House Dems: Trump is starving inspectors generals of resources, blocking investigations

Democrats on the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Friday sent letters to two dozen federal agencies demanding they cooperate with their respective inspectors general, following reports that the watchdog offices have been hollowed out and stonewalled by their parent agencies.

Led by ranking member Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., all 20 Democrats on the panel accused the Trump administration of “evading essential oversight safeguards” through a combination of starving inspector general offices of resources and blocking investigators’ access to agency documents and personnel for interviews.

Shortly after taking office in January, Trump purged more than dozen inspectors general, disregarding federal law requiring him to give Congress both 30 days’ advance notice of such firings and the rationale for their removal. Trump fired the U.S. Agency for International Development inspector general in February after he issued a report critical of the effort to shutter the agency, and an acting Education inspector general was removed in June after they informed Congress that the Education Department had interfered with an OIG investigation.

The committee Democrats reported that since January, inspector general offices have lost hundreds of auditors and other personnel as the result of the administration’s hiring freeze, multiple rounds of the deferred resignation program, and reductions in force. Some offices have reported staff reductions of 20% and 30% compared with last year.

“The Trump administration’s actions have both deprived OIGs of the personnel and resources they need to examine and address waste, fraud, abuse and corruption in government, and limited agencies’ ability to respond to OIG requests,” they wrote. “Numerous OIGs have reported to committee staff about alterations of work schedules, delays in agency responses to OIG requests, and recruitment and retention issues. One OIG office feared that it ‘could experience delays in the future due to staff reductions resulting from the hiring freeze, meeting EO compliance, deferred resignation program, and any future RIF requirements.”

And those still at their posts report that agencies are blocking their access to agency information and personnel, in an apparent violation of the 1978 Inspector General Act.

“On May 23, 2025, [the Education Department] OIG notified Congressional committees that ED had withheld numerous documents requested by the OIG based on vague claims that the materials are somehow sensitive, deliberative or related to unspecified litigation,” the letter states. “This is a clear violation of the IG Act, which authorizes the OIG ‘to have timely access to all records, reports, audits, reviews, documents, papers, recommendations, or other materials available’ related to ED’s ‘programs and operations.’ Further, the IG Act bars any agency from withholding information from the OIG on the basis of deliberative information or information subject to litigation.”

In a statement, Garcia said the Trump administration’s treatment of inspector general offices belies its lack of concern for making government more efficient, notwithstanding the efforts of the Department of Government Efficiency.

“Reports of the Trump administration’s extensive efforts to block inspectors general from doing their jobs confirm what we already knew: Donald Trump has never cared about uncovering waste, fraud and abuse in our government,” he said. “The administration’s interference with these critical nonpartisan watchdogs is a severe threat to the integrity of the nation’s government.”