The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released $4.3 million for the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) after saying it would not fund the federal watchdog coalition last month, calling the group corrupt and partisan.
Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Susan Collins, R-Maine, who respectively chair the Senate committees on the Judiciary and Appropriations, announced OMB’s decision on Tuesday, and said the move will fund CIGIE through Jan. 30 under the stopgap funding bill passed last week.
Grassley and Collins wrote to OMB following the agency’s decision to pull back funding for the federal inspector general coalition, which is intended to strengthen oversight and promote government accountability. The senators warned that without funding, CIGIE and its Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) could furlough staff and suspend operations despite Congress already appropriating their funding.
“We are pleased that following our continued outreach, OMB is releasing the funding that Congress provided for CIGIE to continue its vital work,” Grassley and Collins said in a statement.
“This action, building on OMB’s earlier decision to release funding for PRAC, ensures that these important oversight entities can remain focused on delivering the accountability American taxpayers deserve. Our oversight of the administration’s actions, and CIGIE’s work, will continue,” the senators added.
OMB had justified its decision to suspend funding by pointing to a House investigation that alleged the Pentagon inspector general misrepresented the timeline of the National Guard’s deployment on Jan. 6, 2021. It also cited another report that found no evidence that political bias influenced the start of the Russia investigation, saying the report was misleading.
“Inspectors general are meant to be impartial watchdogs identifying waste and corruption on behalf of the American people,” an OMB spokesperson told MeriTalk at the time it decided to defund CIGIE. “Unfortunately, they have become corrupt, partisan, and in some cases, have lied to the public. The American people will no longer be funding this corruption.”
In the wake of OMB’s decision, House Judiciary Committee Democrats launched a new webpage with watchdog resources after the Trump administration also shut down websites for at least 28 Offices of the Inspector General on Oct. 1.
In their announcement that CIGIE will now receive funding from OMB, Grassley and Collins said OMB will be conducting a “programmatic review of CIGIE’s activities.”
Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has directed the firing of about two dozen inspector generals, who are assigned to agencies to keep a close eye on their activities and report back to Congress.