A group of former Inspectors General for eight federal agencies just sued President Trump for illegally firing them.
President Trump fired about 17 independent Inspectors General en masse in a two-sentence email released Friday night, January 24th – including the Inspectors General for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy, and Department of Interior. This week, President Trump also fired the USAID Inspector General. Inspectors General are nonpartisan, and many of the 18 who have been fired were appointed by President Trump during his first term.
In the new lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, eight of the fired Inspectors General – for the Departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, Health and Human Services, State, Education, Agriculture, and Labor, and the Small Business Administration – point out that President Trump violated the law by failing to provide 30 days’ notice to Congress and failing to provide the statutorily required explanation for the dismissals.
Under the Inspector General Act on 1978, the president must provide Congress advance notice and explanation in order to remove an inspector general. Just days after the mass firings, the Congressional Research Service updated its report on Removal of Inspectors General to state, “It is not yet clear how President Trump’s action on January 26, 2025, will ultimately be resolved,” and that “it does not appear that the Administration followed the congressional notice and waiting period requirements laid out in the IG Act.”
Here are a few examples of why President Trump’s purge of our national Inspectors General, and this lawsuit challenging it, are so important.
Inspectors General play an essential role in illuminating government fraud and wrongdoing
Inspectors General play a key role in ensuring accountability within federal agencies, including ensuring that those agencies ensure transparency and follow proper processes.
For instance, during the first Trump Administration, the EPA Inspector General investigated and uncovered numerous legal and process violations at the agency, including:
- An improper rollback of air pollution standards for cars and trucks
An audit completed in 2021 by EPA’s Inspector General confirmed that the first Trump administration violated transparency, record-keeping, and other procedural requirements while rolling back federal Clean Air Act standards to limit air pollution from vehicles.
The EPA Inspector General’s report documented EPA’s failure to conduct technical analyses, follow established processes, and provide transparency in its actions and assumptions. The report also stated that “EPA did not follow its established process for developing regulatory actions,” including a failure to “conduct analysis related to executive orders on the impacts of modified GHG standards on vulnerable populations.”
That audit was prompted in part by a request from Senator Carper, demonstrating that Inspectors General can play an important role in investigating concerns identified by Members of Congress.
- A flawed and dangerous lead-based paint strategy
In 2019, EPA’s Inspector General found that the first Trump administration’s lead-based paint strategy focused on shallow public relations efforts rather than actually protecting children’s health.
The Inspector General’s report described EPA’s failure to effectively implement and enforce the Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting rule. That rule was designed to protect children from dust or chips of lead-based paint. Lead poisoning causes serious health problems, particularly for children’s brain development, and there is no safe level of exposure. In 1978, the U.S. banned lead-based paint for residential use, but the paint is still commonly found in houses built before 1978.
The Inspector General’s report found that EPA’s program lacked sufficient “objectives, goals and measurable outcomes to track progress and determine accountability,” and that “[e]ffective oversight and enforcement are needed to further reduce lead exposures from renovation, repair and painting activities.”
- More legal loopholes and scandals
During the first Trump administration, the EPA Inspector General helped create accountability for the agency’s unlawful attempts to create a loophole for super-polluting glider trucks.
The EPA Inspector General also scrutinized Administrator Scott Pruitt’s many scandals, including spending taxpayer money on lavish travel and a $43,000 phone booth. These episodes illustrate the unique and crucial role that Inspectors General play in protecting the public from government corruption.