Government Executive - Oversight

Inspector general group announces pick to lead oversight of Iran war following senator’s questioning

Sean Michael Newhouse — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 14:52:05 -0400

Last week, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., requested that an oversight body for inspectors general assign one of the agency watchdogs to lead oversight of the war in Iran, pointing to a statutory requirement for such a designation with respect to a military “overseas contingency operation that exceeds 60 days.”

On Wednesday, the Defense Department OIG announced that it had been selected to spearhead oversight of Operation Epic Fury; although, officials said that the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency made the designation on May 12.

The U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes against Iran on Feb. 28.

“This lead inspector general designation not only follows the framework required in the IG Act, it also reflects the extensive experience of the [DOD] OIG with comprehensive oversight of overseas contingency operations,” DOD IG Platte Moring said in a statement. “We are collaborating closely with our colleagues to promote accountability and responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars.”

According to the announcement, the DOD OIG’s oversight of the war in Iran will be supported by the IGs for the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development. While the Trump administration folded USAID into State in 2025, the USAID OIG is still active.

When selecting an IG to lead oversight of an overseas military operation, the CIGIE chair is limited to choosing the IG for DOD, State or USAID.

Moring was confirmed as the DOD IG in December 2025. He previously served as deputy general counsel at the department during Trump’s first term. Likewise, Cheryl Mason, who was elected as CIGIE chair in March, was confirmed in summer 2025 as the IG at the Veterans Affairs Department after a stint as a senior adviser to VA Secretary Doug Collins.

Government oversight advocates and congressional Democrats have criticized the president’s penchant for placing individuals, such as Moring and Mason, who have worked in his first or second administration in IG roles and questioned whether they can provide true independent oversight. Moring, though, received bipartisan support during his confirmation hearing.

As the designee, he will be responsible for developing a strategy for oversight of the war in Iran, reviewing the accuracy of associated spending information provided by federal agencies and resolving any jurisdictional crossovers. He also will be required to issue regular public reports on his office’s activities. The DOD OIG said the first quarterly report would be issued in the fall.

Duckworth celebrated Wednesday’s announcement.

“Now, as lead IG, the DOD IG must work expeditiously with his counterparts to conduct independent oversight of all programs and operations in support of President Trump’s costly, disastrous war, and — as I have requested — brief me on these matters without delay,” she said in a statement.

Relatedly, Trump on Monday nominated Carl Anderson to be State IG. The office confirmed to Government Executive that he is a former federal attorney, congressional staffer and has been a legal adviser at State since April 2025.

At the start of his second term, the president fired the former State IG as well as the watchdogs at 16 other agencies.

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USPS financial crisis won’t be solved until Congress defines its service mission, regulator testifies

Sean Michael Newhouse — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 16:49:32 -0400

The U.S. Postal Service’s regulator on Thursday argued that the agency’s financial woes will not be resolved until Congress sets up a funding system for the USPS that supports its desired service requirements, echoing calls from the agency’s leadership and other oversight entities.

“Only by first specifically defining what America needs of its postal service and what that costs will Congress then truly know how best to fix the fundamental funding structure while preserving appropriate service and delivery standards,” said Robert Taub, the vice chairman of the Postal Regulatory Commission, before the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations.

Postmaster General David Steiner testified to the panel in March that USPS could run out of money as soon as this fall. Because the PRC in April authorized the agency to temporarily suspend certain employer contributions to the Federal Employees Retirement System, however, Taub said that the looming financial cliff has been pushed back by several years.

“This is not a panacea nor a permanent or long-term fix to the postal service's problems, but it does allow Congress an opportunity to enact thoughtful and fundamental change as opposed to choices of desperation,” he said.

At the time, USPS officials said the FERS suspension would not cause “any immediate detrimental impact to current or future retirees,” and the PRC noted that the agency had only been making partial payments in recent years.

In March, Steiner also told the Government Reform Subcommittee that changes were needed to USPS’ self-sustaining business model and/or its service expectations: “If you want the same number of delivery days and post offices, we can do that, but someone has to pay for it. If you want to have a discussion about reducing services, we can do that.”

The Government Accountability Office also has long reported that USPS’ current business model is unsustainable.

Both Subcommittee Chairman Pete Sessions, R-Texas, and ranking member Kweisi Mfume, D-Md., agreed on Thursday that lawmakers need to reach agreement on what USPS service standards will be going forward in order to shore up the postal agency’s finances.

“If we don't do that, then we've just not done anything,” Mfume said. “I mean, we've just kicked the ball down the road.”

In addition to structural reform, Steiner and the USPS Board of Governors have called on Congress to increase the postal agency’s $15 billion statutory debt limit in response to the financial shortfalls. But Sessions expressed doubts about that proposal.

“There is no reason to assume additional borrowed funds infused into this unintended business model would be anything more than throwing good money at bad results,” he said.

Also during the hearing, PRC commissioners and members of both parties criticized Delivering for America — an ongoing postal modernization plan started by former Postmaster General Louis DeJoy that he predicted would enable USPS to break even by fiscal 2023 generally by slowing some delivery and increasing the prices of certain products. But the agency experienced a net loss of $2 billion in the most recent quarter.

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GSA joins White House’s fraud prevention task force

Edward Graham — Fri, 29 May 2026 09:00:00 -0400

The General Services Administration announced on Thursday that it is joining the White House’s anti-fraud task force, a move that enlists a key federal acquisition agency into President Donald Trump’s self-described “war on fraud.”

The unit, led by Vice President JD Vance, was created by a March executive order and is tasked with rooting out waste, fraud and abuse across federal benefits programs.

GSA said in a press release that it is “uniquely positioned to help the Task Force detect irregularities, accelerate investigations, and safeguard taxpayer dollars,” with members of the anti-fraud unit “now leveraging GSA’s unmatched reach in acquisition, shared services, technology modernization, and federal real estate.”

Although the order establishing the task force emphasized efforts to identify federal benefits fraud, GSA said it will support the unit’s work by identifying waste, fraud and abuse across government contracting programs.

“GSA sits at the center of the federal acquisition and contracting ecosystem, making us a critical force in the fight against fraud,” GSA Administrator Edward Forst said in a statement, adding that the agency “will bring advanced analytical capabilities, investigative support, and cross-government coordination to help expose high-risk fraud patterns and stop bad actors from exploiting taxpayer-funded systems.”

Trump’s directive establishing the task force also granted it the authority to withhold funds from states and local jurisdictions “that do not have adequate anti-fraud requirements.”

The effort has been clouded by allegations of political bias, however, with the order creating the unit notably calling out Democrat-led states and accusing public officials of intentionally failing to police benefits programs so migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border can receive assistance.

