden, before the end of his five-year term.

Penalties for violating the Hatch Act can include a civil fine of up to $1,000, suspension or removal from federal service.

Rapp-Tully noted that D’Esposito probably wouldn’t be concerned about termination, as he would likely resign if he officially initiates a reelection campaign.

“However, a candidate’s veracity may make a difference in the outcome of an election,” she wrote.

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Trump’s anti-fraud task force poised to scrutinize benefits programs

Natalie Alms — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 16:52:26 -0400

The White House is kicking off President Donald Trump’s “war on fraud” with a focus on federally-funded benefits like housing, food and cash assistance programs.

Among the tactics that a new anti-fraud task force will be pursuing is withholding government funding to state and local jurisdictions whose anti-fraud controls for benefits are deemed inadequate and increasing data-sharing between states and the federal government, according to the Monday executive order establishing the task force.

Both moves, already deployed by the White House in the name of fighting fraud, have at times been blocked by courts.

Anti-fraud experts have long wanted the federal government to take a more coordinated approach against fraud in government programs. But some worry that the Trump administration is using fraud as a pretext for political goals, including immigration enforcement.

The new task force, which will be drafting an anti-fraud strategy, will be chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance and vice-chaired by the head of the Federal Trade Commission, Andrew Ferguson. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller will also serve on the task force as a senior advisor.

It’s unclear why Ferguson is taking this position on the task force. The FTC doesn’t currently play a role in combating fraud in government benefit programs, although it does run a government portal for people to report identity theft.

The task force will also have an executive director, who has yet to be named, to direct the day-to-day operations of the task force, as well as representatives from various government agencies.

Those agencies will have to identify what parts of their benefit programs are most susceptible to fraud and adopt anti-fraud requirements like identity verification, increased documentation and better back-end data checks within 60 days.

Government agencies will also be maximizing enforcement of eligibility requirements for government benefits and looking across agencies and programs for fraud risk indicators.

“The ‘war on fraud’ is long overdue, but the real question is whether this is a true shift in strategy or, worse, another moment of over-politicization without changing the underlying system,” said Jordan Burris, the head of public sector at identity verification platform Socure. He previously worked on cybersecurity in the White House.

Pre-payment controls, stronger data sharing and centralized coordination are all “encouraging signals,” he said, although “this has to become more than a finger-pointing exercise between federal, state, and local actors.”

Since taking office, Trump has fired nearly 20 inspectors general, whose very jobs are to combat waste, fraud and abuse in the government. He and his top officials have also cited fraud for a variety of their most controversial actions, such as shutting down the U.S. Agency for International Development last year. Many of those claims of fraud at USAID were false or misleading.

As many government benefit programs are delivered by states, the executive order notes that the task force may recommend “any ways that Federal funds may be withheld from jurisdictions that do not have adequate anti-fraud requirements.”

The text of the order name-checks four blue states, “reinforcing the suspicion that the war on fraud is effectively a war on blue state safety nets,” wrote Donald Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan, in a recent blog. “The Trump administration seems to think if it succeeds in pushing its fraud narrative, it can justify what are, in reality, just cuts to the existing program that individual beneficiaries rely on.”

Editor's note: This article has been updated to note that Stephen Miller is also serving on the anti-fraud task force.

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Watchdog warns of challenges as IRS handles first tax season after Trump staffing cuts

Sean Michael Newhouse — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 18:30:57 -0400

The IRS is facing its first tax season since the Trump administration implemented workforce reductions across the agency, and the Government Accountability Office warned in a report Monday that the instability could hamper service performance.

Based on a December 2025 internal IRS report, according to GAO, agency managers flagged that staffing gaps as well as challenges implementing changes to the tax code mandated by the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act posed the biggest risks to a successful filing season, which runs from Jan. 26 through April 15.

“IRS also found that the [43-day fall government] shutdown led to hiring delays and compressed timelines to onboard and train new staff,” investigators wrote. “As a result, IRS concluded return processing, customer service and other functions would enter filing season undertrained or understaffed, which could lead to processing errors and poor customer service and ultimately harm taxpayers.”

While voluntary separation incentives like the deferred resignation program and early retirement offers, which resulted in the majority of IRS’ roughly 26,100 separations, began during the 2025 tax season, many participating employees did not begin their paid leave until after April. As such, last year’s filing period was largely unaffected by the workforce changes.

Still, GAO found that these separations contributed to an increase in the average number of days (27 to 36) it took IRS to process paper returns after the end of 2025’s tax season compared with after 2024’s filing period.

“IRS officials said that staff separations in 2025, which included more tenured employees who had more experience processing paper returns, contributed to the much higher processing time post-filing season,” investigators wrote.

GAO also criticized IRS’ 2025 workforce cuts for being “not targeted or strategic.” The auditors noted, for example, that in July 2025 officials began allowing employees to rescind their participation in the deferred resignation program in order to “fill critical vacancies.” Additionally, investigators reported that the agency in fiscal 2026 has rehired some employees who had left the agency through deferred resignation or early retirement.

The report also flagged several consequences of the federal hiring freeze on IRS performance in 2025 including:

Officials said that the agency may have been able to meet its goal to process paper returns in an average of 13 days or less if not for the hiring pause. However, the IRS did perform better in this area than in 2024.
Use of overtime to process returns increased by 38% between 2024 and 2025, which officials said was primarily due to them being unable to meet hiring targets. (GAO has previously reported that the IRS relies too much on overtime.)
The agency was able to fully staff fewer taxpayer assistance centers that provide in-person service in 2025 compared with 2024, in part, due to the freeze.

GAO recommended that the IRS create an implementation team to oversee the agency’s workforce overhauls and that leaders address staffing losses as part of the IRS strategic workforce plan, which is under development. In response to a draft of the report, agency officials did not express agreement or disagreement with the recommendations but said they would share details after the report is finalized.

Frank Bisignano, the head of the Social Security Administration and de facto leader of the IRS, testified before Congress earlier this month that he “feels good” about the IRS' current staffing level, while acknowledging that there hasn’t been any assessment of the workforce’s effectiveness post-reductions.

The inspector general for the IRS and National Taxpayer Advocate have also raised concerns with the agency’s preparedness for the 2026 tax season, citing reduced staffing.

Government Executive reported in February that the IRS has transferred human resources and IT staffers to handle tax returns and customer service.

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Many federal programs are missing from an OMB inventory, watchdog reports

Sean Michael Newhouse — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 16:40:00 -0400

While President Donald Trump has sought to shrink the size of federal agencies since the start of his second term, the Office of Management and Budget for years has struggled to quantify exactly how many government programs there are.

Since 2011, OMB has been required to create and annually update a publicly available inventory of federal programs. The agency in 2024 launched an expanded inventory pursuant to additional congressional directives and updated it in January 2025.

The Government Accountability Office in a March 5 report, however, found that OMB is not meeting all requirements with respect to the inventory.

The website has spending information for more than 2,600 federal programs, but many programs are not included, such as those dealing with acquisition, regulations and defense. Defense programs are typically the top recipient of congressionally appropriated funding; they represented nearly half of discretionary outlays in 2025.

GAO also reported that OMB is not archiving past inventories, contravening statutory requirements and preventing users from comparing past and current spending on specific programs.

Investigators also found that the data in the inventory was not always accurate. For example, 157 federal financial assistance programs did not have any reported spending. And the website says that it has information on more than $7 trillion in fiscal 2024 expenditures. But GAO noted that the number is incorrect because OMB combined different types of spending data: obligations (planned spending), outlays (actual spending) and revenue losses.

As of February, OMB has not publicized any plans to finish the inventory.

“Without implementation plans that cover all required programs and information, OMB has not positioned itself to develop a comprehensive inventory,” investigators wrote. “An incomplete inventory is limited in its effectiveness as a tool for Congress and the public to oversee and understand what the federal government does, spends and achieves through its programs.”

GAO made 17 recommendations, including that OMB incorporate all federal programs in the inventory, archive past spending data and ensure information on the website is transparent and accessible.

For almost all reports, GAO provides officials from the agency that is the subject of the report with the opportunity to comment on the watchdog’s findings. Officials typically respond, but OMB did not provide any comments on this report.

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Whistleblower report about waste leads to downsizing at one agency, OSC reports

Sean Michael Newhouse — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 13:45:00 -0500

The Office of Special Counsel said Thursday that a whistleblower complaint within the Health and Human Services Department has led one agency to slash staffing due to findings of government waste.

An individual alleged to OSC, which can receive whistleblower complaints, that the Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals was overstaffed following an increase in headcount at that agency in recent years to help process a backlog of appeals.

In 2014, the American Hospital Association sued HHS because officials were missing statutory deadlines for reviewing denials of claims for Medicare reimbursement. A federal court in 2018 ordered HHS to adhere to such required timelines, after which the department increased staffing at OMHA. By 2022, the appeals backlog was mostly resolved.

While case levels decreased, according to an OSC press release, the agency’s expanded workforce remained the same size. Workloads went from around 1,000 cases per agency legal team to roughly 50.

