Campaign Legal Center’s Kedric Payne Responds to White House Move to Defund Key Inspectors General Watchdog Group

Tomorrow, the Trump administration plans to end funding for the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, an independent entity within the executive branch created by bipartisan support tasked with overseeing 72 inspectors general across the government.  

In response to yet another drastic move by the Trump administration to undercut ethics enforcement, Kedric Payne — senior vice president, general counsel and senior director of ethics at Campaign Legal Center — released the following statement:

“In the Trump administration’s latest move to tear down ethics guardrails and allow unchecked corruption, it is now dismantling one of the last truly independent ethics enforcement mechanisms.

“Inspectors general exist to protect taxpayer money by rooting out corruption, fraud, waste and mismanagement. Across party lines and throughout the country, Americans want a government that is transparent and held to high ethical standards.

“Without this accountability, members of the executive branch apparently have no one to answer to but the president. The public was only made aware of numerous ethics violations in President Trump’s first term through IG investigations into at least eight of his appointees and Cabinet secretaries.  

“This is not just another violation of ethics norms — it is a blatant attack on the very idea of a government accountable to the people it serves. Each quiet move the government makes to chip away at ethics enforcement is a foothold for corruption to grow during this administration and beyond.

“The Office of Management and Budget must listen to bipartisan calls to fund the Council of the Inspectors General and refute any attempt to weaken our rule of law.”

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