Government Executive - Oversight

Federal disability employment program faced widespread compliance problems, whistleblower investigation finds

Sean Michael Newhouse — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 15:40:18 -0400

A federal agency that oversees a program intended to increase job opportunities for employees with disabilities may not be doing enough to ensure that its government contracts are supporting such workers, an investigation prompted by a whistleblower complaint found.

Additionally, the Office of Special Counsel, which protects whistleblowers, in a letter to the president last week criticized the agency’s response to the investigation, arguing that officials have neglected to take appropriate actions.

Through the AbilityOne program, federal agencies contract with nonprofits that employ workers with disabilities. The initiative supports jobs for 41,000 individuals and provided more than $4.7 billion in products and services to the federal government in fiscal 2025, according to its website. For example, all disposable gloves for the Transportation Security Agency come from organizations that participate in the program.

Nonprofits are eligible for AbilityOne if at least 75% of their “total direct labor hours” are performed by workers who are blind or have “significant disabilities.” The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that in 2025 the employment rate for people with a disability was 22.8% compared with 65.2% for those without a disability.

A compliance specialist at the AbilityOne Commission, however, submitted a complaint to the OSC alleging that more than 50 participating nonprofits in a sample of 120 still received millions in contracts even though they failed to meet a program requirement during their last review.

This prompted an investigation by the AbilityOne inspector general that found:

In fiscal 2022, 87% of participating nonprofits were out of compliance with at least one program requirement.
There were 50 nonprofits that failed every compliance review between fiscal 2013 and 2022.
The agency did not act on a 2017 complaint by employees at Arbor Products, Inc., which alleged that the organization during an onsite visit “had deceived compliance inspectors into believing that blind or disabled employees were performing all direct labor,” until 2022. At that time, the entity became delinquent in paying program fees, lost its nonprofit status and was kicked out of the program.

Based on the investigation, however, AbilityOne reported that the whistleblower’s allegations were not substantiated and that no violations of law, rule or regulation occurred — perplexing OSC officials.

“AbilityOne exists to create real jobs for people who are blind or have significant disabilities. When large numbers of contractors fail basic program rules for years and the compliance system cannot show those failures were fixed, that is not a paperwork problem,” said Special Counsel Charles Baldis in a statement. “The Commission documented serious weaknesses and then declined to substantiate the whistleblower’s allegations to that effect. That conclusion is not reasonable.”

OSC officials noted that AbilityOne is overhauling its compliance practices and procedures, but they also cautioned that the agency does not appear to have made progress on two IG recommendations: to establish a training program for Commission employees on performing compliance reviews with annual refreshers and to improve the method for verifying the continued nonprofit status of program participants beyond annual self-certification.

Officials from the AbilityOne Commission in a press release last week disputed OSC’s characterizations.

“The Commission determined that the issues identified reflected systemic challenges and historical inconsistencies in a large, decentralized program — not intentional disregard of statutory mandates,” they wrote. “Many of the compliance concerns cited by OSC occurred during periods of operational disruption, including the pandemic, during which temporary flexibilities were granted in good faith and in consultation with relevant stakeholders. It is important to emphasize that recognizing areas for improvement does not equate to finding gross mismanagement, gross waste or statutory violations.”

Regarding the IG recommendations, the officials pointed to a congressionally mandated oversight panel that previously reported that AbilityOne’s workforce is appropriately trained but that the underlying issue is there aren’t enough staffers. They also contended that the agency “has historically followed standard federal practice in accepting IRS determinations and [self-certifications] from participating nonprofit agencies.”

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DHS watchdog says Noem-era policy hampered probe into FEMA employees skipping homes with Trump signs

Sean Michael Newhouse — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 09:11:26 -0400

The inspector general for the Homeland Security Department said that the scope of his office’s audit into an incident in which Federal Emergency Management Agency employees passed over the homes of disaster survivors based on politics was limited by a lack of action from department officials, including the secretary.

Auditors determined in a report released last week that FEMA staffers violated policy while responding to Hurricane Milton in 2024 when they skipped over 11 homes in Florida for displaying signs in support of Donald Trump at the direction of their supervisor. The Office of Special Counsel reached a similar conclusion last year after its own investigation, and the disaster agency removed the supervisor shortly after the incident occurred.

The IG asserted, however, that the office was not able to determine if political bias or other prohibited practices impacted other disaster responses because FEMA delayed access to records of employees documenting their interactions with survivors. Auditors in March 2025 requested the data, according to the report, but then in September 2025 the contractor supporting the system underpinning such records shut it down “because then-Secretary [Kristi] Noem did not act on the FEMA request to fund the contract before its lapse.”

During his confirmation hearing, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin testified that he would reverse Noem’s policy that required her to sign off on any department spending that is more than $100,000, which critics argued slowed disaster response efforts.

In March, DHS IG Joseph Cuffari notified lawmakers that department officials denied access to requests for information from his office in 11 cases. Cuffari, who was confirmed during Trump’s first term, was spared from the 2025 mass firings of IGs. A panel of agency IGs and other federal investigative officials in 2024 substantiated allegations that Cuffari abused his authority and engaged in substantial misconduct, mostly in relation to an outside investigation into former employees who submitted whistleblower complaints against him.

FEMA officials told the IG that the agency would need to procure a new sole-source contract with the vendor to restore the data on employee interactions with disaster survivors.

The IG also found that FEMA did not consistently provide training to its employees and supervisors on the Hatch Act, which aims to ensure federal programs are implemented in a nonpartisan manner, and that senior officials were not required to review notes from employees about their interactions with disaster survivors. Auditors pointed out that the 2024 incident could have been uncovered earlier, as workers documented that the presence of Trump signs was the reason they skipped certain homes.

DHS’ watchdog recommended that FEMA determine an “appropriate frequency of ethics and Hatch Act training” for all employees who could be deployed following a disaster and that supervisors perform quality control reviews of survivor interaction surveys. The agency concurred with all of the recommendations.

“We’ve made sure that everyone responsible for this incident has been punished, and we’ll make sure that nothing like this ever happens again,” Mullin said in a statement after the report’s release.

Marni Washington, the fired FEMA supervisor, told The Washington Post on Wednesday that some hurricane survivors threatened employees based on their perceived political affiliation and that her team only avoided homes that had a Trump sign and another indicator of hostility, such as a sign that homeowners would shoot trespassers.

Congressional Democrats have accused the administration of politicizing FEMA, pointing to a March media report that the president had approved 89% of disaster funding requests from states with a Republican governor and two Republican senators compared with 23% for states with Democratic leadership.

Trump had proposed eliminating FEMA, but a White House-backed panel in May instead recommended reducing the size of the agency while giving state and local governments a larger share of responsibilities following emergencies.

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Lawmakers call for watchdog review of DOT’s passenger privacy practices

Edward Graham — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 18:21:44 -0400

Two Democratic lawmakers are calling on the Government Accountability Office to launch an investigation into the Transportation Department’s airline passenger privacy practices, warning that the agency has failed to safeguard U.S. citizens’ personal data by not moving to regulate the practices of commercial airlines.

In a Wednesday letter to GAO acting Comptroller General Orice Brown, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rep. Shontel Brown, D-Ohio, noted that “although DOT has had sole authority to safeguard passenger data for over 40 years, DOT has never taken a single enforcement action related to privacy.”

The lawmakers added that DOT’s “abdication of its role as a privacy regulator” has allowed passengers’ data to be “exposed to corporate exploitation, warrantless government surveillance, and warrantless seizure of money and other property.”

In one notable case, 404 Media reported in June 2025 that a data broker owned by several U.S. airlines sold Customs and Border Protection access to travelers’ flight information. The Drug Enforcement Administration similarly profiled train and airline passengers using their data to identify individuals for questioning, with the lawmakers’ letter saying the agency “for years bribed airline employees millions of dollars to covertly siphon off Americans’ private data.”

The missive said “a Congressional Research Service review found no instance of [DOT] taking a public enforcement action or issuing civil penalties regarding consumer privacy violations,” despite the agency having four decades’ worth of authority to police such offenses. DOT has said it receives few complaints regarding consumer privacy violations and that it investigates any concerns as they arise — “a reactive approach to airline privacy,” the lawmakers said in a Wednesday press release.

Similar concerns raised by Wyden during the Biden administration ultimately led to DOT launching an industrywide review of U.S. airliners’ privacy practices, with then-Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg saying in March 2024 that the move was “the beginning of a new initiative by DOT to ensure airlines are being good stewards of sensitive passenger data.”