Vance said earlier this month the unit was “deferring” $1.3 billion in Medicaid reimbursements to California and threatened to withhold payments from other states if they do not adequately enhance their efforts to combat fraud in federal benefits programs. That came after the White House kicked off its anti-fraud push in February by announcing that it was withholding over $240 million in Medicaid funds from Minnesota following claims about the misuse of funds in the state’s social services programs.

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Citing legal requirement, senator wants a designated inspector general to provide oversight of Iran war

Sean Michael Newhouse — Thu, 28 May 2026 15:01:00 -0400

Updated at 3:58 p.m. ET May 28

A Democratic senator on Thursday requested that an inspector general oversight body designate one of the agency watchdogs to spearhead reviews of the ongoing war in Iran, citing a requirement in federal statute.

In her letter, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., pointed to a provision in the U.S. Code mandating that the chair of the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency tap an IG to head oversight of a military “overseas contingency operation that exceeds 60 days.”

The U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes against Iran on Feb. 28.

“IG quarterly reporting, audits, inspections and investigations related to OCOs have promoted valuable transparency and accountability across presidential administrations and enable federal agencies to be better stewards of taxpayer dollars,” Duckworth wrote. “The need for you to appoint a lead IG to advance these aims and conduct joint, comprehensive and independent oversight of contingency operations against Iran has never been greater, as the Trump administration’s explanations of the president’s purported mission, lines of effort and desired end states with respect to Iran are constantly shifting, and often contradict themselves.”

Defense Department officials have testified that the war has cost an estimated $29 billion.

The CIGIE chair is limited to selecting the IG for the Defense Department, State Department or U.S. Agency for International Development. While the Trump administration folded USAID into State in 2025, the USAID IG office is still active.

The designated IG would be responsible for developing a strategy for oversight of the military operation, reviewing the accuracy of associated spending information provided by federal agencies and resolving any jurisdictional crossovers. They also would be required to issue regular public reports on their activities.

In her letter, Duckworth argued that the war in Iran meets the definition of an OCO because Operation Epic Fury is identified as one in the DOD’s casualty database and because members of the National Guard have been deployed to the region. Under federal statute, if a military action includes ordering a member of the National Guard to active duty, that qualifies it as a “contingency operation.”

Duckworth requested that CIGIE Chair Cheryl Mason provide her selection for the IG by June 5. Mason also is the IG for the Veterans Affairs Department.

Andrew Cannarsa, CIGIE's executive director, said in a statement to Government Executive that the council has "received the letter from Senator Duckworth and is working to address the senator’s inquiry."

The senator has criticized Mason’s confirmation as VA IG and election to CIGIE chair because she previously served as a senior adviser to VA Secretary Doug Collins. As such, Duckworth and good government groups have contended that Mason cannot provide independent oversight.

This story has been updated with a statement from CIGIE.

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Labor oversight official faces ethics complaint for apparent congressional campaign moves

Sean Michael Newhouse — Thu, 28 May 2026 07:00:00 -0400

A government watchdog nonprofit on Tuesday requested an investigation into whether Anthony D’Esposito, the inspector general for the Labor Department, violated the Hatch Act, a law that restricts the political activity of civil servants.

The Project on Government Oversight’s complaint to the Office of Special Counsel, which enforces that law, argues that the former GOP lawmaker ran afoul of ethics rules by seeming to take steps preparing for another congressional run as a confirmed IG, a position that oversees independent audits and investigations of agency operations.

“We can't have inspectors general that are seen as attachments of the president or attachments of the agency,” said Joe Spielberger, a senior policy counsel at POGO, in an interview with Government Executive. “[If so] it means that when [the IGs] receive complaints, there's no guarantee that they will take those complaints seriously if they're directed against the executive branch or the party in power.”

In its complaint, POGO flagged several potential violations including:

D’Esposito’s campaign committee is still active based on the Federal Election Commission’s website.
Shortly after he was sworn in, he said during a radio interview that: “there’s no question that we’re exploring” a run for Congress,” “we’re doing the polling [and] we’re talking to people on the ground and we want to make sure that the resources are going to be there,” his Democratic successor is a “disastrous member of Congress” and that it’s important for Republican candidates to have funding to deliver effective campaign messaging.
Media reports that D’Esposito was planning to announce his candidacy.

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

While D’Esposito ultimately opted not to enter the race, Spielberger argued that an OSC investigation is still warranted.

“His decision to withdraw his name from potential candidacy doesn't absolve him from what are potentially previous violations of the Hatch Act,” he said.

POGO’s complaint also notes that D’Esposito frequently shares political social media posts, such as ones criticizing Democratic immigration policies, praising congressional Republicans and echoing slogans associated with President Donald Trump.

Under federal law, IGs are required to be appointed “without regard to political affiliation.”

In an interview with Bloomberg Law published on Wednesday, however, D’Esposito said that he didn’t see any issue with his public statements.

“I’m never going to shy away from the fact that I’m a conservative Republican,” he said. “I’m never going to shy away from the fact that I support the agenda, especially as it pertains to this office, just because I want to maintain an appearance. That’s absolutely ridiculous.”

In April, the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington nonprofit requested that the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, an oversight body for the watchdogs, investigate D’Esposito over matters similarly raised by POGO.

Trump recently nominated Charles Baldis to lead the OSC. Baldis is a former Senate staffer and current chief counsel at the agency who has been the designee of the OSC’s acting chief since spring 2025.

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. On one of the first days of his second term, the president also fired IGs at 18 agencies, including the DOL IG who D’Esposito later replaced.

The DOL OIG did not respond to a request for comment, but D’Esposito has previously testified that he is “well aware of the Hatch Act.”

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Someone robbed the SEC during the shutdown

Eric Katz — Wed, 27 May 2026 15:34:08 -0400

When federal agencies closed their doors for a record-setting 43 days last fall, one person saw an opportunity.

An individual is awaiting trial after burglarizing the Securities and Exchange Commission during last year’s government shutdown. The alleged thief did not wait long before entering the SEC regional office in Fort Worth, Texas, as the individual entered the building during the shutdown’s first week.

A contracted security officer was present for the incident, but failed to stop the person, identify them or sign them in, as building protocols require, the SEC’s inspector general said. The burglar “bypassed” a locked door, walked past the security guard and entered the SEC’s office suite. The security guard failed to escort the individual through the building and in the elevators, also in contravention of the building’s security policies.

The person then stole four laptops valued at more than $5,000, a bluetooth earpiece and a rolling briefcase.

Federal employees are generally prohibited from using their government devices during a shutdown if they are placed in non-working furlough status, but are required to report to their offices on the first day of a lapse to ensure their devices are secured. SEC furloughed 88% of its workforce during the most recent funding lapse, though an IG official was not aware of how many employees may have been reporting to the office during the burglary.

The SEC IG worked with local law enforcement to identify the suspect, who is now being held in a Texas corrections center on multiple burglary charges—including the SEC incident—while awaiting trial. While the suspect was arrested, the stolen laptops and other items were not recovered.