HHS investigators found that this led to approximately $30 million in wasteful personnel spending between 2023 and 2024. In response, OMHA, as of August 2025, cut its staff by 185 employees, or about 23%, “through retirements, resignations, reassignments, separations and other attrition.”

“This disclosure brought needed attention to OMHA's serious overstaffing challenges,” said OSC senior counsel Charles Baldis in a statement. “OSC also appreciates HHS's decisive and substantive actions to prevent the waste of taxpayer dollars."

Baldis is the designated leader of the agency by Acting Special Counsel Jamieson Greer, who is also U.S. trade representative. President Donald Trump fired the previous special counsel — Hampton Dellinger, who was appointed by Joe Biden — before the end of his term.

The Trump administration has prioritized downsizing the federal workforce, arguing that doing so will improve agency efficiency.

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Homeland Security Department is stonewalling watchdog investigations, GOP senator alleges

Sean Michael Newhouse — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 16:33:00 -0500

During a Tuesday hearing with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, a GOP senator accused department officials of obstructing watchdog investigations.

Specifically, Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., cited a letter from the DHS Office of Inspector General, which he said alleged that department leadership in 10 instances either misled investigators or prohibited certain inquiries.

“Does anybody have any idea how bad it has to be for the OIG in this agency to come out and do this publicly?” Tillis said. “That is stonewalling. That’s a failure of leadership. And that is why I’ve called for your resignation.”

The lawmaker’s office did not immediately respond to a request to provide a copy of the letter.

Tillis said that he would put procedural hurdles on several legislative activities until DHS responds to his questions with respect to the OIG’s letter and other matters.

The senator, who is not running for reelection, also criticized Noem’s policy of reviewing any Federal Emergency Management Agency expenditure that is $100,000 or more, which he said has caused delays to hurricane recovery efforts, and the department’s handling of the killings of two immigration protestors in Minneapolis by federal agents. Those shootings have led to the ongoing funding lapse for DHS.

“We’re an exceptional nation, and one of the reasons we’re exceptional is we expect exceptional leadership,” he said. “And you’ve demonstrated anything but that in the time that I’ve seen you responding to the emergency in North Carolina and across the southeast and acknowledging when mistakes are made and speaking too soon for the expediency of social media or whatever it is.”

Likewise, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., in February accused DHS of threatening to halt OIG investigations into immigration-related operations. Specifically, she said the department’s general counsel repeatedly informed watchdog officials about a provision of law that authorizes the secretary to halt an audit or investigation for certain reasons, including to prevent the disclosure of sensitive information or protect national security.

The DHS OIG has recently launched inquiries into:

Whether Immigration and Customs Enforcement appropriately investigates allegations of excessive use of force and holds agents accountable.
DHS’ processes for determining U.S. citizenship for individuals it detains or arrests during immigration operations.
Whether Customs and Border Protection conducts immigration enforcement in the country’s interior in accordance with federal rules.

The watchdog office is led by Joseph Cuffari, who was confirmed during Trump’s first term and who was spared from the January 2025 mass firings of inspectors general.

In 2024, a committee of agency IGs and other federal investigative officials substantiated allegations that Cuffari abused his authority and engaged in substantial misconduct, which mostly dealt with an outside investigation into former employees who questioned his qualifications.

The panel recommended that the president take “appropriate action, up to and including removal” against him, but Joe Biden did not discipline him.

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Memo to JD Vance: Fighting the War on waste

Donald F. Kettl — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 15:51:00 -0500

During President Trump’s State of the Union address, the president said, “I am officially announcing the war on fraud to be led by our great Vice President JD Vance.” And, he boldly added, “we’re able to find enough of that fraud, we will actually have a balanced budget overnight. It’ll go very quickly.”

The pledge to balance the budget by eliminating fraud is an old one. Clinton, Reagan, Obama and Biden all said they would wring out fraud and they never got close to the pot of gold at the end of that rainbow. Moreover, the idea that we could remotely come close to balancing the budget by eliminating fraud is ludicrous. The deficit at the end of fiscal 2025 was $1.8 trillion. The Government Accountability Office estimates that the amount of fraud in the federal government stands between $233 billion and $521 billion.

There are two things we can conclude. Even at the best, eliminating every possible dollar of fraud would only cut the deficit by a little more than 25%. But $521 billion ain’t chump change. We need to wish Vice President Vance godspeed in what’s surely an important mission.

So: here’s a memo to the vice president about how to start.

Dear Vice President Vance,

You stand in the shoes of many previous generals in the war on waste. The launch of their campaigns has always created great headlines, but their results have usually been disappointing.

Let’s start with two boring but important facts. One is that no one really knows how much fraud there is. Money can leak like water from an old water main—you know how much you’re putting in, you have a fair idea about what’s coming out and you can’t always tell where the leaks are along the way.

The second is that “fraud” is a deceptive label. It’s clearly wrong to create a bogus identity to milk cash from the federal government, but it’s often very hard to separate a good program poorly managed from a bad program criminally draining cash.

In the tales of rampant fraud among Minnesota day care centers, which prompted the latest headlines, some of what is presented as fraud actually is sloppy overbilling. Many of the day care centers had state licensing violations, including keeping the facilities clean and keeping records of vaccinations, but state investigators found very few instances of outright fraud. A 2025 federal report found that there were errors in 11% of the payments made to Minnesota day care centers, so there clearly are big problems. Figuring out what’s causing them is much tougher than appears on the surface.

These twin facts often sent the generals of previous wars on fraud to give up the battle and look for other wars to fight, but you can make big progress. Here’s how:

Know the enemy. Announcing an attack on “fraud” is tempting. Delivering is a lot harder, because fraud is like fat marbled through a terrific steak. A clumsy job of trying to cut it out can miss the fat and turn the steak into expensive hamburger.

Identify the target. The place to start is with “improper payments,” which GAO defines as “payments that should not have been made or that were made in an improper amount.” It’s a clumsy term. Not all improper payments are fraud—some are legitimate but trapped in sloppy bookkeeping. Not all fraud comes from improper payments—some people commit non-financial fraud, like illegally obtaining a passport. But improper payments are the place to start.

Go where the money is. The bank robber Willie Sutton was right—the highest potential for recovering money must start by attacking the biggest targets. More than half of all improper payments—53%—come from just Medicare and Medicaid. Another 7% in SNAP. There are tax-related improper payments, especially in the earned income tax credit. But in general, the rest of the government accounts for $41 billion in improper payments. This suggests where to aim the war on fraud.

Invest in the front-line troops. This means shoring up the inspectors general, who are the government’s fraud-fighting cops. It means investing in the key federal employees, since one person’s salary can leverage enormous amounts of money. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, for example, spends $252 million for every one of its employees.

Strengthen risk management and financial control activities. Sounds boring, I know. In fact, the 1990s sitcom Seinfeld spent a whole episode getting laughs from just how boring risk management seemed, and the episode won an award from the Writers Guild of America. But the key to separating fraud from other federal activities requires knowing where to look and having the tools to poke under the blankets. Most important, it’s essential to build roadblocks to fraud before it occurs. That’s a whole lot cheaper and more effective.

Develop new tools. Artificial intelligence seems invented to fight the way on waste. In the Medicaid program, for example, the biggest sources of fraud are billing for unnecessary services or services no one actually provides, upcoding (bumping up the level of complexity of a service to make more money), card sharing and obtaining drugs for sale on the side, among others. In a program with millions of transactions, this is a true needle-in-a-haystack problem. AI can help identify the right haystacks and find the most promising needles.

Understand that some problems that look like fraud are actually the result of poor management capacity, that others actually are fraud and that it’s often hard to tell the difference. Billions of dollars of federal money go to small nonprofits without much experience in managing programs or keeping track of the money. On the other hand, bad actors are always working hard to bilk the federal government out of taxpayers’ dollars. An effective war on fraud requires devising separate strategies for each of these problems—and figuring out when to use which one. It’s a problem that’s been around as long as there have been wars on waste.

Finally, a word of warning. It can be tremendously tempting to use the war on fraud to target political opponents. That’s easy because, unfortunately, there’s fraud everywhere. The rate of improper payments isn’t a measure of fraud, but it does give us clues about where to go looking.

Minnesota, for example, has an improper payment rate of 2.2%, but that’s less than half of the national average of 5.9%. The blue-state average is 6.3 percent. In blue Delaware, it’s 19.6%. Connecticut’s rate is 19.8%. But it’s not a partisan problem. The red-state average is 5.7%. In red Wyoming, it’s 20.7%; it’s 20.5% in South Carolina; and it’s 18.7% in Idaho.

There’s big money to recapture from controlling fraud and improving management. Any serious campaign to rake the money back, however, will fail if it’s a partisan war on waste. Nobody has a monopoly the problem—or the solutions.

So, Mr. Vice President, you are heading down a road that many have traveled before. Many travelers in the past have gotten stuck in ruts and potholes. But if you want to make real progress in saving taxpayer dollars, this is the road forward.