Despite Wednesday’s letter noting that Transportation’s review included requests for information from major U.S. airlines about their privacy policies and procedures, the lawmakers said that, “more than two years after this announcement, it remains entirely unclear whether a meaningful review ever took place.”

None of the responses from U.S. airlines were ever made public, and Transportation did not release any subsequent reports or take any actions against airlines for privacy violations. Under the Trump administration, the lawmakers said that “DOT appears to have abandoned this effort” and “has not announced any additional privacy reviews.”

Wyden and Brown’s letter calls for GAO to launch a formal investigation “into the DOT’s systemic abdication of its consumer privacy enforcement mandates,” and similarly requests that the watchdog provide legislative recommendations to address “DOT's inaction and compel the agency to more vigorously protect the privacy rights of travelers.”

The missive outlines several priority areas for GAO to review, including reporting on the status of Transportation’s 2024 industrywide privacy practice evaluation, examining the agency’s coordination with the DEA and assessing the current “complaint-driven oversight model” when it comes to investigating potential consumer privacy violations.

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GSA says it’s uncovered ‘record-setting’ $13B in suspected procurement fraud

Christian Robles — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 17:08:55 -0400

The General Services Administration announced that it has found $13 billion in suspected procurement fraud since March 2026 in what is the largest suspected fraud bust in the agency’s history, according to a Tuesday press release.

In collaboration with the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, GSA uncovered the suspected fraud by using contracting data, public reporting and inspector general enforcement information, the agency said.

“Anyone who lies their way into receiving taxpayer dollars is putting their business, their reputation, and their freedom at risk. GSA is fully committed to working with Vice President [JD] Vance’s task force to root out fraud and protect the integrity of federal procurement,” said GSA Administrator Edward Forst in the release.

GSA said it will refer suspected fraudsters to the Office of the Inspector General or Department of Justice for investigation.

GSA is also conducting a review of COVID-19 spending, the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) program spending, contractor eligibility, bid rigging, cybersecurity false claims, bribery and other contractor-integrity risks.

GSA’s $13 billion estimate appears to have been added to fraud.gov, the White House’s official tabulation for suspect fraud, on Tuesday, a Nextgov/FCW comparison of current numbers on the website and previous tallies recorded via the Wayback Machine.

According to Fraud.gov, GSA has prevented $202.2 million in fraud through administrative actions and recovered $29.5 million in fraud through enforcement actions since January 2025.

Spokespeople for GSA and the White House did not respond to requests for comment on the fraud.gov listing by the time of publication.

“As we saw with the efforts from DOGE, this is a trust but verify situation. ‘Suspected’ procurement fraud is a lot different than adjudicating the incidents and seeing the results of the investigations,” Tim Brennan, president of the Center for Procurement Advocacy, told Nextgov/FCW.

“If this number is real, then we need to do more to reinforce the acquisition workforce with attracting additional qualified personnel and providing better training across the government. Contracting officers have incredible workloads and with the early retirements and reductions in force, they will have a harder time preventing fraud in the future. Hopefully this results in positive changes that protect the government from fraud going forward,” he added.

GSA did not offer examples of suspected procurement fraud in its release but examples included in a Breitbart exclusive predate the launch of the White House fraud task force, according to Washington Technology. At least one case predates the Trump administration.

The agency did not respond to the outlet’s request to confirm the Breitbart story or provide information on fraud cases referred to the Justice Department.

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Postal inspectors aren’t being pulled away from mail crime investigations for immigration enforcement, IG reports

Sean Michael Newhouse — Mon, 24 Aug 2026 13:39:02 -0400

Several federal agencies have reassigned employees to support the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda, but the U.S. Postal Service’s watchdog found in a new report that any immigration-related work conducted by postal law enforcement officers is limited and has a nexus to mail crime.

“We did not observe any Postal Inspection Service resources diverted solely for immigration enforcement activities,” auditors from the USPS inspector general office wrote.

The IG reported that, since the start of Trump’s second term, the USPIS has reassigned nine inspectors (less than 1%) to a Homeland Security Task Force. Based on agency data, however, none of the transfers were solely related to immigration enforcement and often dealt with threats like drug trafficking, human trafficking and financial crimes.

Likewise, auditors found that 39 postal inspectors (3%) in the same time frame assisted with investigations that had an immigration-related component for another law enforcement agency.

“For these investigations, postal inspectors mainly performed address checks for [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and the Federal Bureau of Investigation and provided investigative support when targets used the mail to traffic drugs and launder money, according to Postal Inspection Service data,” the IG wrote.

USPS OIG’s audit was initiated by a request from lawmakers who wanted to know if “potential resource diversions to immigration enforcement activities” impacted USPIS’s ability to investigate white collar crime.

The watchdog reported that the number of initiated white collar cases increased from 693 in fiscal 2024 to 1,100 in fiscal 2025 and that the number of such cases that were closed or resulted in charges between the two fiscal years marginally decreased.

“This review assessed congressional concerns about the Postal Inspection Service’s involvement in immigration-related activities since January 2025 and did not identify impacts to white-collar crime investigations attributable to resource shifts toward immigration enforcement,” the auditors wrote.

Gary R. Barksdale, the chief postal inspector, agreed with the report’s findings in an attached letter.

“The Postal Inspection Service has not sought, has not been delegated and does not exercise any immigration enforcement authority, and no postal inspector serves in the capacity of an immigration officer,” he wrote.

Trump has fired many agency IGs and replaced several of them with individuals who worked in his first or second administration. The postal IG, however, is appointed (and would be removed) by the USPS Board of Governors and Postal Regulatory Commission.

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Watchdog: NSA’s NDAs don’t comply with whistleblower law

Erich Wagner — Mon, 24 Aug 2026 07:00:00 -0400

The National Security Agency routinely fails to inform employees of their rights under whistleblower protection laws when they sign non-disclosure agreements, the intelligence agency’s inspector general concluded this week.

Although the NSA is not officially subject to the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act, Congress has consistently required most of its provisions—minus those relating to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, who lacks jurisdiction to review matters involving counterintelligence and foreign intelligence—to apply to the agency via annual appropriations laws since 1988.

But according to a new report from the NSA inspector general, most of the agency’s non-disclosure agreements lack the required reference to federal whistleblower protections, meaning its employees “may not be aware” of their rights to disclose violations of law or instances of waste, fraud and abuse.

“We identified five unique NSA-developed NDAs. One of the five NDAs, NSA’s Security Agreement, did not include the current required whistleblower provisions but did include language related to whistleblower protections and had some statutory references,” the inspector general wrote. “The remaining four NDAs made no mention of whistleblower protections . . . Additionally, the OIG identified another five agreements that were not titled or identified as nondisclosure agreements but implied nondisclosure obligations and did not include the required whistleblower protection provisions.”

The report comes as the Trump administration considers promulgating a standardized NDA for use across government. The proposal has drawn bipartisan criticism for the potential chilling effect it could have on employees who witness misconduct while on the job, including by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who requested the inspector general’s review of NSA NDAs.

The watchdog also found that the process by which NSA employees obtain access “compartmented information” include more nondisclosure provisions that similarly lack the needed whistleblower protection language.

“The subject matter experts we spoke with explained that individual offices develop their own access agreement brief sheets using a template, and an affiliate’s acknowledgement of one of these electronic brief sheets serves as the nondisclosure agreement,” the report states. “In interviews with SMEs, two opened brief sheets of their own and noted that the required provisions were not present. We reviewed the template and noted that it lacked inclusion of the required whistleblower protection provisions.”

The inspector general recommended creating a process to ensure all nondisclosure policies, forms and agreements include the statutorily mandated whistleblower protection language, as well as assigning the task to an official within the agency.

NSA concurred with the IG’s recommendations and said it planned to assign compliance to the agency’s chief of staff.

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‘Glaring violations’ of the Hatch Act by senior Trump officials have gone unpunished for months, good government group alleges

Sean Michael Newhouse — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 14:38:05 -0400

A good government group is asking a federal watchdog why it’s taking so long for officials to resolve Hatch Act complaints that the nonprofit has filed against senior political appointees in the Trump administration.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington on Thursday sent a letter to the Office of Special Counsel, which enforces rules that govern the political activities of federal employees, contending that the agency has opened investigations into six senior officials, five of which have been pending for more than 10 months.

Many of the Hatch Act complaints deal with comments made during media briefings and interviews by officials, such as outgoing White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, criticizing democratic socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani when he was a candidate.

