Feeling Like Peter Pan

That is, we gotta crow!  We're just busting our buttons over the President's signing of the IG Reform Act of 2008, even if he did try to pour cold water on our heads by issuing one of his infamous signing statements.

Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN), the prime mover behind the bill, was quoted in today's NYT saying he hopes the next president would overturn the statement, adding, "These things create uncertainty in the law that should not be there."  In a statement provided to POGO, Cooper said: "the President's signing statement shows his extreme reluctance to accept basic government reforms involving IGs.  Despite repeated and overwhelming congressional approval, Bush had threatened to veto the entire IG bill and, after its passage, still seems bent on stymieing its objective of developing tougher taxpayer watchdogs, with teeth, inside each federal agency."

Specifically, President Bush opposes two provisions; one that guarantees that each IG should have his or her own legal counsel, independent of their agency's general counsel.  The President objects to any idea that the general counsel would not have the final word on any legal dispute between the IG and the agency's chief.  We accept that there may be times when the two legal eagles will clash and that the agency GC may have the final word.  But the IG will be strengthened by having his own counsel to advise and do battle for him, and the IG can always inform Congress of the dispute if he believes it's significant enough.

The other objection by the President is potentially more problematic.  Congress expressly wanted to be informed when the White House, and the agency chief, cut an IG's requested budget.  The law requires that the President's annual budget message report what the IG wanted along with what the President is requesting on his or her behalf.  Here the President objects on constitutional grounds, which we find spurious.  Transparency does not trample the Constitution.

Nevertheless, we join with Rep. Cooper in hoping fervently that President McCain or Obama will quickly throw out the statement.

We wrote at the time the final bill passed Congress about its most important provisions, so we won't repeat ourselves.  But the fact is, this law has now been renewed and strengthened almost exactly 30 years after its original passage.  This is very good news for taxpayers, because these in-house watchdogs will now have far more tools at their disposal, and more guarantees of their independence, than they have had in the past.  They have also been promised a boost in pay to raise them to the status of senior agency staff.

The organization of IGs has been strengthened, too, by being made statutory and receiving a funding stream.  But here Congress must act again, to ensure that the funds contemplated in the new law are actually appropriated.  Even with what will undoubtedly be a difficult budget process next year, the federal Inspectors General still provide the best bang for the buck.

But it's not all popping champagne corks for the IG community.  Much as we have championed the independence of federal Inspectors General, we've also pressed them to become more accountable.  In fact, POGO is still deeply involved in the second part of our major review of the IG law and system, so we are very much concerned both with accountability and finding better measures of performance and effectiveness.  We also would like to see the IG community become more thoughtful in their responses to and interaction with whistleblowers.  The IGs will be held more accountable by Congress for producing outcomes, not just outputs, as some tend to brag about the numbers of crooks caught or dollars saved.  That means they'll be judged in the future much more on the quality of their audits and investigations and not just the quantity of reports issued.  We want to see IG reports that have impact, that are not just going through the motions.

-- Beverley Lumpkin

Comments

[Posted on: Nov 15, 2008 at 07:34 PM]

POGO should be aware that "new law" also means a mad rush to finish burying the whistleblowers and peoples' champions in IG offices under the existing law -- while there's time. The stench of demoralization in the watchdog community is palpable. Only the most venal --- the very ones who need to be cast out -- are doing the talking, while their rumps soundly rest on the good cops under them. The Department of Commerce IG's office remains in state of peril. Is POGO concerned? Is it watching Dingell's committee and asking tough questions about the whistleblowers being maliciously retaliated against in the interregnum between Bush and Obama? Please Beverly, don't leave the good folks at the DOC IG behind. They've been given a new bad guy to finish the job the old bad guy was doing, all in behalf of the corrupt administration's DOC chief and his cronies and counsel. No pats on the back, Beverly -- good people in that office are suffering strokes, having their careers openly threatened, and being abused, all while Dingell's O&I group quietly shuts down in time for Waxman's takeover.

Do something other than assume all is well. It isn't. Far from it.

[Posted on: Oct 15, 2008 at 06:47 PM]

Beverly,

POGO's "crowing" is that of a cock on dung hill. If the new president has any sense, he won't spend one moment pondering whether to throw out
President Bush's statement as POGO suggests. Rather, he should seek to replace all sitting PAS IG's and direct his policy office to identify members of congress able to discern heat from light who will work assiduously to reform the grossly defective IG Reform Act of 2008. POGO's support for this Act has helped to further entrench and strengthen an old boy IG network most notable for 30 years of operational deception, lack of proactive or substantive impact on govt. operations, underperformance and, at best, mediocre leadership that eschews objective scrutiny and accountability. POGO has been co-opted by a carefully crafted charade.