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FAA surges medical staff after whistleblower alleges issues with certifying pilots and controllers

Eric Katz — Tue, 26 May 2026 13:17:02 -0400

The Federal Aviation Administration has added 40% more staff to review health certifications of pilots and air traffic controllers after an employee blew the whistle on severe shortfalls that allegedly endangered the public.

The backlog may have led to hundreds of pilots flying who should not have been medically cleared to do so and delayed hiring efforts for new controllers, the whistleblower alleged to the Office of Special Counsel. OSC, which reviews allegations from federal whistleblowers, recommended the FAA employee for a monetary award as a result of his disclosure.

“I thank the whistleblower for coming forward and their steadfast commitment to safeguarding the flying public,” said Charles Baldis, OSC’s chief counsel. “The disclosure prompted meaningful reforms at the FAA, and the whistleblower’s actions reflect the essential role federal employees play in identifying risks and improving the safety of our nation’s aviation system.”

The whistleblower first filed his complaint in 2023 and OSC referred it to the Transportation Department for an investigation the following year. As part of the staffing issues, the whistleblower alleged that 1,200 individuals who were flagged for potential medical issues were flying without further evaluations from FAA and that long waits for the agency’s sign off causes some pilots not to disclose illnesses and injuries. The shortages also risked creating backlogs in hiring air traffic controllers, who, unlike pilots, must clear medical exams conducted by FAA staff before taking their positions.

At the time, the whistleblower said, around one-in-three medical officer roles were vacant at FAA, while their workloads had increased by 250% over the previous seven years.

Transportation ultimately did not substantiate the allegations, finding instead that bottlenecks can occur at several stages of the medical review process and no gross mismanagement or public safety risks occurred. Pilots first go through a screening with a private doctor, and those who are certified to fly then go through an automated, algorithmic review by FAA for any "anomalies." Most of those are resolved before FAA’s medical officers get involved, Transportation found in its report, and it was unlikely that 1,200 pilots were flying aircraft with medical conditions that would put them at risk.

The department concluded that an exceedingly small number of pilots require a lengthy review of their medical certificates and therefore the public is not at risk. It also noted pilots have an affirmative duty to report any medical issues they might have.

Still, FAA has made a concerted effort to bring on more physicians to review medical exams from pilots and air traffic controllers. That initiative got underway in the Biden administration, but carried forward after President Trump took office. The medical officer staff were exempt from workforce reduction efforts and the federal hiring freeze, and has grown by nearly 40% since September 2024. The agency has also sought to better educate potential pilots on the information and documents required of them and contracted out some of the administrative work required for ATC approvals.

OSC disputed Transportation’s decision declining to substantiate the allegations, noting FAA struggled to meet its mandated 60-day window to complete reviews of medical certifications. It also found FAA has for several years been on a controller hiring spree, while the medical staff remained stagnant. In 2023 it took 133 days for a controller to receive medical clearance and controllers cannot begin working or training without such clearance.

“OSC does not find the agency’s conclusions regarding the lack of safety risks appear reasonable, but we appreciate that the agency prioritized corrective actions to greatly increase staffing and efficiency in AAM to nonetheless resolve these concerns,” Baldis said.

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Agency partnerships are a potential financial lifeline for USPS, watchdog reports

Sean Michael Newhouse — Thu, 21 May 2026 17:22:08 -0400

With the prospect of running out of money by fall 2026 looming, the watchdog for the U.S. Postal Service recently laid out how the agency could partner with other government departments to expand access to services and shore up its finances.

“Although the additional revenue government services may yield is uncertain, they could contribute to the bottom line and meaningfully advance USPS’s role as essential public service infrastructure,” the USPS inspector general wrote.

For example, investigators highlighted that USPS could expand the number of facilities providing FBI biometric identity verification services (e.g. taking of fingerprints). They reported that roughly 30.4 million people, 9% of the U.S. population, live more than an hour away from a post office offering these services, which can be needed for employment or international travel background checks.

The OIG also emphasized an ongoing pilot program between USPS and a private company to offer TSA PreCheck enrollments and renewals at post offices.

“If the Postal Service was able to work with the TSA to provide the service at the 1,250 postal locations already equipped with biometric hardware, USPS would improve access for applicants, in particular in rural areas where private vendors lack a physical presence,” investigators wrote.

The Federal Communications Commission also suggested that postal facilities could lease their roofs for 5G and broadband towers in order to expand access, especially in rural areas. This would not be wholly unfamiliar territory for USPS, as the OIG noted that the postal agency already leases space for communications infrastructure at around 60 locations.

Nonpostal government services in fiscal 2025 yielded $387 million for USPS, about 0.5% of total operating revenue. Of that amount, 80% came from passport processing, which post offices have been offering in conjunction with the State Department since the 1970s.

The OIG stressed that USPS is not limited to federal partnerships. The Postal Service Reform Act of 2022 authorized the post office to work with state, local and tribal governments. Despite this, officials have no interagency agreements with these governments and have not conducted outreach.

State agencies in Texas, for example, told the OIG that postal facilities could act as “multi-agency hubs” to “bridge service gaps in remote areas where citizens may currently travel over 100 miles for state services.”

Investigators did note that USPS between 2021 and 2022 partnered with the California Department of Motor Vehicles on a pilot program to install DMV kiosks in post offices for vehicle registration renewals. They wrote that it was not continued due to “insufficient demand.”

The OIG recommended that USPS establish a strategy with steps to identify and gauge opportunities to expand services across different levels of government. USPS officials agreed with the recommendation and said they would “formalize and refine” past similar efforts into a singular roadmap.

Postmaster General David Steiner has expressed support for creating more partnerships with other agencies. He recently testified that USPS could run out of money as soon as fall 2026.

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Newest inspector general nominees show shift from overtly political backgrounds

Sean Michael Newhouse — Tue, 19 May 2026 16:55:04 -0400

On one of the first days of his second term, Donald Trump fired 17 agency inspectors general. And most of the president’s picks who have been confirmed to lead the watchdog offices previously worked in his first or second administration, raising concerns from good government groups about their ability to perform independent oversight of federal programs.

Trump’s latest IG nominees, however, generally have experience working in an IG office and appear to be more typical picks for the nonpartisan watchdog role.

Justice Department

Trump nominated Don Berthiaume, a career IG employee, to lead the DOJ IG office, where he is currently serving as a senior advisor.

The president tapped Berthiaume as the acting IG at DOJ from October 2025 through January 2026, but his tenure was cut short by rules that limit how long an individual can serve in an acting position.

Specifically, the Federal Vacancies Reform Act generally restricts officials from filling a role in an acting capacity to no more than 210 days after a vacancy occurs. The position at DOJ opened up in June 2025 when former DOJ IG Michael Horowitz left to become the IG for the Federal Reserve.

