Administration Opposes Bill on Inspectors General: Veto threatened on strengthened independence

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: Washington Post

By Stephen Barr
Tuesday, October 2, 2007; Page D04

The Bush administration yesterday lodged a veto threat against a House bill that would strengthen the independence of the government's inspectors general. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.), would provide inspectors general with seven-year terms, let them submit budget requests directly to Congress and permit the White House to fire them only for cause.

In a policy statement, the Bush administration said it strongly opposes provisions in the bill that would allow inspectors general "to circumvent the president's longstanding, and constitutionally based, control over executive branch budget requests." The White House also strongly objected to the bill's provision that specifies reasons for dismissing an inspector general, calling it an "intrusion on the president's removal authority."

Cooper's bill has been scheduled for a vote on the House floor this week and had seemed likely to move forward with little controversy. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) is sponsoring a similar bill in the Senate, which includes recommendations by Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.).

Inspectors generals are unusual creatures in the federal bureaucracy. At large agencies, they are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate and generally are asked to serve both masters. They are supposed to crack down on waste, fraud and abuse, preferably without causing too much embarrassment for their agency heads, usually political appointees. President Ronald Reagan conducted a purge when he took office in 1981, but since then, presidents have tried to avoid public firings, though some inspectors general have been quietly forced out of their jobs after a new administration took power.

This year, Democrats have expressed concern that some inspectors general are too wary of crossing their agency heads. In recent months, questions of independence or accountability have been raised about the inspectors general at the State and Commerce departments, NASA, the Smithsonian Institution and the Legal Services Corporation, and Democrats have cited the controversies as a reason to update the 1978 law that created the inspectors general....

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