Donald F. Kettl is Professor Emeritus and Former Dean at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.

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Bipartisan lawmakers worried about shaky progress on modernized government worker background check system

Sean Michael Newhouse — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 15:22:00 -0500

Members of both parties in a Tuesday hearing expressed concerns about continued progress on implementation of an over budget and much delayed IT system that will support an updated background check program for federal employees.

Officials testified to the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations that work on the National Background Investigation Services system will be finished in fiscal 2028, despite an initial estimated completion date in fiscal 2019.

The nearly decade-long setback has come at a cost. Witnesses also reported that the government has spent at least $2.4 billion on NBIS development as well as maintaining legacy systems and is expected to need $2.2 billion more to finish the project.

In addition to criticizing the costs, lawmakers warned about delays to government personnel vetting reforms under Trusted Workforce 2.0.

“Without these vetting reforms in place, or the promised information technology like NBIS that serve as their backbone, security clearance providers and recipients lack advanced tools and the assurance that their personal information is guarded and safe,” said subcommittee Chairman Pete Sessions, R-Texas. “This is not a partisan issue. This is a national security issue.”

Rep. Kweisi Mfume, D-Md., the panel’s ranking member, emphasized that this issue impacts government contractors, as well.

“This has left contractors in my district, and districts all across the country, stuck with unclear instructions and increased costs as they juggle various systems,” he said. “In a region where roughly 9% of jobs require a security clearance, this really is not a small problem.”

Witnesses and lawmakers, however, noted that the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, which is responsible for NBIS, has made some headway.

Alissa Czyz, the director of Defense Capabilities and Management at the Government Accountability Office, stressed that DCSA now has a reliable cost estimate for NBIS and that the agency implemented all 13 cybersecurity recommendations the watchdog made in 2024 with respect to the system.

But both she and members of Congress expressed reservations that the DCSA does not have permanent leadership. The previous director, David Cattler, retired in September 2025. And the acting director, Justin Overbaugh, concurrently serves as the deputy undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security.

Overbaugh told the subcommittee that selecting a new DCSA director with government and private sector experience is a priority of the department. He also blamed past NBIS delays on the culture at the agency and said that the Trump administration has removed officials who were “stymieing progress.”

“I have found what I expected: a dedicated, talented and innovative workforce unfortunately shackled by burdensome processes designed not to empower them, but to maintain the status quo and sustain layers of management,” he said. “Our focus now is on unleashing their potential. To that end, we are designing the agency for purpose, moving it from a cumbersome bureaucracy to an agile organization that can serve as a model for the rest of government.”

Czyz also said that GAO found shortcomings with DCSA’s new schedule for NBIS development. Specifically, she said the agency did not perform a risk analysis that could show where slip-ups are most likely to occur.

Overbaugh said that a schedule addressing those concerns would be complete in March or April.

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GAO report offers new details on the workers agencies lost last year

Erich Wagner — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 17:53:00 -0500

Newly released data from the Government Accountability Office offers some of the most granular glimpses yet of how the Trump administration’s sprint to remake the federal workforce in the president’s image impacted agency headcounts.

The report, published Tuesday, responds to a request by congressional Democrats to catalog data related to a variety of workforce changes undertaken shortly after President Trump returned to office last January, including reductions in force, the purge of recently hired or promoted employees with fewer civil service protections and the deferred resignation program.

GAO said it relied upon data from the Office of Personnel Management and individual agencies in compiling its report. OPM has previously said that around 317,000 federal workers left government in 2025. The watchdog agency’s report captures the first six months of Trump’s second term, capturing a fraction of that throughput.

“Of the 134,122 employees who separated from the 23 CFO Act agencies during the period from January to June 2025, a substantial majority (around 77%) retired or resigned,” GAO found. “Another roughly 19% were terminated or removed from their positions. Of these, agencies reported that nearly 4,500 employees (or about 3%) were terminated during a probationary or trial period.”

The Veterans Affairs and Defense departments saw the largest downward swing in headcount of any agency in terms of sheer number of workers during that time span, losing a net of 19,103 and 15,029 employees, respectively. But relative to an agency’s total workforce, the embattled Education Department, which the administration aims to abolish, saw the most job losses, with its workforce cratering by more than 20%.

Other notable trends during the first half of 2025 include the Social Security Administration, which saw its workforce fall by more than 5,500 employees, well over half of the 7,000 in headcount reductions its new leadership aspired to last spring and ultimately eclipsed by more than 400 workers. The agency has since reassigned hundreds of staffers to handle customer service duties on its 1-800 number as it struggles to keep up with taxpayer demand.

GAO’s data also reveals a better sense of the scope of the controversial deferred resignation program, an offer devised by Elon Musk to pay federal workers to sit on extended administrative leave until the end of fiscal 2025, at which point they would retire or resign. In the first half of 2025, nearly 144,000 employees were accepted into the program, the vast majority of whom stayed on the federal payroll until last fall or winter.

Among the top agencies in terms of deployment of deferred resignations were the Defense Department with 48,002 employees, Treasury with 17,640 and the Agriculture Department, where 16,414 applied for and received deferred resignation. The U.S. Agency for International Development saw relatively few DRP participants at just 251, though more than 2,000—nearly half—were already on extended administrative leave as the Trump administration pushed to shutter the agency.

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Amid immigration agent hiring surge, watchdog flags shortages on the U.S.-Canada border

Sean Michael Newhouse — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 14:10:00 -0500

While the Trump administration has launched a campaign to recruit immigration enforcement officers, the Government Accountability Office reported on Feb. 12 that officials do not have a plan to address a shortage of employees in a non-uniformed position that is key to securing the northern border.

Law enforcement information systems specialists monitor surveillance cameras along the 4,000-mile border between the U.S. and Canada, where apprehensions have more than tripled between fiscal 2019 and 2024. During that same period, however, the number of agents assigned to the northern border has decreased by about 6%.

Given that reduction, investigators wrote that surveillance employees are even more important. But only 77% of specialist positions were filled at the end of fiscal 2024, compared with an 84% staffing rate at the end of fiscal 2018.

“Without a plan identifying strategies to address the gap in Law Enforcement Information Systems Specialists in sectors along the northern border, Border Patrol is not well-positioned to fill vacancies and reduce attrition,” the report authors wrote. “In turn, Border Patrol does not have the resources needed to fully monitor land-based surveillance technology along the border, particularly in light of the expanded deployment of surveillance technology since fiscal year 2019.”

Border Patrol officials told investigators that hurdles to hiring these specialists include a long background check, the high cost of living in areas where they’d work and few career advancement opportunities.

GAO recommended that Customs and Border Protection create a strategy to address workforce gaps for the position, which the Homeland Security Department concurred with and said would be addressed by April 30.

DHS officials wrote in response to the report that employees who process detained migrants are being trained to cover the specialist positions and that 18 vacancies have been filled this way. Officials also said that they would consider providing a retention bonus to minimize attrition.

The 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act provided CBP with more than $2 billion to recruit and retain agents.

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Indian Affairs regional employees have more work and fewer people to do it, watchdog reports

Sean Michael Newhouse — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 16:44:00 -0500

Regional employees for the Interior Department’s Indian Affairs component have been forced to contend with workforce cuts and increased workloads under the administrations of Donald Trump and Joe Biden, according to a Government Accountability Office report published on Tuesday.

Agency officials told investigators that they expected 580 separations at the regional level by the end of calendar year 2025. In contrast, there were 280 regional separations in fiscal 2024.

As a result, three regional offices reported that they were set to shed more than 20% of their staff due to separation incentives that the Trump administration offered. And officials in one region said that, due to a shortage of wildland fire staffers, they needed to rely on volunteers and local firefighters to respond to a recent wildfire.

Indian Affairs has 12 regional offices, providing support to about 2.5 million Native Americans and Alaska Natives.

Even before Trump’s federal workforce cuts, however, Indian Affairs regional offices were dealing with staff shortages. Regional workers decreased from 2,675 to 2,540 between fiscal 2022 and 2024.

As such, Indian Affairs officials told GAO that an infusion of funding that the component received in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act presented problems for the workforce.

Congress appropriated $385 million to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which is under Indian Affairs, through the IRA for use through the end of fiscal 2031. Investigators reported that, as of December 2025, roughly $186.1 million of that funding had not yet been expended.

Regional officials shared that IRA implementation impacted workloads, including through reassignments of employees outside of their areas of expertise.

“Officials we interviewed from one region stated that federal funds like the IRA are similar to an ‘unfunded mandate’ because regional offices need to implement the funding without an increase in staff,” investigators wrote.

Additionally, GAO reported that the disbursements of more than 65% of Indian Affairs IRA funds were paused due to Trump executive orders that mandated reviews of federal spending, which created confusion for tribes.

“Officials from six regions and a tribal organization representative told us that some tribes had to push out project timelines from a few weeks to a year or more because of contractor availability and local weather restrictions,” according to the report. “Officials from three of these regions also said that these delays likely would increase project costs for materials and labor.”