The deputy DOJ IG, William Blier, is currently performing the duties of the IG.

If confirmed, Berthiaume will face several politically sensitive challenges. Lawyers for a DOJ whistleblower in March accused the IG office of not investigating multiple misconduct allegations. And the DOJ watchdog in April announced that it would audit the department’s compliance with the law mandating the release of government files related to the deceased sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein.

But Mark Lee Greenblatt — former Interior Department IG who was fired by Trump and who has been critical of the president’s IG selections — praised Berthiaume’s nomination.

“In my experience of working literally next to [Berthiaume] for years on very sensitive political cases, he showed to me that he is a straight shooter,” Greenblatt said. “When compared with some of the IG nominees that President Trump has put forward in other significant positions, this [nomination] is — from my perspective — a home run.”

Education Department

Like Berthiaume, Trump’s pick to serve as Education IG — Heidi Semann — comes from the IG community and had a stint as acting IG.

The president in July 2025 replaced acting Education IG René Rocque, who is also the office’s deputy, with Semann. The swap came after Rocque notified Congress that investigators had “experienced unreasonable denials and repeated delays” from the department during an investigation into the administration’s workforce reductions.

In December 2025, however, Semann’s tenure as acting IG ended, and she returned to her position as a senior special agent at the Federal Reserve OIG. A spokesperson for the Education OIG confirmed to Government Executive that this was due to time limits on acting officials in the Federal Vacancies Reform Act.

Mark Priebe, who replaced Semann as acting and is still in the position, was a senior official in the Education OIG who appears to have shared social media posts supporting Trump.

Similarly, Greenblatt argued that Semann, given her oversight experience, is a “marked improvement” from Trump’s past IG nominees. But he still has some concerns.

“She seems to be having this meteoric rise from obscurity to an incredibly important sensitive role, so I think that does raise a question in my mind,” he said. “But since she’s coming from the OIG community, and with an oversight background, then hopefully she is coming to this position with that fair, objective and independent mindset.”

Housing and Urban Development Department

At the end of April, Trump nominated Jeffrey Ledbetter of Virginia to be IG at HUD. Neither the White House, the HUD OIG or Republicans or Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee, where his nomination has been referred, responded to a request to confirm who Ledbetter is or otherwise provide biographical information.

The president had selected Jeremy Ellis, who has more than two decades of investigative experience, as his HUD IG nominee, but that nomination was withdrawn in September 2025.

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VA security personnel aren’t detecting knives or booze, according to a watchdog report assessing medical facility security

Sean Michael Newhouse — Thu, 14 May 2026 15:04:16 -0400

Police officers who guard Veterans Affairs Department medical facilities failed to address security issues in a majority of covert tests conducted by the Government Accountability Office, which also determined that VA leaders have not fully implemented federal building security best practices.

The report, which was published on Wednesday, found that:

VA staff at all 30 locations that were examined failed to detect a multi-tool with a prohibited knife blade. Investigators noted that only two of the buildings had metal detectors: one of them was not in use and in the other case the device set the detector off but officers did not act on it.
In 25 out of 26 tests, VA employees did not notice or respond to an undercover GAO investigator who was drinking from a bottle that appeared to contain alcohol in a waiting room, even though guards were nearby in more than a quarter of the cases.
At eight of 16 facilities, investigators were able to enter nonpublic spaces, such as offices, treatment rooms and a blood draw lab.

In 2025, GAO similarly reported that contracted guards for agencies governmentwide failed to detect prohibited items in about half of its covert tests.

The VA has more than 4,300 police officers, physical security specialists and investigators as well as roughly 800 contract security guards.

VA’s inspector general found that in fiscal 2025 police officers were the most frequently reported severe nonclinical occupational staffing shortage in the department, with 58% of medical facilities saying they didn’t have enough security personnel.

Quinn Slaven, VA’s press secretary, said by email to Government Executive that officials have worked to address the issue by collaborating with the Office of Personnel Management to reclassify department police officers so that they can receive higher pay. He also said that the VA has consolidated law enforcement operations under one office, so that officers aren’t reporting to multiple different medical center directors.

GAO also faulted the VA for not adhering to Interagency Security Committee risk management standards for federal buildings. Specifically, officials are not consistently documenting why they make certain security decisions considering available resources or measuring the performance of protective measures.

The watchdog recommended that VA enact the government facility security guidelines.

“By fully implementing this standard, VA will be better able to make informed decisions, effectively allocate resources and prioritize security efforts at its medical facilities,” they wrote. “In addition, fully implementing this standard could help VA ensure it has appropriate security at its medical facilities to create a safe environment for veterans and VA staff.”

In the new report, GAO also found that about 98% of the approximately 74,700 crimes reported by the VA police in fiscal years 2024 and 2025 were nonviolent.

GAO said in the report that the VA did not provide comments on the investigation. Agencies typically offer feedback on investigations by the watchdog that officials then incorporate into the report. Slaven, however, told Government Executive that the VA did submit comments but that GAO didn’t include them.

In response, a GAO spokesperson said that VA submitted a message agreeing with the recommendations in the report after it had been sent to the senator who requested the investigation.

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Watchdog recommends nearly 100 ways for agencies to save tens of billions

Sean Michael Newhouse — Tue, 12 May 2026 16:31:29 -0400

The Government Accountability Office on Tuesday released its annual report highlighting duplicative federal programs and opportunities to promote effectiveness and efficiency across agencies. Officials estimated that implementing their new and past open recommendations could save more than $100 billion.

Some of the new 97 recommendations for lawmakers and agencies include:

Officials should consolidate mission-support services (e.g. payroll and travel) among agencies, which GAO reported could save tens of millions of dollars over three years. Specifically, the watchdog recommended that the Office of Management and Budget and General Services Administration improve data collection with respect to the effectiveness of shared services.
The departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs should identify more opportunities to share healthcare resources, which could reduce fragmentation and also save tens of millions of dollars annually.
FBI should lead the creation of a government-wide anti-scam strategy to spur collaboration, as 13 different agencies work to prevent scams.

Investigators reported that, as of March, agencies had fully or partially addressed 1,662 (77%) of recommendations that GAO has made in these annual reports for the last 16 years, yielding about $774.3 billion in financial benefits. Officials acknowledged, however, that this is a “rough estimate based on a variety of sources that considered different time periods and used different data sources, assumptions and methodologies.”

In the latest report, GAO also flagged past recommendations that remain unimplemented including:

Establishing an inventory of federal programs, which includes funding and performance information, to help identify duplication and overlap. The watchdog found in a March report that such an inventory created by OMB is missing statutorily required information.
Setting up a process to identify and remove ineligible family members from the Federal Employees Health Benefits program, which the watchdog said could save more than $1 billion over nine years. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which was enacted in July 2025, included a requirement to fulfill such a recommendation, but the Office of Personnel Management hasn’t implemented it yet.
Improving the IRS’ enforcement efforts. Congressional Democrats in 2022 approved nearly $80 billion for the tax agency, in part, to enhance tax collections, but lawmakers since then have rescinded more than two-thirds of that funding.

