Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) are demanding answers on President Donald Trump's move to fire over a dozen inspectors general.
According to Politico, the two senators — who are the chair and ranking member, respectively, of the Senate Judiciary Committee — sent a joint letter warning Trump that he did not follow the requirement of notifying Congress 30 days in advance before removing 18 inspectors general, critical watchdogs who oversee independent investigations of government mismanagement across a variety of public agencies.
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“This is a matter of public and congressional accountability and ensuring the public’s confidence in the Inspector General community, a sentiment shared more broadly by other Members of Congress,” said the letter. “IGs are critical to rooting out waste, fraud, abuse, and misconduct within the Executive Branch bureaucracy, which you have publicly made clear you are also intent on doing.”
The two warned Trump that "the law must be followed," telling him to submit to Congress a legitimate reason for the firings.
All of this comes at a moment when Trump is moving rapidly to uproot massive parts of the federal government, possibly violating congressional statutes.
Among other things, Trump also terminated Democratic National Labor Relations Board member Gwynne Wilcox, even though federal law prohibits this except for good cause, and has moved to impound billions of dollars in congressional funding representing dozens of critical federal programs, despite federal law prohibiting the president from such acts.