Due to these various pressures, GAO found that regional Indian Affairs employees worked more than 1 million overtime hours between fiscal 2023 and August 2025, which equals more than 480 full-time equivalent employees.

Instead of focusing on increasing staffing, GAO recommended that Indian Affairs systematically identify opportunities to streamline agency policies and expand the use of self-determination contracts and self-governance compacts. Under such agreements, tribes assume greater responsibility for administering federal programs.

An Interior Department spokesperson said that Indian Affairs agrees with the recommendations.

“We continue to modernize internal policies, improve regional operations and expand staff training to increase efficiency, accountability and support for tribal self-determination,” the spokesperson said in a statement to Government Executive. “Following the final report, Indian Affairs will outline specific actions, timelines and responsible parties to implement these improvements.”

Earlier this month, GAO reported that staff cuts at Indian Affairs under the Trump administration have exacerbated longstanding workforce challenges.

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‘My dream job has turned into a nightmare’: Ex-feds and public service experts testify to Congress on how to rebuild government post-Trump

Sean Michael Newhouse — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 16:37:17 -0500

Updated at 11:55 a.m. ET Feb. 17

House Democrats examined the fallout from the Trump administration’s agency workforce cuts and potential congressional measures to rebuild the civil service and strengthen executive branch oversight during a Thursday roundtable with good government experts and former employees.

“If you just put it in place like before or leave it like it is, it's clear that someone like Donald Trump — who doesn't care about the law, doesn't care about ethics, doesn't care about norms or traditions — will just run roughshod over it,” said Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md.

Several speakers condemned the recent finalization of Schedule Policy/Career (formerly Schedule F), which would remove civil service job protections for tens of thousands of federal employees in “policy-related” positions.

Rob Shriver, former acting director of the Office of Personnel Management under President Joe Biden, argued that subjecting the federal workforce to increased political influence would deter people from wanting to work for agencies.

“Federal workers come to the job because they want to make a difference, and they want to be judged based on their merit and not based on their politics. That's been ingrained in our system since the 1880s, and this administration is now taking this back,” said Shriver, who is now a senior official at the Democracy Forward nonprofit. “We need to rebuild that trust, rebuild these guardrails and make sure that the American people understand that the people who work in the federal government are working for them.”

Trump officials have contended that Schedule P/C will not lead to federal employees being fired on the basis of their personal politics.

At the roundtable, former Rep. Barbara Comstock, R-Va., a Trump critic, suggested establishing bipartisan groups organized by issue area to advise Congress on oversight of agencies.

“You could gather people together and brainstorm with them to use their expertise,” she said. “Certainly we have a large pool of retired [feds] who have watched all of this and who want to help in a lot of ways. Some are already engaged.”

Krista Boyd, who was inspector general at the Office of Personnel Management before Trump fired her and is now a senior official at the nonprofit American Oversight, urged Congress to conduct more roundtables and investigations into the executive branch and strengthen the Freedom of Information Act.

She also argued that there should be consequences for any actions committed by the Trump administration that may be illegal. Specifically, she pointed to reports that officials improperly shared agency data.

“If that kind of behavior is allowed to stand without accountability, it will belittle additional reforms that are put in place,” she said.

Lawmakers and advocates also brought up familiar proposals, including halting reductions in force, restoring union representation in response to the president revoking collective bargaining rights for two-thirds of federal employees and increasing government pay so that it’s more comparable with the private sector.

Thursday’s roundtable took place in Fairfax County, Va., a suburb of Washington, D.C., where unemployment spiked following federal job cuts. Former civil servants also testified about how losing their careers has impacted them.

Kelly Jabar, who handled offboarding at the Food and Drug Administration before she was laid off, flagged several operational issues with how the Trump administration let her team go. She said that the termination notice did not state where to send government equipment and that colleagues received documents from the agency with the personal information of other people.

Jabar said that she struggled to get answers to any of her questions, including how long her health insurance would last, which was important to her as she was battling breast cancer.

“My dream job has turned into a nightmare,” she said. “I just wanted to heal, and this just keeps giving me more and more stress.”

Kenneth Bledsoe described his family’s chaotic evacuation from the Democratic Republic of the Congo after the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

“There were explosions and gunfire, leaving under cover of night, going days without sleep, only a carry-on bag for each of us, crowded onto tiny boats with our fellow diplomats, their babies and their pets,” he said.

Jacob Cross discussed losing his job at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as part of the February 2025 mass firings of employees in their probationary periods, generally those who have been hired or promoted within the past year.

Cross said that he spent nearly a decade in the private sector specializing in tech, but it was his goal to work for the federal government. In recent months, the Trump administration has launched Tech Force to recruit tech employees.

Around the time of his firing, his wife found out she was pregnant. While Cross has since gotten a new job, he had to take a pay cut. The former fed compared his family’s situation to that of the government.

“While something may seem OK on the surface, the reality can be much different. My family navigated our hardships, and we are so lucky to have our daughter with us now. But because of the indiscriminate and cruel treatment we received as part of the DOGE firings, we took on debt, and my wife was forced to go back to work sooner,” he said. “My former program office is the same way. The dedicated civil servants that are still working there are ensuring the mission stays on track, but the innovations and growth that are necessary to make sure we stay on track for the future have been put on hold.”

Clarification: An earlier version of this story referred to the event as a hearing, as some Democratic members did. Under House rules, however, only the majority party can formally convene a hearing, so this event was not an official committee hearing.

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Watchdog flags gaps in Coast Guard’s handling of discrimination complaints

Sean Michael Newhouse — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 14:24:00 -0500

The Government Accountability Office on Wednesday issued a report examining how the Coast Guard handles discrimination against service members, flagging issues with how officials define, collect information about and promote awareness of such incidents.

Specifically, the report addressed social climate incidents, which is when a member of the community commits an act against a Coast Guard member or their family that is "perceived as hostile, harassing or discriminatory in nature, and that is based on unlawful discrimination.”

For example, one incident featured in the report involved a restaurant that allegedly refused to serve a member because of their race.

GAO, however, reported that Coast Guard officials relied on different interpretations for what a social climate incident is and used different standards of proof to substantiate allegations. Investigators blamed this on the service branch’s definition for such an incident, which they wrote is “not clear as to whether it is limited to protected classes only — i.e., race, color, national origin, sex, religion and disability.”

“This could mean service members receive different response options depending on how their local command interprets and applies the policy,” according to the report.

In all, GAO found that there were 112 such reported incidents between fiscal 1998 and 2024, of which 79% dealt with race or ethnicity. More than half of the total incidents occurred between fiscal 2019 and 2024.

Coast Guard officials told investigators that they couldn’t necessarily explain the increase but reasoned that it could be due to members feeling more comfortable reporting incidents of discrimination following the 2020 anti-racism protests.

Investigators also reported that Coast Guard officials “generally implemented policies to address and oversee social climate incidents” but were unable to find any documentation for six reported incidents. Additionally, several commanders said they did not know the service branch published data about such incidents on an internal website.

GAO recommended that the Coast Guard clarify its definition of social climate incident, implement a standard process to collect and retain information about such incidents and ensure commanders are aware of associated tracking tools.

The Homeland Security Department, the Coast Guard’s parent agency, concurred with all three recommendations and said that it would implement them by the end of fiscal 2026.

A Coast Guard spokesperson said in a statement to Government Executive that: “Discrimination against our service members is unacceptable and inconsistent with our core values. We are committed to addressing GAO’s recommendations and strengthening our policies and processes as needed to ensure our workforce and their families are supported and treated with dignity and respect.”

Scrutiny of personnel matters at the Coast Guard has increased in recent years following the disclosure of Operation Fouled Anchor, an internal review of mishandled sexual assault allegations at the service's Academy from the late 1980s to 2006 that officials did not inform Congress about.

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Gabbard’s office denies wrongdoing amid scrutiny over whistleblower complaint

David DiMolfetta — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 15:00:00 -0500

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s office is rejecting allegations raised in a whistleblower complaint and related media reporting, saying her handling of highly classified intelligence was lawful as lawmakers press for more information about the case.

“Every single action taken by DNI Gabbard was fully within her legal and statutory authority, and these politically motivated attempts to manipulate highly classified information undermine the essential national security work being done by great Americans in the Intelligence Community every day,” a spokesperson for Gabbard told Nextgov/FCW on Sunday.

The response follows a series of reports describing intelligence derived from a National Security Agency–intercepted phone call referenced in the whistleblower complaint. The Guardian, citing the whistleblower’s attorney Andrew Bakaj, said NSA analysts flagged a discussion between two foreign intelligence figures who spoke about a person close to President Donald Trump.

Subsequent reporting by The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal said the discussion, in part, involved Iran and cited people familiar with the matter.

According to the Guardian, the intelligence was elevated to Gabbard, who later delivered a paper copy directly to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles rather than allowing it to be circulated more broadly. The outlet reported that Gabbard then instructed the NSA not to publish the report and instead directed that the classified details be sent to her office.

