Nonprofit urges the White House to fill vacant watchdog roles

With five months until the end of the Biden administration, a nonpartisan nonprofit is calling on the president to ensure critical oversight roles are filled.

Noah Bookbinder, president and CEO of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, in a letter Wednesday, called on Biden to fill 14 inspectors general vacancies at various federal agencies and provide nominees for four of the positions.

Bookbinder commended Biden’s efforts to bolster the rule of conduct within the executive branch and cited the importance of inspectors general in enforcing those efforts, most notably with the February 2023 removal of Architect of the Capitol J. Brett Blanton after an IG reported his misuse of federal vehicles by letting family members drive them for personal use.  

“Since day one, the Biden administration has made ethical governance a priority, issuing an Executive Order requiring all executive branch appointees to sign ethics pledges that seek to close the revolving door and ban gifts from lobbyists. At the same time, the administration has worked hard to nominate and confirm qualified individuals to fill ethics roles throughout the executive branch,” the letter said. 

“Unfortunately, several Inspector General vacancies currently exist throughout the executive branch. Accordingly, we encourage you to ensure that every Inspector General office has competent leadership, and to identify, nominate and push to confirm a diverse slate of qualified individuals to fill all remaining Inspector General vacancies.”

According to oversight.gov, there are currently no presidential nominees for inspectors general at NASA, the General Services Administration, the Social Security Administration and the Railroad Retirement Board, with GSA’s IG office sitting vacant the longest at 405 days. 

Five other agencies don’t require a presidential nomination to appoint their own inspector general, but have yet to. They include the Election Assistance Commission, which has stayed vacant for 137 days and the Federal Election Commission, vacant for 123 days.

An additional five agencies have nominees, but have yet to be confirmed by the Senate, including the Treasury Department and AmeriCorps, whose nominees were selected 211 days ago.

Bookbinder also requested that Biden fill vacant Designated Agency Ethics Official and alternate DAEO roles throughout several agencies to help enforce ethics laws and regulations. 

“We urge you to direct agency heads to prioritize appointing qualified individuals to fill these roles as part of a broader campaign to fortify the executive branch's ethics infrastructure and ensure that corruption, waste and mismanagement have no haven in our executive branch,” he said.