The House Republican fiscal 2027 legislative branch appropriations bill would cut GAO’s funding by nearly 25%. Congress in fiscal 2026 held the watchdog’s funding level flat despite an attempt by the House GOP to halve it. The Trump administration has criticized GAO for issuing several findings that officials illegally withheld congressionally approved spending.

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Federal discipline was never supposed to be punitive. The MSPB appeal framework reflects that

Justin Schnitzer — Tue, 12 May 2026 06:00:00 -0400

There is a legal principle embedded in the federal disciplinary system that most federal employees never hear about, and that most federal managers are not taught, even though it is the single most important concept for understanding how the Merit Systems Protection Board evaluates adverse actions.

Federal discipline is supposed to be rehabilitative, not punitive.

This is not an attorney's argument or an advocacy position. It is the doctrinal foundation of the Douglas factors framework established in Douglas v. Veterans Administration, 5 MSPR 280 (1981), which remains the controlling standard for penalty review in MSPB cases forty-five years later. The Board's twelve-factor analysis is built on a core question: not "how bad was this," but "does this person have the potential to be rehabilitated into a productive federal employee."

That distinction matters for both managers and employees, and it is worth examining carefully against the current backdrop. For readers who want the structural framework before reading the analysis, this MSPB appeal walkthrough covers how the Douglas factors function within the broader appeal process.

What the Douglas framework actually asks

When an MSPB administrative judge reviews whether a penalty is proportionate, the twelve Douglas factors build a profile of the employee, not just the offense. They include the nature and seriousness of the conduct, the employee's job level, their past disciplinary record, their length of service and prior performance, the potential for rehabilitation, and the existence of mitigating circumstances such as unusual job tensions, personal difficulties, or provocation.

Factor 10, potential for rehabilitation, is where cases are often decided. An employee who accepts responsibility for the conduct, demonstrates understanding of why it was wrong, and shows concrete steps toward not repeating it is signaling rehabilitation. An employee who denies, deflects, or makes false statements during the investigation is signaling the opposite, and that signal carries significant weight with administrative judges.

This framework also requires agencies to impose consistent penalties. Douglas Factor 6 asks whether the penalty is consistent with penalties the agency has imposed on similarly-situated employees for similar conduct. Douglas Factor 7 asks whether the penalty is consistent with the agency's published table of penalties. Agencies that deviate from their own established penalty ranges are required to justify that deviation, and recent precedent has opened more discretion for judges to mitigate feds' punishments, reinforcing the proportionality review.

What the current caseload reflects

The MSPB received 20,335 initial appeals in fiscal year 2025, approximately four times its normal annual volume, according to the Board's Annual Performance Report published April 3, 2026. The surge was driven largely by probationary terminations and reduction-in-force actions. Of the 9,050 cases processed at the regional and field office level in FY 2025, only 55.8 percent were resolved within 120 days.

That caseload volume does not change the legal framework. The Douglas factors review applies regardless of the number of cases on the docket. What it does change is the practical context in which managers and HR professionals are operating. Adverse actions issued at volume, without individualized Douglas factors analysis, without consistency review, without consideration of rehabilitation potential, create appeals that are more likely to generate either Board reversals or settlements on unfavorable terms.

Settlement rates have been declining for years. It has been becoming rarer for federal agencies and employees to resolve adverse action disputes through settlement, and the FY 2025 data confirms the trend has continued. The legal test for penalty proportionality is not relaxed because the agency is processing a large number of actions simultaneously. Administrative judges apply the same framework to mass actions that they apply to individual ones.

The reply stage as the first checkpoint

For employees facing proposed adverse actions, the procedural structure gives them a meaningful opportunity to engage the Douglas framework before the case reaches the Board. Under 5 U.S.C. § 7513(b), employees have the right to reply in writing and orally to the deciding official before the final action is taken. An effective reply frames the employee's conduct in the rehabilitative context, demonstrating accountability, context, and a clear case for proportionality under the Douglas factors. In my practice, that framing gives the deciding official a substantive basis for reducing or withdrawing the proposed action.

What federal managers should understand

Managers who initiate proposed adverse actions under the assumption that the Board will simply defer to the agency's judgment are operating on outdated assumptions. The Federal Circuit affirmed 91 percent of MSPB decisions reviewed on the merits in FY 2025, which means the Board's decisions are robust to appellate review. But the Board will apply the Douglas factors to whatever the agency proposes, and penalties that are disproportionate, inconsistent with established tables, or unsupported by evidence of the employee's rehabilitation potential are subject to mitigation. The MSPB has long advocated nontraditional approaches to discipline for precisely this reason.

The most defensible adverse action from the agency's perspective is one that can demonstrate, against each applicable Douglas factor, that the penalty selected is proportionate, consistent, and based on individualized assessment. That standard is more demanding than simply documenting the misconduct.

The rehabilitative framework is not an idealistic legal theory. It is the law that governs whether the penalty your agency imposed will survive review.

Justin Schnitzer founded The Law Office of Justin Schnitzer, a Washington, D.C. federal employment law practice focused on MSPB appeals, federal EEOC matters, and adverse action defense. His analysis of federal workforce policy has appeared in Forbes, US News & World Report, NBC News, Newsweek, and the ABA Journal.

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The number of feds in tax debt spiked during the pandemic

Eric Katz — Mon, 11 May 2026 17:03:01 -0400

The rate of federal employees who fail to pay their taxes on time has grown in recent years, according to a new audit, though the Internal Revenue Service is hopeful it can soon shrink the figure.

The federal workforce still overwhelmingly pays its taxes on time, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found in a new report, though the delinquency rate has grown from 4.9% in 2021 to 6.9% in 2024. There were 215,000 federal workers who had outstanding tax bills as of 2024, a 45% jump from 2021. They collectively owed $2.1 billion, up from $1.5 billion three years prior.

IRS officials attributed much of the increase to a pause of various collection efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The IRS began a phased-in resumption of the levy program in August 2024 and anticipates that the delinquency rates will decrease in the coming years,” the inspector general said.

Still, the auditors implored IRS to do a better job ensuring federal employees pay their taxes on time. IRS is prohibited from sharing its list of non-compliant feds with other agencies, a ban the IG suggested the Treasury Department lobby Congress to change.

“If taxpayers (i.e., non-federal employees) are aware that federal employees are not timely satisfying their tax obligations, it may impact their willingness to comply with their own tax matters,” the IG said.