Federal employees are not permitted to engage in political activity in their official capacity. For example, the OSC found that Biden Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro and Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley ran afoul of the Hatch Act when they criticized Donald Trump in media interviews ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

“While we understand that financial constraints and abrupt leadership changes by President Trump have challenged law enforcement efforts at agencies including OSC, CREW’s outstanding complaints originate from public interviews and posts that are easily reviewed and assert glaring violations of the law,” wrote CREW President and CEO Donald Sherman.

The organization argued that administration officials will continue to violate the Hatch Act until OSC resolves these complaints. For example, Sherman pointed to Attorney General Todd Blanche’s appearance at a campaign rally for a Republican running for New York governor. Public Citizen, another good government nonprofit, submitted a complaint about that speech earlier this week.

An OSC spokesperson said in a statement to Government Executive that the agency “doesn’t comment on open cases.”

Also on Thursday, OSC announced that it filed disciplinary complaints with the Merit Systems Protection Board against two feds who, despite warnings, allegedly ran for partisan political office and solicited political contributions. Both activities are prohibited under the Hatch Act.

Additionally, the agency touted at the end of last year that it resolved hundreds more Hatch Act complaints in fiscal 2025 than it did in fiscal 2024.

But CREW said this points to a divergence in how potential Hatch Act violations are treated depending on the employee’s rank.

“Ethical compliance cannot thrive in the federal government if the most politically powerful officials are allowed to skirt the law while their subordinates are punished for similar activity,” Sherman wrote.

Earlier this month, the Senate confirmed Charles Baldis, a former GOP Senate staffer, as special counsel, though he’s been leading the agency since spring 2025 as the designee of the former acting chief.

During Trump’s first term, the OSC found that several officials, including White House Trade Adviser Peter Navarro and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, violated the Hatch Act.

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The watchdog gets watched: GAO’s hiring process length faces scrutiny

Sean Michael Newhouse — Wed, 19 Aug 2026 13:53:41 -0400

The Government Accountability Office is an independent legislative branch agency that reviews the effectiveness and efficiency of federal programs. For example, in recent weeks, GAO has issued reports finding that the State Department could be overspending on residences for overseas employees because certain housing standards haven’t been updated in more than three decades and that the Federal Emergency Management Agency cut staff without considering the impacts on disaster operations.

GAO’s own watchdog, however, determined in a report published on Monday that the oversight agency is taking longer to hire than other federal agencies and that there are issues with how it measures certain hiring data, which could impede efforts to shorten the time that it takes to recruit.

“The length of GAO’s hiring process increases the agency’s risk of not meeting its stated goal of hiring well-qualified candidates because prospective employees may accept other job opportunities while waiting for GAO to complete its hiring process,” the inspector general for the GAO wrote.

In fiscal 2024, the IG reported that GAO took an average of about 103 days to hire employees into roles that have been deemed mission critical occupations across government (e.g. information technology management). To compare, the agency’s internal hiring target is 98 to 101 days, and the Office of Personnel Management’s hiring goal for executive branch agencies is 80 days.

For instance, it took executive branch agencies that are part of an OPM dashboard an average of 72.1 days to hire for contracting roles in fiscal 2024 compared with 110.1 days for GAO to recruit for identical positions.

GAO’s chief human capital officer defended the hiring length in a letter attached to the report, noting that the agency “relies heavily on multiple rounds of interviews as an important part of our assessment process.” The official also said that GAO allows potential hires to negotiate their salaries, unlike other agencies, “but which may simultaneously add time to the process and may increase our ability to attract a broader applicant pool.”

The IG also reported that the agency inadvertently excluded 20, about 30%, of its fiscal 2024 mission-critical hires from time-to-hire data and that there’s a discrepancy between whether the hiring process starts when human capital staff consult with a hiring manager about a vacancy or when such consultation is complete.

“By using the consultation completion dates, [Human Capital Office]’s calculations would have undercounted the days spent on some hiring actions,” investigators wrote. “Further, HCO staff indicated that consultations often took longer than the allotted two days. However, because HCO did not record the start date for consultations, it cannot determine how long consultations took or accurately assess the length of its hiring process.”

GAO agreed with two of its IG’s recommendations: to periodically review hiring timelines and address inefficiencies and to update all internal documents to reflect the established target hiring time frames.

With respect to a recommendation to ensure all hiring actions are included in time-to-hire calculations, GAO countered that certain actions, such as annual promotions for analysts, shouldn’t be included. And regarding a recommendation about accurately documenting hiring dates, GAO suggested performing separate tracking of early actions in the hiring process (e.g. consultation with hiring manager).

Regardless, GAO officials said they would implement all of the recommendations by April 1, 2027.

The IG also noted that GAO in fiscal 2025 hired fewer than 10 entry-level employees and experienced a net loss of around 100 staffers because it didn’t backfill positions due to “budget constraints.”

The Office of Management and Budget has previously criticized GAO after the agency on several occasions determined that the administration violated rules around impoundments, which is when the executive branch delays or withholds congressionally approved spending.

For fiscal 2026, House Republicans proposed halving GAO’s spending level, but the final appropriations bill kept the agency’s funding flat.

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Attorney general violated Hatch Act ethics rules, nonprofit says

Sean Michael Newhouse — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 16:22:40 -0400

During Todd Blanche’s confirmation process, Senate Democrats and some Republicans argued that the president’s former personal attorney lacked the independence needed to serve as attorney general. Now, just one week after he was sworn in, a public interest nonprofit is alleging that Blanche has already violated an ethics law that governs the political activities of federal employees.

Public Citizen on Tuesday requested that the Office of Special Counsel launch a Hatch Act investigation into an Aug. 14 speech that Blanche gave during a Long Island campaign rally attended by police officers for Bruce Blakeman, a Republican running for New York governor. OSC enforces the Hatch Act.

While most civil servants are permitted to participate in partisan political campaigns, “further restricted employees” — generally those at intelligence and enforcement agencies — are not.

“Though Blanche did not specifically say ‘vote for,’ his participation in the campaign rally along with President Donald Trump constitutes an active endorsement of the Republican candidate,” wrote Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist for Public Citizen.

Specifically, Public Citizen said that Blanche is classified as a “further restricted employee” under DOJ policy. Additionally, civil servants are barred under the Hatch Act from engaging in political activities in their official capacity. The organization said that Blanche was identified at the rally as the attorney general.

A Justice Department spokesperson said in a statement to Government Executive that: “This is a politically-motivated complaint designed to weaponize the Hatch Act against the Attorney General for his support of law enforcement. The complaint is baseless, and it will not stop DOJ from continuing to work with our state and local law enforcement partners to keep Americans safe.”

An OSC spokesperson said that the agency has no comment. The Senate recently confirmed Charles Baldis, a former GOP Senate staffer, as the new special counsel.

Several other administration officials have been the subject of Hatch Act complaints.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington accused Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick of running afoul of the Hatch Act for encouraging voters to not support Zohran Mamdani in the New York City mayor race. The nonprofit also contended that Labor Department inspector general Anthony D’Esposito broke the ethics rules over apparent actions he took while in office to prepare for a congressional run.

Penalties for violating the Hatch Act include removal from federal service, a grade reduction, ban from federal employment for up to five years, suspension or a civil penalty of up to $1,000.

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Getting a simple FOIA request from OPM shouldn’t be this hard

Al Shaw, ProPublica — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 13:37:35 -0400

I file a lot of Freedom of Information Act requests. I’ve been requesting staff lists from both Trump administrations, and I have tracked thousands of federal political appointees in order to publish financial disclosures in searchable databases.

Much of that data was sourced from the Office of Personnel Management, which maintains a trove of information about who works in the federal government. But that agency’s FOIA department was thrown into chaos as Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency fanned out across federal agencies to cut employees in early 2025.

Getting records from the agency has since become an increasingly Kafkaesque process, one that in early July of this year bounced me between three different seemingly abandoned email inboxes and two web portals. Aside from the fact that my once-routine requests now languish for months, just asking for documents has become its own kind of shell game.

“They just let the whole Privacy team go,” a now-former FOIA specialist at OPM told me by email in February 2025, referring to public records office staff. The specialist was cut the next day.

Here’s how the process worked at most agencies before the Trump administration and DOGE destroyed the offices that managed these requests: You would send a simple email with a text description of the documents you want. That’s it.

It didn’t mean you would get the records in the most timely manner, or would get the records you wanted at all. But it was a simple process, and it often worked.

According to OPM data, more than 600 government information specialists (staffers who administer FOIA and the Privacy Act) have resigned or been fired since the start of the second Trump administration. Within OPM itself, 12 information specialists left, seven of whom were laid off. (There was one new hire in that time period.)

