Inspector general group to be led by former Trump administration adviser

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