Within his first week in office, President Trump fired inspectors general and members of their staffs across 17 different federal agencies, including the inspector general for the US Department of Veterans Affairs, Michael Missal, who had been lauded by members of Congress from both sides of the aisle. CREW’s Executive Director Donald Sherman is testifying today about how Trump’s actions during his first weeks in office could harm American veterans by undermining oversight and accountability at the VA.

The VA is one of the largest federal agencies with functions including administering pensions, insurance and home loans for veterans, providing survivor support for veterans’ families and running the Veterans Health Administration, the largest integrated healthcare network in the United States. The inherent risks and challenges associated with operating a large agency make ensuring robust oversight and accountability absolutely critical.

The VA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) has consistently played a key role in providing oversight to help the VA fulfill its mission and to ferret out waste, fraud and abuse in the agency. In fiscal year 2024 alone, former IG Missal’s office issued “a total of 316 reports and 1,106 recommendations” and made a monetary impact of nearly $6.8 billion amounting to “a return on investment of $28:1.” Under Missal’s leadership, the VA OIG also did impactful work to address veteran suicides and improve health outcomes for veterans and military families.

Missal’s leadership of OIG garnered bipartisan approval for independent and vigorous oversight of the agency across the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations. But despite that staggering impact and bipartisan praise, Trump unceremoniously fired Missal—along with more than a dozen other independent agency inspectors general.

Trump falsely claimed that such firings were a common thing to do. In fact, the only precedent for such a mass firing of IGs by an incoming president after the passage of the Inspectors General Act of 1978 was the firing of 15 IGs by President Reagan in 1981. That was met with such outcry that Reagan renominated several of the removed IGs. 

To make matters worse, Trump failed to follow the law and provide the legally required 30-day notice and case-specific reasons for removal of the IGs. The fact that they appear to have been fired without cause suggests that they may have been fired to stifle oversight of the new administration. It also raises questions about whether the next VA inspector general will be a partisan loyalist or simply fired on the president’s political whim. 

As Sherman’s testimony states, “To an administration that claims to value monetary efficiency in government, I would argue that firing inspectors general actually hinders efficiency and results in monetary waste. Mr. Missal’s ouster certainly did not benefit any veterans or military families. Instead, attacking the IG and the civil service does a disservice to veterans and makes the VA more susceptible to waste, fraud and abuse.”

According to Sherman, a strong, well-trained and experienced civil service is critical to carrying out the important mission of the VA and caring for veterans, which Trump’s recent executive orders have put in jeopardy. 

As unprecedented, damaging, and in some cases illegal, as President Trump’s actions were towards inspectors general and the civil service during his first term, what we have seen unfold in recent days is on an entirely different scale. If these attacks continue, they will harm all Americans, including our veterans.

Read the testimony.

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