Reached by phone, the former FOIA specialist told me the cuts made the office less efficient, less able to perform its function and threatened the statutory laws they are required to fulfill.

At the end of the 2025 fiscal year, over 1,600 FOIA requests were still in OPM’s backlog, seven times more than at the end of fiscal year 2024. The average processing time for a simple request at the agency slipped to over 84 days — twice as long as the year before.

Indeed, I noticed my records requests were taking longer, and they were increasingly steered toward web portals. Such was the case in early July, when I attempted to submit a request to OPM for human resources data. When I clicked “log in,” I was confronted with a message reading, “Something went wrong while processing your action. Please contact admin@ains.com for assistance if the problem persists.”

I emailed the address, but the message bounced back to me. AINS, it turned out, was no longer the name of the company — it is now known as Opexus. Opexus has received more than $50 million in federal contracts, according to a Bloomberg report, and has come under fire for lax cybersecurity standards after two of its employees were indicted for deleting and compromising government data. (One pleaded guilty in April, and the other was convicted in May). On its website, Opexus claims to process FOIA requests for 80% of federal institutions.

OPM’s website still listed contact information for a FOIA public liaison, someone who is supposed to help the public understand the records process and assist with requests. When I emailed the address, I got an automated response reading, “I am no longer at OPM. If you need assistance with a FOIA matter, please contact FOIA@opm.gov.”

So I did. I immediately got another automated message. This one told me to submit my request to the National FOIA Portal, a cross-government site that allows you to submit a FOIA request to any agency.

So I did that, too. Afterward, I finally got a response that acknowledged my request — from the same OPM portal that was throwing an error any time I tried to use it.

Stymied by the lack of response from the agency itself, I reached out to Opexus support, explaining that I was a FOIA requester and that the OPM site wasn’t working. I got a response from someone named Stephen, saying, “I have escalated this issue to our engineering team.” When I followed up a few days later, Stephen said, “I have identified the root cause of the issue and am currently working with the OPM administrator to implement the necessary fix.” Further questions on the support ticket thread weren’t answered.

On July 23, 13 days after I had filed the support ticket with Opexus, I got another response asking me again what error I was getting. I told them I was still getting the same message. A few hours later, I tried logging back in. The site was fixed.

In a statement, Opexus said it became aware of the issue on July 10 when a customer support case was opened. Incidentally, that was the day I had opened one. The statement noted access to the portal was restored on July 23, and that the issue did not prevent OPM from receiving FOIA requests through alternate submission methods. The company said that “there is no evidence that customer data was accessed, lost, or compromised” and that the issue was isolated to OPM’s portal.

The statement added that Opexus recognizes “how important uninterrupted access to FOIA request systems is for the public.”

OPM did not respond to a request for comment.

I’m still waiting for the records.

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. This story first ran in Dispatches, our weekly newsletter from our reporters about their recent investigations.

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State’s overseas housing rules haven’t kept up with the times, GAO says

Sean Michael Newhouse — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 12:38:48 -0400

The State Department could be overspending on residences for employees stationed abroad because officials haven’t updated certain housing standards in more than three decades, the Government Accountability Office said in a report issued on Monday.

State manages housing for more than 9,000 agency personnel living overseas and in 2025 spent nearly $500 million on residential leases.

A majority, 64%, of such housing is leased while 36% is government-owned, as of March 2026. Officials told GAO, while leasing offers flexibility, purchasing properties provides “long-term stability and greater control over costs” but also “typically requires substantial upfront funding.”

Housing for a foreign service officer is based on their rank, family size and the location of their assignment, with countries that have the “most difficult living conditions” corresponding to the largest allowable space maximums.

For example, a standard-rank employee in fiscal 2024 with a family of two assigned to a country with a poor quality of life could reside in a unit that has an annual rent of no more than $55,000, according to the report. And an executive-rank employee that has a family of four in a country that is similar to the U.S. could live in a residence that is up to nearly 2,150 square feet.

Investigators found, however, that State has not revised its standards governing how large a government-provided home for an employee serving abroad can be since 1991. Such standards are based on “housing comparable to what an employee would occupy in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.” But over the last 35 years, the median housing square footage in the nation’s capital has gone down while median housing costs have increased more than Foreign Service salaries.

“Until it reviews and updates its housing space standards, State may be providing larger, more costly overseas residences than needed to meet its definition of adequate housing,” investigators wrote.

The report also found that, when calculating a unit’s space, State disregards certain areas like hallways, laundry rooms and closets, but most domestic housing appraisers count all finished square footage in a given space.

“State would have greater assurance that its housing costs are not higher than necessary, as its current measurement method could underestimate overseas square footage and allow posts to provide larger-than-needed residences,” investigators wrote.

GAO recommended that State align maximum housing space standards for overseas personnel with current conditions in Washington, D.C., and update the methods for measuring such properties. Department officials said they would implement both recommendations.

Investigators also flagged that State employees are using at least three data systems to manage the overseas housing program.

“[Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations] officials said that staff at the posts must enter the same housing data into multiple systems, resulting in processing mistakes and inaccurate and incomplete information,” they wrote. “Both OBO officials as well as officials at the selected posts said that the IT systems are not integrated or interoperable, resulting in missing or lost information and causing delays in lease approvals, waiver processing and overall housing readiness.”

Officials told GAO that they intend to initiate a new system that will combine the existing three programs toward the end of the calendar year.

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Project 2025 contributor nominated for government watchdog position

Sean Michael Newhouse — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 17:14:05 -0400

President Donald Trump on Aug. 7 nominated Dennis Kirk, a co-author of Project 2025, to serve as inspector general for the Interior Department.

“Inspectors general must be able to investigate the administration that appointed them without fear or favor,” said former Interior IG Mark Lee Greenblatt, who was removed in a mass firing of the watchdogs at the start of Trump’s second term, in a statement. “Mr. Kirk’s political background and close ties to this administration make it impossible for him to credibly meet that fundamental test.”

While Kirk is newly nominated to lead the Interior IG office, Greenblatt and Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., the ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, last week said that Kirk had been installed as a political appointee within the Interior IG office.

“That same office is weighing serious ethics investigations into senior officials in this administration,” Huffman said in a statement at the time. “It’s no surprise the White House suddenly wants its own man inside the one place that Trump's cronies still have reason to fear.”

Kirk co-wrote a chapter in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 conservative presidential transitional initiative about managing the civil service. And in 2025, The Washington Post reported that former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard assigned Kirk, then one of her advisers, to a position within the IG for the intelligence community.

Steve Katz — who served in several senior oversight roles on Capitol Hill and in the executive branch, including assisting the Clinton administration develop standards for selecting IG nominees — argued Kirk’s nomination violates rules regarding IG selections.

Specifically, he pointed to statute that IG appointments should be made “without regard to political affiliation” and federal auditing standards developed by the Government Accountability Office that warn against “the threat that an auditor will, as a result of political, ideological, social or other convictions, take a position that is not objective.”

“The purpose of having professional auditors — not political ones — is because Congress needs those [IG] reports to exercise its constitutional responsibilities for checks and balances,” he said.

During Trump’s first term, the president nominated Kirk to serve as chairman of the Merit Systems Protection Board, but he never received a vote on the Senate floor. Kirk also held a senior position at the Office of Personnel Management and was involved in an effort to crack down on agency diversity trainings.

Two Senate Democrats last week requested that the Interior IG investigate the renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool after the U.S. Attorney's Office for D.C. dropped charges against several individuals accused of vandalizing the landmark. Instead, federal prosecutors now say that the damage to the pool’s new lining was likely caused by faulty contractor work.

Most of the IGs who the Senate has confirmed since the start of Trump’s second term worked in his first or second administration. Additionally, the Partnership for Public Service nonprofit recently reported that the Trump administration assigned political appointees to the IG offices at the Housing and Urban Development and Labor departments for the first time in recent history.

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Key oversight and federal workforce nominees confirmed by Senate

Sean Michael Newhouse — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 16:37:20 -0400

The Senate on Friday confirmed in a 51-47 party-line vote multiple executive branch nominees, including several involved in government oversight and federal employee matters.

Justice Department Inspector General

Since President Donald Trump fired nearly 20 of the agency watchdogs at the start of his second term, most of the individuals who have been approved as replacements previously worked in the first or second Trump administration, which government oversight advocates argue threatens the independent nature of IG offices.