Nextgov/FCW was not able to independently verify the reporting. The complaint remains highly classified, limiting visibility into the intelligence underpinning it to a small circle of officials. Bakaj has not returned multiple requests for comment.

In a memo to lawmakers posted online by Gabbard’s office, Intelligence Community Inspector General Chris Fox said the whistleblower alleged Gabbard restricted the sharing of the intelligence for political purposes. Fox had served in Gabbard’s office as an aide before being confirmed to the oversight role.

The complaint was first made public in a Wall Street Journal report last week, which said it had been filed with the intelligence community’s inspector general but remained stalled in Gabbard’s office for about eight months. The complaint was not shared with Congress until this past week.

Many details about the complaint and its underlying intelligence are unclear. Tamara Johnson, the former acting Inspector General of the intelligence community, dismissed the complaint and said in a June 6 letter addressed to the whistleblower that the IG “could not determine if the allegations appear credible.”

“The duty to safeguard classified information is paramount, as mishandling or leaking of such information could significantly harm national security,” NSA Deputy Director Tim Kosiba said in a statement. “Consistent with all applicable laws, NSA investigates any mishandling or unauthorized disclosure of intelligence and partners closely with [the] Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation to ensure the necessary steps are taken to hold those accountable.”

“Distinct from unauthorized disclosures and working closely with NSA’s Office of General Counsel, NSA ensures that whistleblowing is protected by Federal laws, policies and procedures,” added Kosiba.

Asked whether the Senate Intelligence Committee has spoken with the whistleblower, the panel’s top Democrat, Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, said Sunday that his understanding is the whistleblower has been awaiting legal guidance on how to engage.

“We are trying to get both the redactions and the underlying intelligence, and that is in process,” he said in a “Face the Nation” interview.

Intercepted phone calls can be difficult to interpret because intelligence analysts may lack full context about who is speaking or whether what’s being said is accurate. In some cases, targeted persons could intentionally say misleading things, under the assumption that their communications are being monitored, to confuse or deter intelligence-gathering efforts.

Members of the “Gang of Eight” — senior Senate and House leaders who receive some of the executive branch’s most sensitive classified briefings — were provided a heavily redacted version of the complaint for review last Tuesday.

Lawmakers have since split over whether Gabbard’s actions were lawful and over the credibility of the whistleblower’s allegations.

Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, the Republican chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a recent X post that the complaint is “not credible and the inspectors general and the DNI took the necessary steps” to ensure the materials were “handled and transmitted appropriately in accordance with law.”

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DHS implies it will stop certain oversight investigations, senator alleges

Sean Michael Newhouse — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 13:48:53 -0500

A Democratic senator on Feb. 5 accused the Homeland Security Department of threatening to halt watchdog inquiries into immigration-related operations.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., in a letter to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem alleged that the department’s general counsel repeatedly informed officials in DHS’ inspector general office about a provision of current law that authorizes the secretary to halt an audit or investigation for certain reasons, including to prevent the disclosure of sensitive information or protect national security.

“A reasonable observer would interpret your general counsel transmitting a ‘reminder’ email to the DHS OIG citing 5 U.S.C. §417 — unprompted and seemingly out of nowhere — as a clearly implied, unspoken threat to discourage DHS OIG from conducting any investigations into sensitive or controversial matters, particularly where you or your direct reports may have engaged in waste, fraud or abuse,” Duckworth wrote in the letter, which was publicized on Feb. 6.

The senator wrote that she became concerned about this issue after a Jan. 29 meeting with DHS IG Joseph Cuffari and that no DHS secretary has ever invoked this authority. The IG is required to notify Congress within 30 days if the secretary takes such an action.

On Feb. 2, more than 40 Democratic lawmakers requested that Cuffari expedite the OIG’s reviews of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s and Customs and Border Protection’s operations, including an inquiry into whether ICE appropriately investigates allegations of excessive use of force and holds agents accountable.

Scrutiny of DHS increased following the January killings of immigration protestors Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis by federal officers.

Duckworth also alleged in the letter to Noem that the DHS general counsel asked the OIG to report every ongoing audit, inspection and criminal investigation.

“Such an invasive fishing expedition by the DHS general counsel appears to pave the way for you to begin shutting down DHS OIG investigations,” Duckworth wrote.

The senator requested that, by Feb. 13, Noem retract the request for a list of active OIG reviews, commit to not halt any investigation and explain why the DHS general counsel communicated with the OIG about the secretary’s authority to stop inquiries.

DHS in a statement, however, emphasized that Noem maintains that authority under federal law.

“Senator Duckworth is arguing that a Senate-confirmed cabinet secretary shouldn’t use an existing section of federal law because she doesn’t think it should exist,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin in a statement to Government Executive. “If Senator Duckworth and her fellow Democrats do not like the law that Congress already passed, they — as members of Congress — have full constitutional authority under Article I to change the law and assuage their own concerns.”

The panel recommended that the president take “appropriate action, up to and including removal” against Cuffari, who was confirmed during Donald Trump’s first term, but Joe Biden did not discipline him.

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A thinning roster at Indian Affairs leaves tribes wondering who’s left to help, watchdog reports

Sean Michael Newhouse — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 13:00:00 -0500

Updated at 3:40 p.m. ET Feb. 6

The Government Accountability Office has long warned that staffing shortages in the Interior Department’s Indian Affairs bureaus have hindered service delivery to tribes. Nevertheless, the component was not spared from the Trump administration’s federal workforce reductions.

In a report released on Wednesday, GAO found that Indian Affairs’ job cuts have left critical vacancies, causing concern among tribal leaders about the future effectiveness of programs that support law enforcement, schools and natural resource management.

Investigators reported that Indian Affairs’ workforce has experienced an 11% net decrease since January 2025, going from 7,470 employees to 6,624.

These reductions are primarily due to two voluntary separation programs that Indian Affairs offered in 2025. Such programs generally put employees who agreed to leave government service on paid administrative leave through Sept. 30, 2025. The agency also instituted a hiring freeze but has been able to obtain waivers to bring on some staffers.

As a result, the agency has been forced to operate with fewer workers. For example, six of 12 Bureau of Indian Affairs regional directors were acting and 12 of 24 deputy regional director positions were acting or vacant, as of June 2, 2025. And one regional director reported that some of their agency offices no longer had employees for agriculture, forestry or realty programs.

During consultations between Indian Affairs and tribal leaders in spring 2025, leaders argued that the agency already didn’t have adequate staffing.

“Some tribal leaders said that additional staff were needed and emphasized the efficiency benefits that come with having long-term, well-trained staff,” GAO investigators wrote. “Tribal leaders raised concerns about the loss of specialized knowledge, such as knowledge about service delivery to tribes in Alaska, resulting from the loss of staff with extensive or specialized experience.”

In recent years, GAO has recommended that the Bureau of Indian Education, a component of Indian Affairs, hire more staffers to oversee COVID-19 relief funding to schools at high risk for financial mismanagement and warned that management of $385 million in funding for Indian Affairs from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act could be impeded by vacancies and skills gaps in its workforce.

While the Interior Department is in the midst of consolidating its bureaus, Indian Affairs officials told GAO, as of December, that they do not currently have plans to reorganize or further reduce their workforce.

GAO provided Indian Affairs an opportunity to comment on the report, but officials declined.

In response to a request for comment from Government Executive, the component responded: "Indian Affairs appreciates GAO’s review and is committed to strengthening regional workforce capacity and service delivery to tribes. We continue to modernize internal policies to increase efficiency, accountability and support for tribal self-determination."

This story has been updated with a statement from Indian Affairs.

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Democrats ask watchdog marked by past controversy to expedite reviews of ICE, CBP

Sean Michael Newhouse — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 17:59:23 -0500

Updated at 10:35 a.m. ET Feb. 6

More than 40 Democratic lawmakers on Monday requested that the inspector general for the Homeland Security Department, which is led by an official who has previously been the subject of substantiated misconduct complaints, expedite its reviews of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s and Customs and Border Protection’s operations.

The members of Congress argued that urgency is necessary following the January killings of protestors Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis by federal officers and reports that federal immigration agents are entering people’s homes without a judicial warrant.

“ICE agents have gotten out of control, using needlessly violent force against community members who are exercising their First Amendment rights and pose no threat,” wrote the lawmakers, which include Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and House Minority Whip Rep. Katherine Clark, D-Mass.

According to its website, the DHS IG has recently launched inquires into:

Whether ICE appropriately investigates allegations of excessive use of force and holds agents accountable.
DHS’ processes for determining U.S. citizenship for individuals it detains or arrests during immigration operations.
Whether CBP conducts immigration enforcement in the country’s interior in accordance with federal rules.

The letter’s signatories, however, expressed concerns based on a January Government Accountability Office report that found DHS’ watchdog was not consistently meeting its timeline to complete audits within 397 days.

The Democrats encouraged the IG to immediately notify DHS leaders if investigators uncover anything that could pose a “serious, imminent threat” to public safety and inform Congress if ICE or CBP refuses to cooperate with information requests.

