Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., are urging President Joe Biden to quickly nominate qualified candidates for key inspector general vacancies.
Their comments came in a Thursday letter to the president.
"We write to urge you to swiftly nominate qualified individuals to fill critical inspector general vacancies,” they said. "Inspectors General provide a vital service to the American taxpayer by rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse of federal funds and providing agencies with recommendations on how to be better stewards of public funds.
"In the absence of permanent leadership, IG offices are less able to fulfill their statutory mandate to promote economical, efficient, and effective administration and operation of the government.
"Currently, six agencies await a presidentially-nominated, Senate-confirmed watchdog: Department of the Treasury, Department of State, U.S. Agency for International Development, Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, National Security Agency, and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
"Ultimately, instituting permanent leadership in IG offices is paramount to making any potential cost savings and oversight efforts a reality. Toward that end, we respectfully request that you move expeditiously to nominate permanent IGs, and we stand ready to encourage our respective leadership to make IG confirmations a priority and will oppose efforts to needlessly delay the confirmation of qualified candidates."
Government Executive reported that the White House did not immediately respond to request for comment about the letter.
It noted the Library of Congress, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the Government Publishing Office also have IG jobs open, but candidates for those posts are appointed by the head of the agency and are not presidential nominees.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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