But Don Berthiaume, the newly confirmed watchdog at DOJ, is a career IG employee. Most recently, he served as a senior adviser in the office he now leads and had a stint as acting DOJ IG from October 2025 through January 2026 but was limited by rules for how long an individual can serve in an acting position.

During his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Berthiaume testified that he has a personal appreciation for whistleblowers, as he himself was one while at the Drug Enforcement Administration.

“That experience taught me that whistleblowers are not abstractions, they are public servants who often take personal and professional risks to bring forward information the government needs to hear. It also taught me that the OIG functions best when it is operationally independent, but not isolated,” he said. “The OIG must retain full authority over what it reviews, how it conducts its work and what conclusions it reaches. But effective oversight also benefits from good information sharing, open lines of communication and professional engagement with the components it oversees.”

The DOJ IG has historically taken on high-profile cases. For example, Berthiaume has worked on a review of the FBI’s use of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act authorities against Trump 2016 campaign staffers. And he told senators that he is aiming to complete an audit of the DOJ’s compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act within one year.

Federal Labor Relations Authority General Counsel

A backlog of hundreds of cases has piled up at this agency, which manages labor-management relations for the civil service, due to there not being a Senate-confirmed general counsel.

But many federal employee unions opposed the nomination of Charlton Allen, a conservative lawyer, arguing that he lacks experience in labor relations and pointing out that, while running for a state elected position in 2012, he said public employees shouldn’t be allowed to unionize.

The unions also flagged that Allen, while a student at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill in the early 1990s, ran a student publication that featured racist attacks.

During his confirmation hearing, Democratic senators asked Allen about a cover of that publication, which featured a Jewish candidate for student body president with horns and a pitchfork. The nominee said that the cover was a “mistake” but that it was referencing UNC’s rival — the Duke University Blue Devils.

Special Counsel

While he was confirmed on Friday, Charles Baldis is not new to the Office of Special Counsel, which protects feds from prohibited personnel practices — including retaliation for whistleblowing. Baldis, a former Senate staffer, has been the designee of the agency’s acting chief since spring 2025 while also serving as OSC’s chief counsel.

The president’s first OSC nominee, Paul Ingrassia, withdrew in October 2025 following objections from Senate Republicans over reports of sexual harassment accusations and racist text messages. In March 2025, Trump removed the incumbent special counsel — Hampton Dellinger, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden — before the end of his five-year term.

Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator

The government’s disaster response and recovery agency now has a Senate-confirmed leader for the first time since the start of the second Trump administration.

Cameron Hamilton, the new chief, served as acting administrator at the start of 2025 but was fired after testifying to Congress that he did "not believe it is in the best interest of the American people to eliminate [FEMA].” The president and other administration officials have proposed axing the agency.

The White House-backed FEMA Review Council in May recommended reducing the size of the agency while giving state and local governments a larger share of responsibilities following emergencies.

The Government Accountability Office recently reported that FEMA pushed thousands of its employees out in 2025 and 2026 without considering the impact that doing so would have on fulfilling the agency’s mission.

Merit Systems Protection Board Chairman

James Woodruff, who has been a Republican member of the MSPB since October 2025, is now the chairman of the agency, which hears appeals for federal employee disciplinary actions.

Henry Kerner, the board’s other GOP member, had been serving as acting chairman.

The MSPB is led by three board members, but no more than two can be from the same political party. Trump last year fired Cathy Harris, a Democratic member of the board, for no specified reason. While she appealed her removal, the Supreme Court in June ruled in a separate case that the president can fire bipartisan board members of independent agencies without cause.

Office of Management and Budget Deputy Director

Hal Duncan, who already holds a senior position in the White House budget office, was confirmed as the agency’s number two leader. During his hearing, Democratic senators criticized a proposed OMB rule to overhaul the federal grantmaking process, including by requiring political appointees to approve awards to ensure they advance the president’s priorities.

The bipartisan Senate agreement to avoid a government shutdown on Oct. 1 includes language that would temporarily freeze OMB’s proposed rule. As of Friday afternoon, it’s unclear if senators will vote on the continuing resolution before the start of a five-week recess.

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Calls for IG probe of Reflecting Pool renovation come amid questions over watchdog's independence

Sean Michael Newhouse — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 16:40:10 -0400

Two Democratic senators on Tuesday asked for an investigation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool renovation by the Interior Department inspector general, an independent oversight office whose former leader and a lawmaker say is the new workplace of a Trump political appointee.

Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., the ranking members of the Environment and Public Works and Energy and Natural Resources committees respectively, submitted their request after the U.S. Attorney's Office for D.C. dropped charges against several individuals accused of vandalizing the landmark. Instead, federal prosecutors now say that the damage to the pool’s new lining was likely caused by faulty contractor work.

Bare patches are visible where newly applied blue paint has peeled from the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on June 20, 2026.

KEN CEDENO /GETTY IMAGES

“We urge your office to open an immediate investigation into DOI’s knowledge of coating and peeling issues with the Reflecting Pool — including what was known, who knew it and when they knew it — and whether DOI employees intentionally withheld evidence from USAO-DC,” the senators wrote.

Caryl Brzymialkiewicz, the deputy IG at Interior, is currently leading the office after IG Mark Lee Greenblatt was removed in a mass firing of the watchdogs at the start of Trump’s second term.

On Tuesday, Greenblatt alleged that Dennis Kirk, a co-author of the conservative Project 2025 presidential transition initiative, was installed at the Interior IG.

“This is not about one individual, or whether Mr. Kirk is capable or well-intentioned,” Greenblatt said in a statement. “It is about whether placing a political operative inside an independent watchdog office creates a structural conflict that undermines public confidence in the office's independence.”

Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., the ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, also criticized Kirk’s apparent appointment in a statement on Wednesday.

“This man helped write the Project 2025 playbook for seizing control of the federal workforce. Now he sits inside the office charged with rooting out corruption at Interior — the department that manages our national parks, public lands, Tribal programs, and now under Trump, gold-slathered statues and a botched Reflecting Pool renovation,” he said. “That same office is weighing serious ethics investigations into senior officials in this administration. It’s no surprise the White House suddenly wants its own man inside the one place that Trump's cronies still have reason to fear.”

In response to questions about the Reflecting Pool investigation request and Kirk’s alleged appointment, a spokesperson for the Interior IG said the office has no comment.

The Washington Post reported that in 2025 former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard assigned Kirk, then one of her advisers, to a position at the IG for the intelligence community.

In June, the Partnership for Public Service reported that the Trump administration placed political appointees in the IG offices at the Housing and Urban Development and Labor departments. The nonprofit said that it’s rare for such government officials to work for the watchdogs because “it introduces a structural conflict of interest into an institution whose effectiveness depends on independence.”

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Watchdog puts new numbers on the size of DOGE, but many details remain unknown as agencies refuse to turn over information

Sean Michael Newhouse — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 16:52:42 -0400

The Government Accountability Office on Wednesday published a report that uncovered more information about the individuals who worked for the Department of Government Efficiency. Still, the congressional watchdog’s findings were limited, including with respect to whether the DOGE employees completed required ethics training and paperwork, due to a lack of cooperation from agencies.

Investigators determined that there were at least 206 employees who worked for the Trump administration’s cost-cutting entity that held positions in the Executive Office of the President, even if they were detailed to other agencies, between Jan. 20, 2025, and Jan. 31, 2026. That number excludes DOGE staffers who were not assigned to the EOP.

GAO found that at least 128 of these individuals separated from their EOP positions by Jan. 31, 2026.

Of those 206 staffers, at least 27 were special government employees, meaning they could not serve for more than 130 days during any one-year period. For example, Elon Musk, the former de facto head of DOGE, was an SGE, which raised conflict of interest questions due to his companies receiving billions in federal contracts.

However investigators were not able to determine the appointment type, such as Schedule C political appointee or noncareer Senior Executive Service, for more than 150 of the personnel because many agencies did not provide the requested information.

“This total includes the 127 [U.S. DOGE Service] employees who held titles as digital services experts or consultants within USDS,” according to the report. “Although USDS has stated that USDS positions last no more than 4 years, we were unable to determine whether these USDS employees or other personnel had held such time-limited appointments.”

In total, 10 agencies and the EOP did not respond to requests from GAO for records that these DOGE employees participated in ethics training and completed financial disclosure reports.

“As a result, we are not able to determine the total number of DOGE personnel who held positions within EOP who received trainings or who completed financial disclosures at those 10 agencies or at EOP,” investigators wrote.