The lawmakers also requested that the IG address in these reviews:

How many use-of-force claims the watchdog office has decided to — and not to — investigate since the start of Trump’s second term.
The percentage of ICE arrests over the past four years that were respectively performed with a judicial warrant, an administrative warrant (issued by an agency rather than a court) or no warrant.
How many U.S. citizens have been arrested, detained or ordered to deported since Jan. 20, 2025.

The DHS IG in a Thursday press release said that the "reviews are being conducted as expeditiously as possible while ensuring we apply rigor and uphold our professional standards."

"The timeline for completing any oversight review is affected by several variables — including the scope and complexity of the project, access to information and resource availability — therefore we cannot provide a specific date of completion," officials said. "If, however, during our work we find matters that warrant immediate attention and action (such as those posing serious risk or imminent threat to safety, health, property, or continuity of operations), DHS OIG has mechanisms to
promptly inform the Department and Congress, rather than waiting for a final report."

In 2024, a committee of agency IGs and other federal investigative officials substantiated allegations that Joseph Cuffari, the DHS IG, abused his authority and engaged in substantial misconduct, which mostly dealt with an outside investigation into former employees who questioned his qualifications.

The panel recommended that the president take “appropriate action, up to and including removal” against Cuffari, who was confirmed during Trump’s first term, but Joe Biden did not discipline him.

This story has been updated with a statement from the DHS IG.

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Education Department spent up to $38M paying employees not to work before reinstating them, watchdog reports

Sean Michael Newhouse — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 16:03:00 -0500

The Government Accountability Office found in a Monday report that the Education Department spent $28.5 million to $38 million on nine months of paid leave for employees in its Office for Civil Rights before ultimately reinstating them to their positions.

In March, the Education Department undertook workforce reductions as part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to downsize the civil service as well as an executive order for the Education secretary to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure” of the agency. Eliminating the department would require congressional authorization.

Between reductions in force and buyouts, the administration halved Education’s workforce.

OCR, which enforces federal civil rights laws at educational institutions, also lost 299 of its 575 staffers as a result of the March RIFs and closed seven of its 12 regional offices.

Impacted employees were supposed to be officially separated in June, but their terminations were delayed by multiple preliminary injunctions brought about from several federal lawsuits. Then, in December, Education brought back 85 OCR staffers and rescinded the remaining RIF notices in January.

While that played out, affected OCR employees weren’t allowed to work and were put on paid leave. Based on court filings, GAO determined that Education spent $28.5 million to $38 million compensating such individuals between March and December.

“For more than nine months, Education Secretary Linda McMahon sidelined hundreds of employees at the Office for Civil Rights from the critical work of protecting our nation’s most vulnerable students and families, while costing American taxpayers up to $38 million and mounting a massive backlog of complaints from parents and students,” said Rachel Gittleman, president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, which represents Education employees. “Instead of following court orders and federal law, the Trump Administration chose to keep these civil rights professionals on paid administrative leave rather than letting them do their jobs, while students, families and schools paid the price.”

GAO reported, based on Education’s most recent data, that OCR’s caseload increased by an average of 98 cases per week between June 27 and Sept. 23.

Investigators also faulted the department for not being able to show that its analysis of the RIFs at OCR addressed all potential costs and savings associated with them. Specifically, they said officials neglected to consider the costs of severance pay, unemployment insurance and handling appeals or grievances.

“By not demonstrating that its analyses accounted for all potential costs and savings, and by not documenting such analyses, Education lacks reasonable assurance that its RIF actions achieved the stated goal of reforming the federal workforce to maximize efficiency and productivity,” the report said. “Specifically, Education cannot ensure that OCR improved service to the American people, increased productivity or reduced its overall budget for fiscal years 2025 through 2027 with its actions.”

GAO recommended that Education estimate the total costs and savings associated with its March RIFs, but the department disagreed. Officials argued that because OCR staffers were reinstated that such an analysis is unnecessary.

Investigators also reported that, between March and September, OCR received more than 9,000 complaints, resolving about 7,000 of them. Roughly 90% of the resolved cases were dismissed.

Between 2010 and 2020, dismissal was the most common outcome of resolved OCR complaints regarding alleged hostile behaviors, ranging from about half to around 80%, according to a 2021 GAO report. That report noted that the dismissals occurred for a variety of reasons, the most common being that OCR “did not receive consent to disclose the name of the complainant.”

Pursuant to the directive calling for its elimination, Education has detailed dozens of its employees to other departments. Staffers told Government Executive, however, that the transfers, so far, effectively amount to a change in physical location rather than an alteration of work or chain of command.

Trump has twice replaced the acting inspector general for the Education Department. That watchdog is also investigating the consequences of staff reductions at the agency.

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As Trump administration cries ‘fraud,’ experts worry it does more harm than good

Natalie Alms — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 14:00:00 -0500

Combating fraud in government programs has been a talking point for the White House since the start of the second Trump administration, most recently with a focus on an ongoing social services fraud scandal in Minnesota.

But experts say that the administration is making the problem worse, not better, by making false claims, dismantling the government’s watchdogs, using fraud as a pretext for political goals and more.

'The specter of a politicized inspector general community'

Days after taking office in 2025, Trump broke norms — and law, according to a federal judge — by dismissing nearly 20 inspectors general, whose very jobs are to combat waste, fraud and abuse in the government.

“President Trump's firing of IGs and removal of acting IGs, and then the subsequent appointment of some very political folks as IGs … does raise the specter of a politicized inspector general community,” one of those fired watchdogs, Mark Lee Greenblatt, told Nextgov/FCW.

“That is a major concern,” said Greenblatt, who was the Interior Department’s inspector general until Trump dismissed him days after taking office.

The risk in firing IGs and appointing new ones at the start of a new administration is that these apolitical, independent organizations may favor one administration or another, or pursue partisan attacks, he said.

That’s a worry shared by Max Stier, the president and CEO of the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service, who recently told reporters that he’s worried the administration’s “hunt for waste” will become a “mechanism to pursue enemies.”

“This administration utilizes the clothing of good government without the substance of it,” he said. “Firing [these inspectors general] for no good reason was the clearest sign that, in fact, waste is not their goal here. Control is their goal. Their choices have been entirely designed to maximize their ability to remove anybody that will get in their way of doing what they want, irrespective of the legality or the constitutionality of their action.”

Concerns of 'co-opting' fraud prevention

The administration’s creation of a new fraud-focused associate deputy attorney general has also sparked concerns about politicized investigations.

Beyond removing watchdogs, Trump’s White House has also cited fraud for a variety of its most controversial actions.

The administration has been “co-opting” the word fraud, said Linda Miller, an anti-fraud expert who worked at the Government Accountability Office — Congress’s oversight arm — for a decade.

“It’s dismaying, to put it mildly,” she said.

The Trump administration pointed to fraud as rationale for shutting down the U.S. Agency for International Development last year, for example. Many of those claims were false or misleading, Snopes assessed.

“It’s not fraud if you don’t agree with how the administration before you spent money,” said Miller. “That’s just a difference of agreement on policy priorities.”

This month, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem cited an ongoing welfare fraud scandal in Minnesota as a reason to send more federal agencies to Minneapolis to support the work of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

The same day that federal agents fatally shot Veterans Affairs ICU nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, President Donald Trump accused Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and other politicians in the state of “inciting Insurrection” as a “COVER UP” for fraud.

Minnesota is in the midst of uncovering a real fraud problem in its social services. Federal prosecutors have estimated that the total fraud could be as much as $9 billion, although Walz has disputed that number.

But the Trump administration has also latched onto misleading claims of fraud in child daycare centers after Nick Shirley, a 23-year-old YouTuber, claimed to find extensive fraud in child care centers in Minnesota. He alleged that they were receiving funds but not providing any services. The state has since sent investigators to do on-site compliance checks at the centers and confirmed that they were all operating normally.

Miller’s frustration comes in part because the government does have actual problems with fraud. GAO estimated in 2024 that the federal government loses roughly $233 billion to $521 billion every year.

The biggest perpetrators of large-scale fraud against the government are organized crime rings and businesses, not individuals getting benefits that misrepresent their eligibility, said Miller.

“It's kind of curious how the administration seems not to be paying much, if any attention to organized threats coming from adversarial nations like Russia,” she said. “But then they also don't seem too concerned about corruption since they rolled back the enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.”

The claims of daycare fraud in Minnesota aren’t the only misleading or false claims of fraud made by the administration.

The Trump administration continues to pursue claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election that have been repeatedly debunked. This week, FBI agents searched a Georgia election center for ballots and other records from the 2020 election. The Department of Homeland Security has been building a citizenship database to check voter rolls, too — a move experts say could disenfranchise legitimate voters.

Trump officials including Vice President JD Vance claimed last year that 40% of calls to the Social Security Administration were fraudulent.

But anti-fraud checks found only 2 calls out of over 110,000 to potentially be fraudulent after they were installed in response to concerns from the Department of Government Efficiency.

“Ultimately, those sorts of inconsistent messages or outright incorrect information undermine the American public's confidence in the government's information,” said Greenblatt. “That's to our collective detriment.”