The watchdog noted that Treasury has an obligation to hold employees accountable for tax noncompliance and its rate for such workers is just 2.4%.

IRS and Treasury last year collaborated to mail 427,000 notices to federal employees and retirees delinquent on their taxes, which led to nearly 65,000 of those individuals making at least some payment on their tax bills. Agency officials said that was a one-time initiative and it would not be sending additional notices.

The tax agency in 1993 launched a program to specifically track and identify federal workers who fall behind on their tax bills. The number of employees working on that program dropped in half last year as part of IRS’ overall effort to shrink its workforce. Still, the agency said it has introduced additional enforcement of delinquent federal workers and is now prioritizing that population in its collection activity two days per week instead of one day per quarter.

As of 2024, there were 572,000 combined federal employees retirees who were not up to date on their taxes. That figure jumped by 43% since 2021 despite the overall population slightly declining. They owe $6.3 billion in taxes, a 32% increase.

About 50,000 current employees failed to file a tax return for multiple years. More than 1,000 employees are delinquent on their taxes for at least six years. The IG said it referred the 122 federal workers who were at least eight years behind to IRS’ Criminal Investigations division.

Federal employee advocates have noted over the years that the civil servants maintain a delinquency rate far lower than that of the U.S. population.

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More than 3-in-4 allegations of sexual assault against federal prison staff are going unresolved

Eric Katz — Wed, 06 May 2026 13:41:57 -0400

Allegations of sexual abuse against staff at federal prisons are overwhelmingly left unresolved after the Bureau of Prisons is unable to draw a conclusion on whether such incidents occurred, according to a new report that found the federal Bureau of Prisons is frequently ill-equipped to handle those investigations.

Allegations of rape and sexual misconduct against federal corrections officers by inmates have spiked in recent years, the Government Accountability Office found in its review of enforcement of the 2003 Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), and the bureau is in many ways failing to implement the law in the way Congress intended.

From 2014 through 2022, federal inmates logged nearly 4,000 complaints of sexual abuse against prison staff. Just 9% of those were substantiated by BOP, though 77% saw investigations end inconclusively. The agency proved the incidents did not occur in just six cases, or about one-tenth of 1%.

A similar trend emerged from sexual abuse allegedly committed by incarcerated individuals, with 81% of those cases reaching inconclusive findings.

GAO separately found federal prison guards faced around 3,000 allegations of sexual abuse from 2020 through 2024, a significant uptick in incident rate from prior years. From 2014 through 2022, BOP averaged 433 allegations against its staff per year. In 2023 and 2024, that spiked to 857 per year.

When an allegation of sexual abuse is made, the bureau deploys an evidence recovery team for and a local nurse conducts a rape kit if the alleged event had just occured. Employees said, however, that they often learn of allegations well after the fact, such as after an inmate transfers from a different facility.

GAO reported last year that BOP’s Office of Internal Affairs had 12,153 open allegations in its employees misconduct caseload, though the agency said most were not related to PREA violations. More than one-third of those cases had been open for at least three years. GAO noted the bureau has ramped up its efforts to address the backlog, including by deploying strike teams of investigators to facilities with particularly large caseloads.

Still, employees told the auditors that they have insufficient staffing for responding to allegations of sexual abuse, including a shortatge of investigators. Longstanding personnel shortages at the agency have led to less general supervision that in turn allows misconduct to fester, officials told GAO. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act that President Trump signed into law last year included $3 billion for BOP staffing, though criminal justice reform advocates have faulted the Trump administration for cutting PREA grants last year.

Abusers also employ tactics to avoid repercussions. Most of the corrections officers with whom GAO spoke said abusers know where they can go to evade cameras and some said the video quality is poor or not retained for a sufficient amount of time. Employees also said investigations against staff can take time, often years, to complete.

Corrections officers told GAO that false allegations of sexual abuse are prevalent and waste resources and tarnish the credibility of those reporting real incidents. Incarcerated individuals told the auditors that their fellow inmates make false accusations against prison staff as a form of retribution.

Still, corrections officers overwhelmingly told GAO they “would not hesitate to report sexual abuse perpetrated by employees against incarcerated individuals.”

PREA sought to establish a “zero-tolerance policy” for rape in U.S. prisons while tasking the Justice Department with instituting national standards for preventing, investigating and tracking such incidents. GAO noted sexual abuse “remains a significant problem” in federal prisons despite some progress under the law. The auditors titled a blog post accompanying their report “The Heinous Crimes Haunting Federal Prisons.”

Facilities that have been found to be fully compliant with the law have maintained the highest incident rates of sexual abuse in the country, GAO found. PREA requires ongoing audits of federal prison facilities, but GAO said current practice fails to detect ongoing sexual abuse. When the bureau contracts auditors for those investigations, it does not ensure they meet established requirements and they do not always have access to key documentation.

“Sexual assault is a heinous crime that can have lasting, harmful effects on survivors,” GAO said. “The issues identified through this report highlight that not all correctional facilities are meeting the intent of PREA.”

GAO cited BOP for a slew of additional failures, including its decision to only focus on cultural issues at women’s facilities and not men’s. It noted the bureau does not publish or analyze uniform data across the bureau to identify trends.

Jolene Lauria, the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for administration, said BOP agreed that it must assess its approach on PREA enforcement and vowed to implement all of GAO’s recommendations. Various hiring initiatives will address staffing shortages that lead to coverage issues, officials said, and the agency will look at bringing on staff with specific experience in data analysis. It will also ensure the third-party investigators who conduct PREA audits have access to the documentation they need and review their training and guidance materials to enhance detection of ongoing sexual abuse.

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Agencies doled out $186B in improper payments last year, GAO says

Natalie Alms — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 16:48:58 -0400

The federal government made at least $186 billion in improper payments in fiscal 2025, according to a report released Monday by Congress’ watchdog.

The Government Accountability Office’s new estimate comes as the Trump administration continues to doggedly pursue its “war on fraud” to hunt out fraudulent government spending.

The latest numbers offer a point-in-time look at how the government is doing with preventing payments that shouldn’t have been made or were made in the incorrect amount. The category is broader than fraud, which is defined by willful misrepresentation. Although the majority of the $186 billion evaluated by GAO are overpayments, at least $10 billion of the total is money that should’ve been sent out, but wasn’t.

The government’s improper payments total is up by about $24 billion from the prior fiscal year, although that’s largely because of changes in what programs reported data, GAO said. The watchdog audited the improper payment data from 15 agencies’ financial statements across 64 programs.

Most of the improper payments are concentrated in five programs, GAO found, including Medicare, Medicaid, the earned income tax credit and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

The Trump administration has been zeroing in on fraud in Medicare and Medicaid already, as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz announced last week that the Trump administration will require all states to revalidate Medicaid providers.