Nine agencies, covering 64 DOGE employees, did submit information about whether the staffers did such training and reports. But GAO argued that much of the documentation was incomplete. For example, the Agriculture Department provided an “ethics-related presentation” for Trump appointees but didn’t offer evidence for when, or if, the DOGE staffers received the training.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

While “the U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization” terminated on July 4, pursuant to the executive order establishing it, GAO pointed out that the directive permanently renamed an existing White House office as the U.S. DOGE Service.

“Since the EO does not call for the termination of the broader USDS entity, it is possible that USDS and personnel at federal agencies could continue to do work that advances some of these initiatives after the temporary organization’s termination,” investigators wrote.

DOGE spearheaded many of the civil service reductions that took place last year, resulting in a decrease of more than 350,000 to the federal employee headcount.

GAO in April reported that the Treasury Department and DOGE did not follow all security protocols with respect to granting access to government payment systems.

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FEMA slashed staff without considering the effects on future disaster response, watchdog reports

Sean Michael Newhouse — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 16:49:00 -0400

The Federal Emergency Management Agency cuts its workforce without assessing how that would impact disaster response and recovery, the Government Accountability Office determined in a report published Tuesday.

Despite previous reports that staffing shortages have impeded past recovery efforts, FEMA in 2025 and 2026 pushed staffers to take voluntary separation incentives like the deferred resignation program and fired new and recently promoted employees who were still in their probationary periods.

Ultimately, GAO found that about 17% of FEMA’s workforce, more than 4,300 employees, separated in fiscal 2025 and that, as of April, the agency employed nearly 21,000 staffers.

“DHS and FEMA did not assess whether offering the voluntary workforce reduction programs to employees would improve or limit FEMA’s ability to meet its mission needs moving forward, and the effort was not targeted or limited based on the agency’s workforce needs and gaps,” investigators wrote.

The report also covers a FEMA decision last winter to not renew the contracts for hundreds of temporary full-time Cadre of On-Call Response/Recovery Employees, who are the largest contingent in the agency’s workforce. But officials in May — after Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin replaced Kristi Noem — offered impacted individuals their positions back.

“We found no evidence that DHS and FEMA leadership assessed whether the nonrenewal of CORE employees’ contracts in January 2026 would affect FEMA’s ability to respond to disasters,” investigators wrote.

They also reported that FEMA was under a hiring freeze from January 2025 through May 2026, except for roles deemed “essential” or “mission-critical” by DHS.

A lawsuit against the FEMA staff cuts likewise revealed that agency officials at one point proposed halving the disaster agency’s workforce without determining which roles should be shed.

GAO also flagged that FEMA in May 2025 rescinded its strategic plan and that, while officials said they would promptly create a new one, they haven’t yet.

“Without a strategic plan that outlines clear goals and objectives, FEMA continues to operate without the strategic direction on which to base its analysis of future workforce needs to ensure it can meet its mission,” investigators wrote.

Officials told GAO that strategic planning was delayed by the activities of the FEMA Review Council. While President Donald Trump at one point mused about eliminating the disaster agency, the White House-backed review council in May instead recommended reducing FEMA’s footprint and giving state and local governments a larger share of responsibility after emergencies.

GAO recommended that FEMA develop a strategic plan and conduct a workforce analysis to assess staffing and mission needs. DHS concurred with the suggestions but said implementation is contingent on the agency getting a new Senate-confirmed leader.

The Senate is expected to consider the nomination of Cameron Hamilton to be FEMA administrator, which is part of an en bloc package of executive branch nominees to be voted on, in the near future. He led the agency in an acting capacity at the start of 2025 but was fired after testifying to Congress that he did "not believe it is in the best interest of the American people” to eliminate FEMA.

Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said that GAO’s report “confirms what we have been saying for over a year.”

“The Trump administration’s drastic cuts to FEMA’s workforce — as well as forcing thousands of personnel to quit — have damaged the agency’s ability to respond to disasters and has rid it of critical institutional knowledge,” he said in a statement.

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers also advanced out of committee a bill that would overhaul FEMA, including by making it an independent, cabinet-level agency.

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Inspectors general are conducting fewer oversight reports after 18 months of upheaval

Sean Michael Newhouse — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 14:53:02 -0400

Agency offices of inspectors general have performed less oversight work since President Donald Trump fired many of the independent watchdogs and pushed out swaths of staffers, according to a report published Wednesday by a good government nonprofit.

“Inspectors general are the mechanism by which the executive branch examines itself, and the volume of that examination has declined sharply in a single year,” the Partnership for Public Service researchers wrote. “The result is not a leaner oversight operation. It is agencies with less scrutiny of their programs and their personnel.”

Compared with the average between fiscal 2020 and 2024, OIGs for Cabinet departments in the first half of fiscal 2026 produced an average of 6% fewer audits and 25% fewer investigative reports. Audits are a review of an agency’s program, while investigations look into alleged misconduct.

“Every report that did not happen represents oversight that did not occur,” the researchers wrote. “An audit not conducted means a program went unexamined — no findings, no recommendations and no formal decision the agency must make and answer for. An investigation not opened means an allegation went unresolved and lost taxpayer dollars were never recovered.”

Additionally, the Partnership reported that, as of May 31, the average Cabinet OIG workforce is 19% smaller than it was in December 2024. The researchers found that the three offices with the most significant staffing losses also experienced the largest reductions in investigative reports.

“Investigations are mostly discretionary, left to the OIG’s judgment as to which are necessary or desirable,” they wrote. “When an office loses a quarter of its staff, the discretionary work is the first to go.”

Trump has fired nearly 20 IGs since the start of his second term, with the White House arguing that the oversight officials have become “corrupt, partisan and in some cases, have lied to the public.” Most of the IGs who the Senate has confirmed since January 2025 previously served in the president’s first or second administration.

The Partnership also has reported that the administration proposed cutting funding for OIGs in its fiscal 2027 budget request and installed political appointees at certain IG offices, which the organization contended “introduces a structural conflict of interest.”

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Dem senators demand answers on SSA field office closures despite Bisignano’s vow

Erich Wagner — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 06:00:00 -0400

This story has been updated at 4:30 p.m. ET.

A group of Senate Democrats on Tuesday demanded information on how staffing shortages and reassignments are impacting the Social Security Administration’s ability to keep its 1,200 field offices open to the public.

Last year, after years of chronic underfunding of SSA’s administrative functions already brought its workforce to a 50-year low, the Trump administration shaved the agency’s headcount by another 7,500 employees. According to OPM data, SSA had around 49,500 employees as of May. Bisignano has also reassigned more than 1,500 employees from the field offices and other subcomponents to man Social Security's 1-800 customer service line.

Earlier this year, Bisignano wrote in a private letter to Warren that he would “keep every field office open” and ensure they are “providing better and high-quality service.” But over the last several months, dozens of field offices have been listed at various points either closed entirely or only offered services via telephone. As of Monday afternoon, 16 field offices across the country provided no or limited services.

In a letter to SSA Commissioner Frank Bisignano Tuesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and three other Democrats requested information on these temporary closures and the underlying reasons for each shuttering.

“Many of these offices were reportedly closed to the public due to maintenance needs or other operational issues—which may be a valid reason,” the lawmakers wrote. “But several offices appear to have been effectively closed due to staffing shortages, and some of these offices have allegedly remained ‘temporarily closed’ for an extended period of time.”

Last April, union leaders spoke to Government Executive about three rural field offices that had already been closed for over a year. Two of those locations—Bloomsburg, Pa., and Logan, W.Va.—remain on SSA’s list of closures.

“These closures are not unprecedented, and have occurred under previous Republican and Democratic presidents,” Warren wrote. “But in your case, these temporary closures to the public come after you made explicit commitments not to close offices, and have made a series of ongoing staffing cuts and assignment changes that appear to have added to the threat of closures.”

Additionally, Bisignano testified—falsely—last month that his predecessor, former Commissioner Martin O’Malley, instituted a policy for field offices by which members of the public were “turned away” if they had not previously scheduled an appointment. But as of Monday afternoon, the field office in Silver Spring, Md., offers only “limited in-person service with an appointment.”

The lawmakers wrote that the field offices mostly likely to suffer from staffing shortage are often the most rural locations, and their temporary closure create greater challenges for Americans seeking in-person service.

“Closing field offices and resident stations for in-person services also means Americans must travel further to get assistance,” they wrote. “In fact, recent analysis finds the closure of any field office would double the time it takes the average American to drive to their second-closest office.”

