Target: John Thune, U.S. Senate Majority Leader
Goal: Press president to answer for mass firings of inspectors general.
In a late-night weekend purge, President Donald Trump suddenly fired over a dozen inspectors general. The terminated individuals oversaw and investigated allegations of abuse, fraud, and other types of corruption within America’s federal agencies. Now, critical agencies like the Department of State, the Department of Defense, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Transportation are without key guardians. In regard to transportation, the president also fired top personnel within the Transportation Safety Administration and entirely eliminated a committee on aviation safety just days before the fatal air collision in Washington, DC.
The aforementioned tragedy emblemizes the direct ramifications for Americans when federal regulatory guardrails are gutted. But this maneuver also calls into question the future integrity of watchdog roles, which are meant to be independent and to serve across different administrations. The president has now politicized these positions and has done so in an illegal way. Federal dictates clearly state that a president must provide 30 days of notice to Congress before removing an inspector general, and a certain process must take place before this removal…as clarified in a five-decade-old law.
Sign the petition below to demand Congress do its job in enforcing the laws it made.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Senator Thune,
“The law must be followed…The communication to Congress must contain more than just broad and vague statements, rather it must include sufficient facts and details to assure Congress and the public that the termination is due to real concerns about the Inspector General’s ability to carry out their mission…I’d like further explanation from President Trump. Regardless, the 30-day detailed notice of removal that the law demands was not provided to Congress.”
The chair of your Senate Judiciary Committee provided this response when President Trump fired no less than 17 individuals meant to be independent watchdogs for government corruption, waste, abuse, and fraud. Will you ignore the troubling signals these firings send about watchdog independence, about “draining the swamp,” about “government efficiency,” and about executive overreach? President Andrew Johnson was impeached for less.
Washington, DC has just witnessed firsthand the critical importance of safety and oversight following the tragic aviation incident. Do not send a message to the Americans you serve that their protections are less important than maintaining political control by any means necessary. Demand answers and accountability from the president, enforce your own laws (the Inspector General Reform Act and the Inspector General Act of 1978), and remedy this abuse of power for the sake of this nation.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Tima Miroshnichenko
270 Signatures