Oz has also announced state-level Medicaid probes, mostly of blue states, as part of his effort to stamp out fraud, although that rollout hasn’t been flawless. Last month, CMS admitted to an error in the fraud analysis of Medicaid in New York that it used to justify the scrutiny into the state program.

The White House is also working across federal agencies to comb through government programs as part of Trump’s anti-fraud task force being led by Vice President JD Vance.

The crackdown is happening as midterms loom, with voters saying that they’re concerned about healthcare affordability.

Critics of the administration’s anti-fraud work say the administration is using the issue as a pretext for political goals and that false claims and the dismantling of government watchdogs are worsening the problem.

“As someone who has spent my career fighting fraud, I welcome any renewed attention on ferreting out fraud,” Mark Lee Greenblatt, formerly the inspector general at Interior Department, told Nextgov/FCW. But he said some of the administration’s moves have been “puzzling.”

“They’ve proposed slashing OIG budgets markedly. And that is counterproductive to the fight against fraud,” said Greenblatt. “If you want to fight fraud, fund the fraud-fighters.”

Trump fired Greenblatt and about 20 other watchdogs soon after taking office last year. He also issued nearly three dozen pardons and commutations for people accused of fraud last year.

Lawmakers have also taken on the mantle of fraud fighting. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is planning to mark up nine bills tomorrow focused on the issue. Among them is a proposal to create a permanent anti-fraud data platform for OIGs. Oversight officials have long recommended that lawmakers improve data sharing within the government.

The bills being considered are a “huge bright spot,” Linda Miller, an anti-fraud expert who worked at GAO for years, told Nextgov/FCW. They remove “a ton of barriers that I have been talking about for a decade.”

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Catch me if you can’t: How fraudsters are outpacing the government

Jordan Burris — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 07:00:00 -0400

For years, conversations about government fraud have focused on scale. The numbers are staggering. The Government Accountability Office estimates between $233 billion and $521 billion is lost to fraud annually but if we say the quiet part out loud that estimate is far too low. The reality that emerged from a recent cross-government roundtable of federal leaders shines a light on the urgency in this moment that is greater than any single number.

Fraud is no longer just large. It is fast.

Today’s fraud landscape is defined by speed, adaptability, and coordination at a level government systems were not built to match. What once took months to orchestrate can now happen in days, or even hours. As detailed in the report from the roundtable, in one documented case, fraud actors used artificial intelligence to generate more than 24,000 synthetic identities and launch nearly 36,000 attacks within a matter of weeks, many within just 48 hours of identity creation. That velocity makes it increasingly hard to keep up with the fraudsters.

This is no longer a question of fixing gaps in existing systems. It is a structural mismatch between how quickly fraud evolves, how slowly public sector controls adapt, and how the public sector continues to implement yesterday’s approaches to stopping fraud to a next generation problem. Programs designed to update annually by looking backwards are facing threats that iterate in real time and not as slowly as the federal budget process.

At the same time, something else is happening beneath the surface. The signals the government has long relied on to detect fraud are weakening. Identity markers, like consistent email addresses, phone numbers, and device fingerprints, are disappearing as fraudsters deliberately engineer around them. The result is a system where traditional safeguards are not just failing, they are being outpaced. And yet, the most striking takeaway from the roundtable was not the risk. It was the opportunity to do something better.

Prevention Is Finally Within Reach

There is now clear, operational evidence that fraud can be prevented before it happens. Recent efforts across Treasury and oversight bodies show that earlier intervention, backed by better data and modern analytics, can stop improper payments upstream without slowing down services. Prevention and speed are no longer opposing forces. Done right, they reinforce each other.

For decades, the government has relied on a “pay and chase” model. Funds go out quickly, and fraud is identified, prosecuted, and recovered later. But recovery is expensive, slow, and often incomplete. Prevention, by contrast, is immediate and far more effective. The challenge is that government incentives have not fully caught up.

Today, agencies are still rewarded for rapid disbursement and post-payment recovery, even as practitioners and evidence alike show that earlier screening delivers better outcomes. Fixing that misalignment is fundamentally a policy challenge.

The Coordination Problem

That theme emerged most sharply in discussions around federal grants. It is clear there are tools the public sector has available to prevent fraud, some older and many that have yet to be adopted. However, the responsibility, data, and intelligence is spread across agencies, states, and systems that were never designed to work together. When billions of dollars move through decentralized structures, even small coordination gaps can create significant exposure. Closing those gaps requires orchestrating what already exists, not reinventing the system.

And there are real reasons for optimism. Data-sharing authorities are expanding. Tools like Treasury’s Do Not Pay system are proving their value, identifying and preventing millions in improper payments with strong returns on investment. (This strategy is only scratching the surface of what is needed.) Perhaps most importantly, there is growing bipartisan consensus that prevention must happen earlier in the payment lifecycle. The Administration’s recent Executive Order on Fraud demonstrates commitment at the highest levels.

The Window to Act

The question now is whether that momentum can be sustained and scaled. Because fraud actors are not waiting. They are already adapting to new controls, leveraging artificial intelligence, global infrastructure, and increasingly sophisticated identity strategies. The window to respond is now measured in days or months, rather than years.

The takeaway from this roundtable is that the path forward is clearer than ever.

Move prevention upstream before the payment goes out.
Treat data and fraud risk intelligence sharing as essential and find the right way to do it.
Align incentives with outcomes that reward dollars never lost, not just dollars recovered.

Fraud is evolving quickly. The real test is whether government can evolve just as fast.

Jordan Burris is the Head of Public Sector at Socure, an industry-leading digital identity verification provider. Burris was previously Chief of Staff to the Federal CIO at the White House during the first Trump Administration.

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Severe staffing cuts at GSA are harming agencies across government, watchdog says

Sean Michael Newhouse — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 14:12:13 -0400

The General Services Administration conducted staff cuts in 2025 without analyzing what skills it needed in order to fulfill its mission managing federal buildings, the top federal watchdog found in a new report, leaving the agency scrambling to address ensuing gaps in service.

GSA’s Public Buildings Service oversees about 8,500 owned and leased government properties. As part of the Trump administration’s push to reduce the number of federal employees, the division went from more than 5,600 employees to approximately 3,100 over the course of 2025.

The agency achieved these reductions mainly through voluntary separation incentives (such as the deferred resignation program) and layoffs. Investigators noted, however, that GSA in September 2025 rescinded nearly 400 of the PBS reduction in force notices.

The Government Accountability Office flagged several issues with how GSA conducted the workforce reductions and broader reorganization:

Officials did not develop performance measures to gauge the success of the overhaul.
PBS leadership communicated with stakeholders and employees about these changes generally after, rather than before, they were implemented.
The agency does not have a “systematic plan” to monitor that the reforms are being enacted.
Officials conducted an analysis to determine how many personnel with certain skills were needed to fill gaps in the agency only after staff cuts had already taken place.