In a statement Tuesday, an SSA spokesperson contested Warren and union officials’ assertion that the closures are at least partially due to staffing gaps. They said both the Bloomsburg, Pa., and Logan, W.Va., field offices remain closed due to structural issues but did not give a timeline for their reopening or replacement.

“None of SSA's field offices are closed or offering limited service due to staffing issues,” the spokesperson wrote. “The field office closures listed on the Social Security website are not permanent. The offices are temporarily closed or providing limited service due to planned renovations, required maintenance, or facilities issues that we are actively working with GSA and building owners to resolve. SSA’s resident stations are located in rural areas and typically have one or two employees assigned to provide in-person services.”

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Bill aims to end blocked congressional access at federal buildings

Sean Michael Newhouse — Fri, 24 Jul 2026 14:19:58 -0400

House Democrats on Wednesday introduced legislation that would require agencies to provide members of Congress with greater access to government facilities for oversight purposes.

“I have personally been denied access to [U.S. Agency for International Development], the U.S. Institute of Peace, a public meeting at the Department of the Interior and repeatedly delayed in conducting oversight at [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] facilities,” said Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., the bill’s sponsor, in a statement. “All of these were clear examples of the Trump administration’s deliberate and repeated efforts to deny, delay or obstruct congressional oversight of the executive branch.”

Specifically, the Congressional Oversight and Agency Access Act (H.R. 9835) would grant members of Congress and accompanying staffers access to any “public building” during regular business hours. Agencies would be mandated to provide access outside of those hours and, if certain conditions are met, to areas that require a security clearance within 24 hours after a lawmaker’s request.

The bill’s requirements would apply even during a presidentially declared emergency or Health and Human Services Department-designed public health emergency. And the definition of “public building” in the bill includes contractor-owned and -operated facilities.

The measure’s introduction comes during a legal battle over a requirement from the Homeland Security Department, which is spearheading increased deportations, for a seven-day notice before congressional oversight visits at immigration detention facilities. In March, a district judge issued a preliminary injunction temporarily blocking the policy. The Trump administration then sought an emergency stay, which was rejected by an appeals court.

Earlier this year, in defense of the seven-day notice requirement, former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem wrote that “unannounced visits require pulling ICE officers away from their normal duties” and that “there is an increasing trend of replacing legitimate oversight activities with circus-like publicity stunts.”

Beyer’s bill is cosponsored by eight other House Democrats and the Project on Government Oversight.

“Congress cannot fulfill its constitutional oversight responsibilities if members of Congress are denied access to the very agencies they are charged with overseeing,” the nonprofit said in a statement. “The Congressional Oversight and Agency Access Act reaffirms Congress’s authority to conduct meaningful oversight and helps ensure transparency and accountability across the executive branch.”

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Despite firings, acting IG says it’s 'the best time to be in the inspector general community' due to focus on fraud

Sean Michael Newhouse — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 16:49:40 -0400

The work of inspectors general to detect and prevent scams has become increasingly important as the Trump administration prioritizes combating fraud in government programs, a panel of the agency watchdogs said Wednesday during a conference in Washington, D.C., sponsored by AGA, formerly known as the Association of Government Accountants.

“This is probably the best time to be in the inspector general community, where there's the renewed focus on fraud, waste and abuse,” said acting Education Department inspector general Mark Priebe.

Even so, members of the audience did ask about the president’s unprecedented firing last year of nearly 20 IGs and whether that is impacting their oversight work. Priebe said that he’s not concerned.

“If a new administration comes in and says we want all of our own IGs, that's fine,” he said. “I really think that the executive branch should have some say over their policies and their procedures and how they enact that.”

Government Executive has reported that Priebe, who previously served as a senior official in the Education IG, appears to have shared social media posts supporting Trump. While IGs are political appointees, they’ve historically served across administrations. Experts have warned that replacing them each time there’s a transfer of power would weaken independent government oversight.

Still, Priebe said that the Trump administration’s push to dismantle the Education Department, which has resulted in the halving of the agency’s workforce, is affecting his IG office.

“We're losing agents and auditors because they're not sure what's going to happen,” he said. “So that's an additional area that we're concerned with — to have a staff and to be able to check the department and go out into the public and fight fraud.”

Based on federal workforce data, Education’s IG office has gone from more than 200 staffers in 2024 to nearly 150 currently.

The IGs on the panel also discussed the challenges of detecting fraud as technology advances.

For example, Fara Damelin, the inspector general of the Federal Communications Commission, said that analyzing metadata is an integral method to verifying the authenticity of a document.

“That's why the government needs to get smarter and use all the technology out there,” she said.

But Priebe warned, based on a recent summit he attended, that fraudsters are figuring out ways to modify metadata.

The watchdogs also said that IG offices are attempting to move away from investigating fraud after it happens and instead prioritize stopping scams before they occur. Kenneth Dieffenbach — the executive director of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, which oversees COVID-19 and One Big Beautiful Bill Act spending — described it as going from a “pay and chase” to a “prevent and relax” model.

“Sometimes when we start an audit or an engagement with our agency, they're like, ‘Well, you can't look at that right now. We're still implementing this program,’” added Eric Rivera, the assistant IG for Audits at the Export-Import Bank OIG. “But we want to look at it right now so we can give them real-time feedback.”

House Republicans recently passed, with some Democratic support, a bill that would establish an IG office within the Treasury Department to counter fraud in programs that provide funding to non-federal entities.

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Inspector general group would be axed under new House GOP bill

Sean Michael Newhouse — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 06:00:00 -0400

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is scheduled to vote Wednesday on a bill that would abolish a central group for agency inspectors general, many of whom have been fired by President Donald Trump.

The Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency is responsible for coordinating governmentwide oversight activities, overseeing investigations into senior watchdog officials and managing IG employee training.

Under the Restoring Integrity and Efficiency to Inspector General Oversight Act (H.R. 9725), however, CIGIE would shutter one year after the bill’s enactment. The Office of Management and Budget would take over establishing IG employee training standards, supervising interagency investigations and resolving jurisdictional disputes.

Last year, OMB blocked CIGIE from receiving funding for about a month-and-a-half but backtracked following objections from some Senate Republicans. At the time, White House officials said that IGs “have become corrupt, partisan and in some cases, have lied to the public.”

In addition, under the new bill, the Government Accountability Office would develop IG inspection standards and Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers would maintain at least one training academy for IG employees.

GAO in June issued a report that found CIGIE often fell short of its own process requirements when investigating misconduct allegations against IGs. For example, investigators warned that a CIGIE staffer is currently disregarding complaints they deem as “frivolous” despite internal policy that such decisions are required to be reviewed by legal counsel.

A Republican Oversight Committee aide cited that GAO report in a statement to Government Executive regarding the rationale behind the bill.

“Continued failures and abuses by [CIGIE’s] Integrity Committee have shown the inspectors general cannot be trusted to investigate wrongdoing in their ranks,” they said. “It is necessary to end the Integrity Committee and transfer CIGIE’s core functions to restore trust in the IG system.”

Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., a member of the Oversight panel, introduced the bill to scrap CIGIE on July 16 and was one of the House Republicans to request the GAO review.

In a letter to the Oversight Committee, the Project on Government Oversight nonprofit argued that transferring many of CIGIE’s responsibilities to OMB represents “a profound structural and philosophical change that should concern anyone, regardless of party, who believes oversight must remain independent of those being overseen.”

“Consider an inspector general investigating OMB’s implementation of appropriations law, impoundment decisions, grant administration or reorganization decisions within their agency. Under this legislation, OMB could simultaneously establish oversight priorities, resolve jurisdictional disputes of investigations and shape the workforce of that inspector general’s office,” wrote POGO Interim Executive Director Isabel Munilla. “This structure would create an unavoidable conflict of interest, undermining both the perception and reality of inspector general independence and fundamentally eroding public confidence in federal oversight.”

CIGIE is currently being led by Cheryl Mason, the IG for the Veterans Affairs Department and a former senior adviser to VA Secretary Doug Collins. Democrats and good government groups have questioned her ability to provide independent oversight because of her previous role in the Trump administration.

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Former civil servants and union request IG investigation into transfer of Education program to Labor

Sean Michael Newhouse — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 14:40:47 -0400

Updated at 2:55 p.m. ET July 14

As the Trump administration continues to move federal education programs to other agencies as part of an effort to ultimately eliminate the Education Department, a federal employee union and former Education officials are asking a government watchdog to investigate the consequences of the transfers.

Specifically, the American Federation of Government Employees and ex-leaders at the Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education on Monday requested that the Education inspector general examine the interagency agreement that transferred OCTAE to the Labor Department.