Fraud still remains a problem

The White House disputed those experts' concerns about its anti-fraud efforts.

“President Trump pledged to cut the waste, fraud, and abuse in our bloated government, and the Administration is committed to continue delivering on this pledge,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle told Nextgov/FCW in a statement. “In only a year, he has already made significant progress in making the federal government more efficient to better serve the American taxpayer.”

Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, the acting vice president of policy and government affairs at the Project on Government Oversight, or POGO, told Nextgov/FCW that he was initially hopeful that DOGE could break things that “ought to be broken.”

“But it turns out, they didn't really care about efficiency, effectiveness or waste, fraud [and] abuse,” he said. “They were just using the window dressing of that, the rhetorical justification of waste, fraud, abuse, effectiveness, efficiency, to execute a political agenda.”

Trump has done some helpful things for those in the anti-fraud space, said Miller, namely signing an executive order to help agencies share data for fraud prevention, which has long been a sore spot for watchdogs.

But she added that the Trump administration’s work has largely been more hurtful than helpful in terms of fraud, and muddling what fraud is risks turning people off of combatting the actual fraud problems.

“I've been hearing that a lot lately, like ‘They say fraud is a problem. Fraud is not a problem. They're just using it as a ruse,’” Miller said. “Both things are true — fraud is a problem, and they're using it as a ruse.”

Jordan Burris, who worked on technology in the Office of Management and Budget during the Trump and Biden administrations and now works at digital identity company Socure, told Nextgov/FCW that distractions have made it more difficult for those in the anti-fraud space.

“There have been distractions associated with the politicization of fraud that has made it harder to actually execute on that mission, and further have taken us away from what needs to be done in this moment to combat what we are seeing from nation states and other criminal organizations,” he said, advocating instead for using data science at scale to identify payments that shouldn’t have been made and installing preventative measures to stop money from going to bad actors in the first place.

In early January, the Trump administration froze $10 billion in funding for child care subsidies, social services and cash support for low-income families in California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota and New York in the name of fraud prevention, a move that a judge has already blocked with a temporary restraining order. The press release announcing the freeze did not cite any specific instances of ongoing fraud in those states, beyond “identified concerns.”

Democrats have called the administration's withholding of funds retaliation. Hedtler-Gaudette said that the administration is weaponizing fraud by going after it selectively. The freeze is the latest example of the Trump administration withholding funding from Democratic-run parts of the country.

“A huge number of people are being denied supports they are legally entitled to,” said Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan. “Fraud has consistently been an excuse to go after safety net programs.”

Previous administrations may also have politicized fraud issues — think of the “welfare queen” narrative — said Miller, adding that what’s happening now is different in magnitude and scope.

She previously ran a consulting group to help the government implement a fraud risk management framework developed by GAO. That work has stopped, though, and the company doesn’t exist anymore, after they lost their government contracts.

“All the work we were doing in the fraud space — we’re not doing it anymore,” said Miller. “And in many cases, the clients that we were working with, are also no longer doing any fraud risk management work.”

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Ethics organization calls for investigation into jewelry ad that features assistant secretary

Sean Michael Newhouse — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 15:12:36 -0500

A government watchdog nonprofit on Tuesday requested that the inspector general for the Energy Department investigate whether an assistant secretary violated ethics rules for appearing in a jewelry advertisement that used her official title.

In the complaint, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington flagged that a 2026 catalog for Trice Jewelers, a Colorado-based business, features Audrey Robertson and identifies her as an assistant Energy secretary. Products in the ad include an 18 karat white gold ring priced at $22,700 as well as a platinum and 18 karat yellow gold ring that interested buyers have to call about to discover the price.

“Officials’ use of their government position and title in nonofficial contexts creates the appearance that the employee is using their public office for private gain of another, and [Office of Government Ethics] has consistently advised against including position and title in such instances to avoid violations of these rules,” CREW wrote. “Ms. Robertson’s appearance in the catalog, coupled with the biographical information specifically identifying her title and position at the Department of Energy, implies that her support of this private jeweler is made in her official capacity and backed by the weight of the federal government.”

DOE, however, said that the Robertson ad is “an oversight that has since been addressed.”

“The appearance was an unpaid, personal appearance made in her capacity as a private individual, prior to her confirmation. Her title was added by the vendor as a biographical detail, rather than a suggestion of endorsement,” a DOE spokesperson said in a statement to Government Executive. “Once the error came to the department’s attention, Ms. Robertson asked the vendor to make a correction. Ms. Robertson fully adheres to all ethics requirements and upholds the highest standards of conduct.”

Still, CREW argued that the IG should look into whether Robertson authorized the use of her title and position, her participation was connected with her government duties and she was paid, otherwise compensated or has a financial interest in the jewelry business.

Robertson was confirmed as assistant secretary on Oct. 23, 2025. She heads the Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation and previously worked as an oil and gas executive.

The jewelry ad was first reported by E&E News.

President Donald Trump fired Energy IG Teri L. Donaldson at the start of his second term as part of a mass firing of the watchdogs. The agency is currently being led by Sarah Nelson, its assistant IG for management.

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Senators demand details on DOGE’s data access following revelations of improperly shared SSA data

Natalie Alms — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 16:30:00 -0500

The top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Finance Committee are asking the Social Security Administration to elaborate on a recent court filing which stated that SSA doesn’t know the full extent of agency data accessed and shared by the Department of Government Efficiency.

In a letter to SSA Commissioner Frank Bisignano, Sens. Michael Crapo, R-Idaho, and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., asked for a briefing on the recent court disclosure, writing that “we take very seriously the SSA’s stewardship of any personally identifiable information (PII) in its purview.”

The government filed the disclosure, dated Jan. 16 and signed by a Justice Department official, as part of an ongoing legal battle over DOGE access to SSA data.

Tucked inside were revelations that DOGE associates circumvented agency procedures for data sharing and used unauthorized third-party servers to share data last spring. SSA still doesn’t know exactly what data was shared and if it's still on the server.

The court filing also described how a DOGE employee signed an agreement in March 2025 to share SSA data with a political advocacy group that wants to “find evidence of voter fraud” and “overturn results in certain States,” the court documents say. That group isn’t named in the court filing.

SSA made two Hatch Act referrals to the Office of Special Counsel last December because of the incident, which didn’t go through the agency’s typical data exchange procedures. The agency only learned about the incident — and the use of a third-party server detailed in the “correction” to testimony from SSA officials — during an unrelated review this fall.

The court filing also says that, although SSA still maintains that DOGE never had access to agency systems of record, a DOGE associate emailed the former operational head of the efficiency team, Steve Davis, a file of SSA data. SSA doesn’t know exactly what was in the file because it is password-protected, although the agency believes it was the names and addresses of about 1,000 people.

The senators are asking SSA for a comprehensive briefing as well as written responses to a set of questions by Feb. 10.

Those include what the agency has done to ensure that its policies for sensitive data are followed going forward, as well as how SSA is going to determine what data has been shared outside the agency.

“The disclosure suggests that the SSA’s policies for granting access to PII were not consistently followed,” the lawmakers write.

Crapo and Wyden also ask that SSA share any additional discoveries about how DOGE accessed sensitive, personal data with the committee “in a timely manner.” The review of DOGE’s actions at SSA is ongoing, the court filing said.

An SSA spokesperson told Nextgov/FCW Tuesday that the agency “is committed to safeguarding the personal data of every American.”

“Our systems are continuously monitored by career professionals in accordance with federal and industry security standards,” they continued. “We will maintain engagement with Congress about our data protection efforts.”

The new details about how DOGE accessed and shared SSA data follow a whistleblower complaint filed by the agency’s former chief data officer Chuck Borges last summer.

Borges, who has since resigned and alleged that the agency retaliated against him for speaking up, said at the time that DOGE employees created a live copy of sensitive SSA data on a vulnerable cloud server.

Bisignano told Crapo that none of the data in question — the Numident database, a comprehensive file with sensitive information on each person issued a Social Security number — had been “accessed, leaked, hacked, or shared in any unauthorized fashion” after the Republican senator asked for more information last fall.

Borges’ attorney, Debra Katz, said in a statement issued after the latest court filings that “the federal government has conceded that many of Mr. Borges’ allegations are accurate.”

In addition to Wyden and Crapo’s oversight efforts, other Democrats in the House of Representatives are calling for a full investigation into how DOGE handled data at SSA.

Reps. Richard Neal, D-Mass., Joe Morelle, D-N.Y., Robert Garcia, D-Calif., and John Larson, D-Conn. — the top Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee, the Committee on Administration, the Oversight and Accountability Committee and the House Social Security subcommittee, respectively — announced last week that they would be filing a “resolution of inquiry” to formally compel SSA to hand over more information.

The group is also asking for the courts to revisit decisions about DOGE access to data.

The Supreme Court overruled a block on DOGE access to data in June, although the case is ongoing back down in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.

The court filing at the center of the latest oversight efforts also revealed some instances in which DOGE associates were given access to sensitive information even after the court had halted DOGE’s access to SSA data.

