Consider This from NPR
The Trump administration's attacks on oversight of executive power
12 Mar 2025
The Trump administration continues to fire, shut down or defund independent elements of the federal government that traditionally work as a check on presidential power.Supporters of President Trump say: That's exactly the point. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at [email protected] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Full Episode
The Committee on Foreign Affairs will come to order. The purpose of this hearing is to assess the accountability mechanisms that ensure American taxpayer money is being spent as intended in Ukraine.
The speaker here is Mike McCaul. He's a Republican from Texas, and in March of 2023, he was chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Today we have the opportunity to question the independent inspectors, generals from the Department of State, USAID, and the Department of Defense.
This hearing wasn't particularly memorable. It's just one example of the U.S. government in action. Congress conducts oversight on federal spending, like on aid to Ukraine. And so it called on the inspectors general of three different government departments or agencies.
Your work is a critical component to ensure that Congress is being good stewards of the taxpayers' money. And it's necessary to prevent waste, fraud or abuse, and if need be, investigate and resolve any incidents.
An inspector general is a nonpartisan watchdog inside the government. The role was created by a law, the Inspector General Act of 1978, which came out of post-Watergate efforts to put checks on executive power. And under that law, inspectors general set up independent offices within their government agencies to investigate things like waste, fraud, and abuse.
Waste, fraud and abuse has become a catchphrase for this Trump administration as a rationale for making cuts to the federal government. But at the end of his first week in office on a Friday night, President Trump fired inspectors general at 17 different agencies. He was asked about it the next day during a press gaggle on Air Force One.
Can you talk to us about the firing of the inspectors general? Why did you do that? And why is it a...
Because it's a very common thing to do. And not all of them.
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