OCTAE oversees programs that are related to adult education and literacy, career and technical education as well as community colleges.

The letter signers argued that the move has led to undocumented costs, such as overhauling grant infrastructure and relocating staff, and could slow decision-making due to possible jurisdictional conflicts between Labor and Education.

While the Trump administration has argued that the interagency agreements will reduce bureaucracy, the union and former officials alleged that, in certain cases, grantees now need to use several Labor grants management systems as opposed to only one Education program.

An Education spokesperson said in a statement to Government Executive that: "[T]he Trump Administration is breaking up the federal education bureaucracy and streamlining program management to ensure that all Americans are prepared for a fulfilling and meaningful career. "

An IG spokesperson said that the office hasn’t yet received the letter in question.

The Education IG recently reported that layoffs and other staff reductions at the start of Trump’s second term hindered the department’s ability to perform statutorily mandated activities. Based on federal workforce data from the Office of Personnel Management, Education’s workforce has gone from more than 4,200 in 2024 to nearly 2,300 currently.

House package

On July 9, Republicans on the House Education and Workforce Committee introduced 10 bills to codify the Education Department’s agreements with other agencies to transfer various programs.

“The legislative package reflects a simple principle: education policy should be focused on helping students succeed — not preserving a federal bureaucracy for its own sake,” said Chairman Tim Walberg, R-Mich., in a statement. “Rather than allowing unnecessary layers of Washington bureaucracy stand between families and the services they rely on, the bills would transfer key statutory authorities to agencies better equipped to carry them out while maintaining continuity for students and stakeholders."

The panel is scheduled to mark up the measures on Wednesday.

In contrast, the AFGE local for Education employees contended that the proposals would “break” the department.

“These bills are named ‘less bureaucracy,’ but they actually create many more layers of red tape for the American public and for federal employees trying to serve students and families,” said AFGE Local 252 President Rachel Gittleman in a statement. “States, grantees and taxpayers are already paying the price for education programs being unlawfully transferred to other federal agencies: funding delays, confusion and chaos for both employees and the public, wasted taxpayer dollars and no accountability or oversight.”

This story has been updated with a statement from the Education Department.

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Duffy faces new ethics complaint over official social media post promoting wife’s book

Sean Michael Newhouse — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 17:25:00 -0400

A government oversight nonprofit requested that the inspector general for the Transportation Department look into possible ethics violations by Secretary Sean Duffy over a post on his department social media account promoting his wife’s book.

“Agency social media accounts are meant to convey important information relevant to all Americans about the agency’s work and mission — in this case DOT’s efforts to improve transportation across the country — not to highlight or promote side business projects of an agency official’s family,” wrote Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington President and CEO Donald K. Sherman in the July 7 letter.

CREW’s request centers on a post from Rachel Campos-Duffy, a Fox News host, promoting her book, which is described as “a celebration of the people, the history and the spirit that make America great, from sea to shining sea.” The official X account of the Transportation secretary, her husband, shared that post, but the letter notes that it appears to have been deleted.

Federal ethics regulations prohibit agency officials from using their position “for their own private gain,” “for the endorsement of any product, service or enterprise” or “for the private gain of friends, relatives or persons with whom the employee is affiliated in a nongovernmental capacity.”

A DOT spokesperson, however, said in a statement to Government Executive that: “A staffer inadvertently retweeted the post, and once the error was realized it was taken down.”

In addition to assessing whether Duffy violated any ethics rules due to the social media repost, CREW’s request also calls for ensuring “sufficient internal controls” are in place to “reasonably prevent additional violations” in the future.

The Transportation IG told Government Executive that the office has no comment.

In May, CREW also requested that the department watchdog investigate whether any ethics rules were broken due to Duffy and his family’s participation in a U.S. travel web series produced by an entity backed by several transportation companies. The secretary has said that the government didn’t spend any money on the show, his family didn’t receive any financial benefits and career officials reviewed and approved his involvement.

But the watchdog nonprofit argued that the web series and social media promotion suggest a trend.

“[Duffy’s] use of his office, for at least the second time this year, to provide for the private gain of his own family shows a pattern of taking advantage of the privilege of public service to create opportunities for his family that other American families lack because they do not have access to the government’s resources,” Sherman wrote in the investigation request. “This pattern must be stopped.”

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IRS missed hiring goals for 2026 tax season, which watchdog says impacted service performance

Sean Michael Newhouse — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 08:00:00 -0400

The IRS fell short of its hiring goals for certain positions ahead of the 2026 tax filing season, which a new inspector general report found caused the agency to scramble in order to fill shortfalls.

While officials were authorized to bring on 1,900 employees to process tax returns and fix related errors, the IRS was unable to fill 1,100, or about 58%, of those positions. Likewise, the division that answers taxpayer questions missed its hiring goal by 34%.

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration noted that job posting announcements were held up by a new requirement for the IRS to receive approval from the Treasury Department before making certain hires. The watchdog also reported that offices were unable to onboard all of the employees they hired before the start of filing season.

Investigators found that, due to the staffing shortages, the taxpayer assistance division decreased its service performance expectation levels. They also reported that, in part because of the reduced workforce, backlogs in five of seven tax return processing programs increased.

In response to these issues, according to the report, the IRS relied on overtime and temporarily reassigned hundreds of employees. Government Executive previously reported that IRS directed many human resources and information technology employees to help with filing season workloads.

TIGTA’s interim report only looked at the 2026 filing season through Feb. 28. Tax season lasted from Jan. 26 through April 15.

The Taxpayer Advocate Service, another IRS watchdog, recently reported that the agency “performed better than expected” this tax season despite needing to implement changes to the tax code mandated by the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act, employing about a quarter fewer employees due to the Trump administration’s civil service cuts and experiencing leadership turnover.

But the TAS also flagged that having fewer personnel made it harder for taxpayers to access assistance.

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Despite taxing year, IRS watchdog reports mostly smooth filing season

Sean Michael Newhouse — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 16:46:50 -0400

Despite having to make more than 100 changes to the tax code as a result of the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act, employing about a quarter fewer employees and experiencing leadership turnover, an independent IRS watchdog reported that the tax agency conducted a largely successful filing season in 2026. But the Taxpayer Advocate Service also warned that staff cuts made it harder for taxpayers who needed assistance to receive it.

“In the end, the IRS performed better than expected in most respects. The vast majority of taxpayers filed their returns successfully and received their refunds without significant delay,” National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins wrote in a Wednesday report to Congress. “IRS leadership and its workforce deserve substantial credit for that accomplishment, particularly given the extraordinary operational pressures they overcame.”

TAS reported that the IRS processed almost 99% of individual tax returns by the end of filing season. The office attributed this to stable leadership in the division responsible for tax filing as well as a “significant majority” of returns being automatedly processed through electronic submission and direct deposit.

Still, the watchdog criticized phone wait lines, the level of provided in-person assistance and the filing experience for many taxpayers who rely on paper checks.

“With fewer employees and even fewer experienced employees, personal service was harder to come by,” Collins wrote. “That translated to longer waits for assistance, fewer experienced employees available to work on complex account issues, delayed responses to correspondence and, as a result, longer case resolution times.”

In total, IRS answered 21% of calls in 2026 with an average wait time of 14 minutes compared with 25% the prior year when taxpayers waited an average of eight minutes.

The TAS noted this was somewhat by design, as the IRS prioritized assigning employees to work on responding to paper correspondence instead of answering phones because staffers often end up not performing work while waiting for a taxpayer to call.

But the watchdog flagged that the phone line for taxpayers when they are unable to pay their liability, for example, only answered 31% of the time and after an average wait of 45 minutes. Likewise, the line taxpayers need to call to prove their identities when their returns are suspected of identity theft had an answer rate of 19% with a 20-minute average wait.

The TAS also reported that the number of fully staffed Taxpayer Assistance Centers decreased to 42 from 102 in 2025 and that the Trump administration’s pivot away from paper checks contributed to delays of six weeks or more for taxpayers who requested non-electronic refunds.

“A modernized IRS can and should improve efficiency and service, but transformation should not come at the expense of accessibility, fairness or human assistance,” Collins wrote.

The National Treasury Employees Union said the TAS report shows the IRS workforce deserves praise for managing “to do more with less” but also bemoaned the reduced service availability.

“No taxpayer should be left out in the cold for needing help paying their fair share,” said NTEU National President Doreen Greenwald in a statement. “A smaller, less effective IRS undercuts the whole tax system and deprives our government of much-needed revenue.”

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