This week on 60 Minutes, correspondent Scott Pelley looks at efforts to dismantle independent oversight in Washington. The Trump administration claims it is combating waste, fraud, and abuse in government. However, they have removed those whose jobs required them to do so, including the inspectors general.
Independent overseers, or IGs, look for fraud, misconduct, and inefficiencies within agencies. Every year, they save taxpayers billions of dollars, and within the first few days of the Trump administration, at least 17 of them were fired.
The heads of watchdog agencies, whose responsibilities include protecting federal employees from illegal retaliation and termination, have also been let go.
With all the firings in Washington, who will stand guard when the watchdogs are gone?
Firing the whistleblowers
“What we are having happen is the dismantling of all of the oversight and transparency — entities, processes, procedures that were developed over years to ensure that our government operates with efficiency and integrity,” Andrew Bakaj, an attorney and ex-CIA officer, said.
Pelley spoke with Bakaj and former State Department attorney David Kligerman, who now work for the nonprofit Whistleblower Aid. The organization has represented high-profile whistleblowers, including the anonymous CIA analyst whose case sparked the first Trump impeachment.
“There is a system that was designed over the last 200 years,” Kligerman said. “And that is a system with multiple locations where people can seek protection, make disclosures, and report wrongdoing. That is the IGs and special counsel, and this is the Merit System Protection Court. And one by one, they are being removed from the board.
“And when those are removed, the system fails. And we are not only talking about whistleblowers. We are discussing the type of corruption that could occur in a patronage situation, such as when I want to hire my brother-in law.
I want to bring in political cronies. I want to do all of the things that, for over 250 years, the republic has said, ‘No, this is not what it means to have a non-corrupt, responsible civil service.'”
Dismantling the civil service
The civil service is the nonpartisan workforce of the United States. According to constitutional law expert Jamal Greene, civil servants are hired for their expertise rather than their political affiliation.
“Most of the executive branch is filled with people who are career civil servants, who have expertise for which they were hired, and do not get hired or fired because they adopt or do not adopt the political program of the president,” according to Greene.
Pelley asked Greene how the courts will react to the Trump administration’s firing of independent watchdogs, as well as thousands of civil servants across the government.
“We have never had a situation where the president has tried to remove civil servants en masse,” Green said.
“I believe the court will be unfavorable to the president’s control over tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people. The civil service laws have existed since the nineteenth century. And they were derived during a period of widespread corruption, political patronage, and clientelism.
There were also murders. In 1881, President James A. Garfield was assassinated by a political supporter who was upset because he had not been hired. Following that, Congress eliminated the “spoils system” that had dominated federal hiring.
In its place came the civil service, a civilian workforce in which federal employees were hired based on their merit rather than political affiliation.
“There are millions of people who work in the executive branch,” Greene informed the crowd. “These individuals have expertise. They have jobs to help the organizations for which they work achieve their missions. And if they are subject to partisan political control, they may simply do the president’s bidding.
“And the president’s role is not simply to have people do his bidding. The president’s job is to carry out the laws passed by Congress. And so the argument would be, “Well, Congress is the one who makes these laws.” Congress is responsible for establishing the structure and mission of these agencies. Congress should be able to ensure that mission is carried out.”
Greene claims that the president’s attempt to fire tens of thousands of federal employees is “almost certainly violating federal laws.”
“Now, the administration may argue that if you work in the executive branch, you are under my control and must do whatever I want politically. “And if you can’t, you should leave,” Greene said. “That is really never been the way that we have understood the power of Congress.”
Nowhere to turn
Normally, many of the fired civil servants could appeal their cases to some of the watchdog organizations that protect workers’ rights. However, the majority of those officials have also been fired, including the director of the Office of Government Ethics, the head of the Office of Special Counsel, the chairwoman of the Merit Systems Protection Board, and the chairwoman of the Federal Labor Relations Authority.
President Trump has appointed Douglas Collins, the newly confirmed Secretary of Veterans Affairs, as interim head of the Office of Government Ethics, and he may also be named interim head of the Office of Special Counsel.
“We are not talking about shrinking the size of the government,” Kilgerman told 60 Minutes. “We are discussing taking the referees and those in charge of protecting the game and ensuring that the rules are followed. “They are off the field.”
“When they are off the field, they stay off the field,” Kilgerman said. “And we are not sure what will happen when that happens. And that is why people should care.