“These new findings raise serious concerns about whether the Social Security Administration has been fully honest with the court about how sensitive personal information was compromised,” Garcia said in a statement.

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DHS IG sees 'no value' in GAO report urging internal collaboration on Coast Guard investigations

Sean Michael Newhouse — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 16:26:00 -0500

The Homeland Security Department’s inspector general this week rejected a Government Accountability Office report on how the Coast Guard Investigative Service and DHS OIG could address overlaps in their respective investigative jurisdictions, saying that the suggestions would “diminish” his agency’s authority.

“Your draft report’s failure to acknowledge DHS OIG’s primacy over internal department investigate bodies devalues DHS OIG’s independence, as envisioned by Congress and enumerated in the Inspector General Act and instead treats DHS OIG as just one body among equals insofar as department oversight is concerned,” wrote IG Joseph Cuffari in a letter attached to the Wednesday report. “I am searching to understand why GAO has elected to ignore these foundations and is issuing a report that, if acted upon, would significantly weaken independent oversight of the department.”

Because the Coast Guard is a component agency of DHS, both CGIS and the DHS OIG can investigate fraud, waste and abuse that involves military personnel and criminal misconduct by employees.

GAO investigators reported that OIG officials said they should get right of first refusal on all DHS complaints, including those submitted to CGIS. On the other hand, officials from CGIS said they follow a 2003 agreement between the two agencies, but the officials acknowledged that it’s “unclear” in the document about which complaints are required to be referred.

Between October 2018 and May 2024, CGIS received about 10,600 complaints while the OIG got around 1,300 complaints that were related to the Coast Guard, which was less than one percent of the total number of complaints it received during that period.

GAO recommended that the OIG clarify roles and responsibilities for referring Coast Guard complaints, but the IG responded that the report offers “no value.” GAO countered that the OIG’s position highlights the problem.

“We found that the Coast Guard and DHS OIG are operating in a state of confusion, which risks the ineffective or inappropriate use of resources and needs to be rectified,” investigators wrote. “Recommending that DHS OIG and the Coast Guard clarify roles and responsibilities, memorialize those in policy and communicate regularly to deconflict investigative activities does not negate or diminish DHS OIG’s critical role in conducting oversight of the Coast Guard.”

GAO also recommended that CGIS clear up roles and responsibilities for complaint referrals. DHS concurred with that and other suggestions but also argued that it has already addressed some of them through a July 2025 update to its procedures for sharing investigative information with the OIG. GAO responded that the update, however, refers to the 2003 agreement between CGIS and the OIG that officials considered to be ambiguous.

Investigators also flagged that the OIG was not consistently meeting its timeline to complete audits, whether related to the Coast Guard or not, within 397 days. But they noted that OIG officials accused DHS of slowwalking access to agency data systems that are needed as part of investigations.

Cuffari himself has been no stranger to controversy while serving as the DHS inspector general. A panel of IGs and other federal investigative officials in October 2024 substantiated allegations of misconduct against Cuffari and recommended that the president take “appropriate action, up to and including removal,” but Joe Biden did not discipline him. Also, Cuffari thus far has been spared from President Donald Trump’s mass firings of IGs.

Wednesday’s report comes after GAO earlier this month issued two reports finding that the Coast Guard’s efforts to combat sexual misconduct in the wake of Operation Fouled Anchor — an internal review of mishandled sexual assault allegations at the service’s academy from the late 1980s to 2006 — are lagging. The service branch has been under pressure from lawmakers and advocates to address sexual assault and harassment after failing to disclose Operation Fouled Anchor to Congress until 2023.

A 2024 House report found that CGIS “was not a properly functioning law enforcement agency and lacked sufficient resources to conduct thorough investigations during the period investigated by Operation Fouled Anchor.”

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Agriculture’s failure to force SNAP card upgrades is causing $555M in lost benefits, watchdog says

Natalie Alms — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 14:35:00 -0500

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins says that she’s focused on fraud in the United States’ largest nutrition assistance program, but her department hasn’t acted to prevent scammers from stealing hundreds of millions in benefits, a government watchdog found.

The tally for SNAP “skimming,” where fraudsters steal SNAP card data and use it to take the benefits, could cross half a billion dollars later this year, according to a new estimate released by the Agriculture Department’s office of inspector general last week.

That is in large part because the government still relies on half-a-century-old card technology to get money for food to over 41 million Americans a month as part of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

The electronic benefit transfer, or EBT, cards used to deliver SNAP lack the chip technology embedded in most common credit and debit cards, leaving them exposed to transnational crime rings that have been targeting America’s most vulnerable citizens for years.

Congress told Agriculture to create a rule forcing states to update their cards in late 2022, but the department still hasn’t done so, leaving the program exposed in an “ongoing nationwide crisis,” the watchdog report says.

The watchdog issued a recommendation that USDA finalize the rule, but the agency isn’t planning to publish it until Sept. 30, 2026, according to the new report.

Agriculture lost over half of the experts brought on to write the rule by May of last year, as the White House sought to shrink the federal workforce, according to September 2025 Government Accountability Office findings.

SNAP could lose $233 million to fraudsters between October 2024 and October 2026, the inspector general estimated in the new report. That’s on top of over $320 million the government has already lost nationwide since the fall of 2022, bringing the total to $555 million.

"Rulemakings are necessary, but only a small piece of the fraud prevention framework," an Agriculture spokesperson told Nextgov/FCW in a statement. "Just the other day, in Cleveland, USDA raided more than 270 retailers, recovered six skimming devices, which in total, created an estimated loss to the American taxpayer of $6.2 million."

The Secret Service actually led that effort, although USDA and the Department of Homeland Security also helped, according to a Secret Service spokesperson, who noted that businesses voluntarily engaged to learn about and remove any potential skimming devices placed on their machines.

The watchdog estimate comes as the Trump administration says that it is focused on combatting fraud, especially in light of the scandal unfolding in Minnesota social services. Vice President JD Vance announced a new assistant attorney general position focused on fraud earlier this month.

Rollins has been saying on news shows that fraud is “rampant” in SNAP for months, as the department pushes states to hand over sensitive claims data, an ask that a federal judge froze late last year, siding with over a dozen states that argued the request violates privacy laws.

But skimming has largely been absent from Rollins’ talking points.

She has said, among other things, that the department wants to review the rolls for undocumented immigrants, tying the issue to the unfounded claim that Democrats are “buying” elections using illegal immigration.

Although some lawfully present immigrants are eligible for the program, undocumented immigrants have never been eligible for SNAP and there is no evidence that ineligible immigrants are committing widespread fraud, experts have previously told Nextgov/FCW.

Rollins has also said that 500,000 people are receiving benefits in more than one state, although the department hasn’t provided additional detail on these claims.

Widespread benefit theft — where SNAP users are the victims, not the perpetrators of fraud — is the most pressing fraud problem in the program, advocates say, not where beneficiaries defraud the program.

Victims may not know that their card has been compromised until they are in the checkout line at the store. Over 670,000 households have been stolen from between 2023 and 2025.

The magnetic stripe on EBT cards is easy for criminals to copy using overlays installed on top of card readers, which steal card data, enabling fraudsters to make new copies and take the cash.

Cards with chip technology are more secure because they use tokenization, where the actual account number is replaced with a one-time code, making it more difficult for bad actors to get the data needed to clone the cards. This is why the financial industry moved to these types of cards in the first place.

California is the only state that’s moved to chip cards so far, although a handful of other states are also working on switching to modern cards. In California, EBT theft has dropped by 83% since January 2024 as the state issued new chip-and-tap-enabled cards, the state announced last week.

The state has also implemented forced PIN resets, a new app and website where users can freeze their card if they believe it has been stolen, and a new predictive model that identifies and corrects theft.

States looking to follow suit will face the cost of the transition — between $2 million to $11.5 million per state, according to GAO — right as the price of administering SNAP is getting more expensive due to Republicans’ One Big, Beautiful Bill Act pushing more program costs onto states.

In the absence of more secure cards, the Secret Service has been sending personnel store-to-store to physically check for skimmers on payment terminals. In 2025 alone, they’ve manually checked nearly 60,000 machines for skimmers so far across over 9,000 businesses.

For those whose benefits are stolen, whether they are reimbursed or not depends on if their state provides that relief.

Congress let federal reimbursement lapse in late 2024, after Trump tanked a bipartisan government spending stopgap and the previously included reimbursement provision was dropped from the Republicans’ proposal that ultimately became law.

While the federal government was reimbursing benefits between October 2022 and December 2024, it doled out over $322 million, although that’s likely less than the total that was stolen. Those whose benefits were stolen had to know to ask to be reimbursed. Congress also put a cap on how many times the government would replace stolen benefits, and how much.

Nearly 60% of people who lost benefits to EBT theft reported skipping meals, according to a survey of over 11,895 EBT cardholders early last year. Almost half said they took on debt.

Editor's note: This article has been updated to include comment from USDA and the Secret Service.

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