Here’s a pro tip when it comes to government oversight.
If someone does something in the middle of a Friday night, without a public announcement and then — when asked about it by the press — refuses to provide any details, it probably isn’t something that they want people to pay a lot of attention to.
That seems to be exactly what President Trump has done with the firing of at least a dozen federal inspectors general. Unlike President Nixon’s firing of the Watergate Special Prosecutor — known as the Saturday Night Massacre — Trump appears to have attempted to execute a Friday Night Massacre.
Why should we care and why would the president do this?
The inspector general’s role in the United States pre-dates the republic. George Washington appointed the nation’s first IG, Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, to inspect and develop standards for the Continental Army. Von Steuben’s efforts are credited with turning a ragtag Continental Army into a professional military by curtailing the prevalent graft and waste undermining the war effort.
Today, there are more than 74 federal inspectors general acting as watchdogs over the federal bureaucracy. In New York, Gov. Hochul appointed me to serve a similar function at the state level. Dozens of other states and local governments have also adopted inspectors general.
IGs work to ensure government effectiveness and efficiency. They also serve as a bulwark against abuse and misconduct and, because of their independence, can act as reliable truth tellers in the face of controversy.
Every New Yorker who relies on federally funded or provided services or pays a nickel of federal taxes should be worried about Trump’s actions. And that pretty much means all of us.
New Yorkers rely on federal dollars and programs for childcare in Forest Hills, housing in Poughkeepsie, public schools on Staten Island and Medicare in Suffolk County. When these programs work well, it can make all the difference in the daily lives of New Yorkers. When they don’t, they can be a waste of time and taxpayer dollars.
And as Congress weighs proposed cuts to these programs, it more critical than ever to ensure that every remaining dollar is spent in the way it was intended — free of fraud, waste, and corruption — which is exactly where IGs shine. It is these federal IGs who will ensure that New York taxpayers are getting the best bang for their buck — and when it comes to the federal government, it is funded by a lot of bucks from New York businesses and residents. According to a July 2024 Rockefeller Institute of Government report, we paid more than $358.4 billion to the federal government in FY 2022.
And that’s why the president’s actions under the cover of darkness are so worrisome. Because when you want to rob a bank, the first thing you do is figure out what to do with the guards — and federal IGs are among the more important guardians of the federal fiscal system. Guardians who saved approximately $94.1 billion last year alone — a $26 return on every dollar spent.
We know what the lack of independent oversight looks like in other countries. In 2016 President Abdel Farrah al-Sisi fired and imprisoned the head of Egypt’s Central Auditing Agency after publication of a report documenting widespread political corruption — though one cannot directly link this removal to current economic instability in the country.
And in 2022 in Brazil, former President Jair Bolsonaro’s regime was found by independent watchdog Transparency International to have stymied and politicized anti-corruption efforts, leading in part to a credit rating downgrade, sliding Brazilian real, and reduced foreign direct investment during Bolsinaro’s rule.
That’s why in New York and in other states, inspectors general cannot be removed without cause by their appointing official — in my case the governor. And the reality is that federal law provides some similar protection. Trump’s action appears to violate the statutory requirement of notice to Congress before any firing of an IG and a more recent requirement that any notice be accompanied by a “substantive rationale” for the action.
Congress needs to stand behind the law and more. It needs to protect the independence of IGs to be effective truth tellers when it comes to efficiency and effectiveness of federal programs and protecting the federal system from fraud, waste and abuse. Without that independence, we risk an oversight system that is more dependent on the politics of the president than protecting taxpayers and those who rely on the federal government.
Lang is New York State’s inspector general.
