Federal Executive Branch Inspectors Gerneral

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

I don't know a lot about the inspectors general, besides the obvious that they are kind of watchdogs for impropriety in the different parts of the executive branch. What I do find interesting is the idea that they are there to put a check on the head executive- either of the dept or POTUS himself.

Knowing that Congress has final oversight, it seems that the IGs are being miscast, or miss used. I see them like internal affairs in police divisions. IA isn't there to mainly watch the leadership- and certainly not the mayor. AI keeps the main employees in line and roots out poor behavior or illegal activity. Now this can be the chief of police or leadership. But the real reason you have IA is so that the executive function can have confidence on what the organization is doing.

It seems Fed IGs have been investigating leadership far more than the rank and file. We see that even when they do look at things like FISA, they don't seem to really find anything. Contrast that with the Intel IG who thought he had the mandate to corral in POTUS. How many IGs are there? How many could have mini impeachments going?

And any blame for the China flu issues not landing at the feet of DHS, FDA and the CDC is laughable.

Any basis for this?

[HardToHandle]

Basically every executive agency has an IG, which are mostly independent and subject to Congressional approval. It gets more complicated, of course.

Some IGs have specific authorities or direction built into statutory law. Some administrative law or court cases have added other elements. In this present environment, the Democrats are plus-ing up the IG authorities to mollify the Bernie base and because it is decent practice. Same practice under Tip ONeil against Reagan and Truman became Vice President mostly to stop him from doing the same thing to Roosevelt (dangers of a one party state BTW).

As for COVID? Trump owns that. Bought and paid for.
NYC demonstrates that he was missing the boat. Banning Chinese while Eurotrash were spreading it all over the City? Ooops.
There is a time to be sober and take good counsel. He didn’t. He now owns the consequences - which the voters will decide if the results of COVID are serious enough to merit removal from office.

[flenna]

Basically every executive agency has an IG, which are mostly independent and subject to Congressional approval. It gets more complicated, of course.

Some IGs have specific authorities or direction built into statutory law. Some administrative law or court cases have added other elements. In this present environment, the Democrats are plus-ing up the IG authorities to mollify the Bernie base and because it is decent practice. Same practice under Tip ONeil against Reagan and Truman became Vice President mostly to stop him from doing the same thing to Roosevelt (dangers of a one party state BTW).

As for COVID? Trump owns that. Bought and paid for.
NYC demonstrates that he was missing the boat. Banning Chinese while Eurotrash were spreading it all over the City? Ooops.
There is a time to be sober and take good counsel. He didn’t. He now owns the consequences - which the voters will decide if the results of COVID are serious enough to merit removal from office.

Yes, because we all know that Punch Drunk Joe would have handled it so much better so we need to hand him the reigns in November.

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

I’m sure there is plenty of ink and space to talk about the China Virus and Trump in the other thread, but just seemed odd that Trump get singled out by the IG, when we are in the middle of the issue. When the hell has an IG worked that fast before? The IG report on the FBI in the 2016 election invesitigation took three years. This comes out in three weeks?

My main point is that in the executive branch the function of an IG should be to ensure that the department is running legally, efficiently, and properly at the command of the executive function.

[HardToHandle]

No argument with this statement above.
It is not unheard of Constitutional issues to come up in IG investigations, but as noted Trump is getting shafted regularly by the IG process. That was before COVID.

The Democrats are specifically writing this into the various COVID Recovery Acts. Going to suck.

[sundance435]

I don't know a lot about the inspectors general, besides the obvious that they are kind of watchdogs for impropriety in the different parts of the executive branch. What I do find interesting is the idea that they are there to put a check on the head executive- either of the dept or POTUS himself.

Knowing that Congress has final oversight, it seems that the IGs are being miscast, or miss used. I see them like internal affairs in police divisions. IA isn't there to mainly watch the leadership- and certainly not the mayor. AI keeps the main employees in line and roots out poor behavior or illegal activity. Now this can be the chief of police or leadership. But the real reason you have IA is so that the executive function can have confidence on what the organization is doing.

It seems Fed IGs have been investigating leadership far more than the rank and file. We see that even when they do look at things like FISA, they don't seem to really find anything. Contrast that with the Intel IG who thought he had the mandate to corral in POTUS. How many IGs are there? How many could have mini impeachments going?

And any blame for the China flu issues not landing at the feet of DHS, FDA and the CDC is laughable.

Any basis for this?

The utility and competency of IG offices varies greatly by agency. There are simply too many of them with varying directives to have an accurate picture. Any one agency may be dealing with several IGs at the same time. Not only that, but they are notionally independent of the executive branch, though that has never stopped Congress or the president from trying to politicize them.

The idea of an IG's office is great in principle, but I often think the execution of it/them is purposely built to be byzantine so that real accountability never exists. After all, the best IG's office can only operate under the mandate it has, which is set by institutions that abhor the idea of true accountability.