“The Public Buildings Service reduced staff first and then assessed workforce gaps retroactively,” investigators wrote. “Without strategic workforce planning that carefully considers long-term staffing plan and associated personnel costs, a skills gap between the agency’s workforce capacity and its mission-related activities may result in reduced or disrupted service delivery.”

One agency that relies on GSA reported that its employees are no longer certain who their point of contact is at PBS. Officials from another agency told GAO that they have had to extend project timelines due to a reduction in the number of employees who conduct cost estimates before a building can be offloaded. The Trump administration has prioritized selling underutilized federal properties.

GAO recommended that GSA set performance metrics for the reorganization, continuously solicit and incorporate feedback from stakeholders, monitor implementation of the reforms and address skills gaps in PBS.

GSA Administrator Edward Forst agreed with the recommendations in a letter attached to the report and reported some progress in implementing them, including establishing new agency performance goals and initiating employee pulse surveys.

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Inspectors general targeted for funding cuts in Trump’s FY27 budget

Sean Michael Newhouse — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 16:09:18 -0400

In 2025, Donald Trump fired nearly 20 inspectors general and replaced acting IGs at five agencies. The Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan nonprofit that has been critical of the president’s federal workforce reforms, in an analysis published on Tuesday argued that the administration is seeking to further weaken the oversight offices through the budget process.

Based on the fiscal 2027 budget request, which was released earlier this month, researchers found that Cabinet department IGs would receive an average of 12% less in funding than they did in fiscal 2024 (the last full fiscal year of the Biden administration.) The IGs at the departments of Interior and Justice would each be cut by 28%, which are the steepest declines.

“Audits and investigations require time and resources,” the Partnership wrote. “A 28% budget reduction does not simply mean doing the same work more efficiently. It means doing less of it. Fewer audits conducted, fewer investigations opened and fewer recommendations made to agencies — and longer timelines for the work that does get done.”

Congress rejected many of Trump’s fiscal 2026 requests to significantly cut agency funding.

Administration officials, according to the Partnership, project an average 9% reduction in staffing at Cabinet IGs, which is on top of a 10% average workforce cut at the agencies that occurred in 2025. Likewise, the Public Citizen nonprofit found in a March report that the overall number of IG employees has shrunk by about 12% as a result of the Trump administration’s efforts to downsize the civil service.

While the number of vacant IG positions increased after Trump’s mass firings, the Senate has only confirmed eight of the president’s IG nominees — most of whom previously worked in Trump’s first or second administration.

Cheryl Mason — the IG for the Veterans Affairs Department, who previously served as a senior adviser to VA Secretary Doug Collins — in March was elected as the chairperson of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency. The Trump administration had blocked fiscal 2026 funding for the watchdogs’ central group but backtracked after pressure from Senate Republicans.

Partnership researchers reported that the five IG offices with the deepest proposed cuts across budget and staffing do not have permanent leadership.

“An office operating under an acting inspector general, with a staff 21-35% smaller than it was two years ago and a budget facing further cuts, is not simply a leaner operation,” they wrote. “It is a fundamentally hampered one.”

The Project on Government Oversight nonprofit argued that cutting IG offices ultimately hurts the country’s financial outlook, pointing to data that every dollar spent on IGs in fiscal 2024 yielded $18 as a result of their work to root out fraud, waste and abuse.

“Investing in inspectors general invests in effective government,” said Caitlin MacNeal, POGO’s communications director, in a statement to Government Executive. “Firing inspectors general and slashing their budgets undermines accountability."

Mark Lee Greenblatt, who was IG at the Interior Department before he was fired by Trump, contended that the proposal to cut spending on the watchdog offices contravened the administration’s effort to combat fraud.

“If the goal is to fight fraud, the IGs should be getting larger budgets – not smaller,” he said in a statement to Government Executive.

Administration officials have previously said that IGs have become “corrupt, partisan and in some cases, have lied to the public.” During his first term, Trump fired the IG whose notification to Congress led to his first impeachment.

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House Dems: OPM ‘omitted’ employee departures from retirement backlog investigation

Erich Wagner — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 18:10:42 -0400

House Democrats on Monday suggested that the Office of Personnel Management has not been entirely forthcoming in responding to their oversight requests over the federal retirement backlog, which has ballooned during Trump’s second term to more than 50,000 pending cases.

Last December, a group of House lawmakers led by Rep. James Walkinshaw, D-Va., requested that the federal government’s dedicated HR agency provide information regarding delays within the federal retirement process impacting tens of thousands of former employees who left federal service last year. As of March 31, the retirement backlog sat at 55,681 pending cases, down from a peak of 65,237 cases the previous month.

But the lawmakers, in a new letter to OPM Monday, said that the HR agency’s previous response was incomplete. While the agency noted the loss of 35 customer center representatives, it failed to mention a much larger exodus from within OPM’s Retirement Services division.

“A January 30 letter we received rom the deputy inspector general of OPM raised concerns associated with staff reductions across the agency resulting from Trump-implemented staffing initiatives such as the deferred resignation program, reductions in force and the termination of probationary staff,” lawmakers wrote. “[Specifically], the IG cites data from its November 2025 report indicating the loss of more than 100 staff in the Retirement Services division due to the deferred resignation program. The Office of the IG reiterated concerns that these losses would compound existing delays in retirement processing.”

Walkinshaw and his colleagues also bemoaned that while OPM has touted the launch of a governmentwide online retirement application in its efforts to reduce the retirement backlog, it failed to provide information about what percentage of retirement applications are being handled by the new system.

“To be clear, we are supportive of efforts to modernize OPM’s retirement application process and hope to see continued progress on the use and implementation of ORA,” they wrote. “What we do not support is the use of rhetoric about modernization efforts to obscure the existing backlog of retirement applications for federal employees, many of whom were pushed out by the Trump administration’s workforce reduction policies.”

In a statement to Government Executive, OPM spokeswoman McLaurine Pinover said the backlog of pending claims has declined “significantly from its recent peak.” The agency processed 22,237 claims in March, bringing the backlog down by 14%. But the current inventory remains roughly 20,000 claims higher than its previous peak—36,000 claims in 2022, as OPM began digging out from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“OPM is making steady progress reducing the retirement backlog after a surge in applications earlier this year, with inventory declining significantly from its recent peak,” she said. “Many delays occur before cases reach OPM, as retirement packages must first be completed by agencies and payroll providers before adjudication can begin. Once cases arrive at OPM, most retirees receive interim payments on average seven days within submission of their retirement application, so they have income while their claims are finalized. Interim pay accounts for 80% of their full annuity payment.”

Pinover did not respond to questions regarding the apparent omission of data regarding the Retirement Services workforce from the agency’s initial response to lawmakers.

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VA’s former EHR lead indicted for concealing contractor gifts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Inspector general group to be led by former Trump administration adviser

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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