[WASHINGTON, DC] – Today, U.S. Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI) wrote Glenn Fine, the newly appointed head of the Pandemic Response Accountability Commission, seeking his public commitment to “explicitly [reject] President Trump’s efforts to block crucial information from reaching Congress and the American people.”
Congress included several oversight measures in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to ensure that the emergency aid actually benefits American workers and families and to protect against it being used as a slush fund for special interests. Under the CARES Act, a Special Investigator General is required to notify Congress if any efforts to conduct this kind of oversight are blocked by the Trump Administration. When signing the bill into law, President Trump claimed that no information would be provided to Congress without presidential approval, in direct contradiction with the law.
“Fortunately, you also have a right and a responsibility to keep Congress informed,” the senators wrote. “If President Trump succeeds in blocking the Special Inspector General from informing Congress when she is denied information, you have an independent legal responsibility to tell us.”
“If we are going to address the Coronavirus crisis and put our economy back on track, the American people must have confidence that their elected officials are spending taxpayer dollars responsibly. If we are going to preserve our democracy, they must know that any wrongdoing will not be brushed under the rug. As a public servant selected to be an independent check on the executive branch, you have the ability to comfort the American people that any stonewalling by the Trump Administration will be revealed so malfeasance can be exposed and punished.”
The full text of the letter is copied below.
April 3, 2020
Mr. Glenn Fine
Chairman
Pandemic Response Accountability Commission
Office of Inspector General
U.S. Department of Defense
4800 Mark Center Drive
Alexandria, Virginia 22350
Dear Mr. Fine,
Congratulations on your selection as Chairman of the Pandemic Response Accountability Commission. You have a difficult and essential task ahead of you: ensuring that the unprecedented resources Congress has provided to address the present national crisis benefit American workers and families, not merely the wealthy and well-connected. We write to respectfully request that you begin your work by explicitly rejecting President Trump’s efforts to block crucial information from reaching Congress and the American people.
When Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, we spoke loudly and clearly. The Special Inspector General created by the Act must be a watchdog, not a lap dog. She must seek and find all information relevant to the Trump Administration’s distribution of aid under the CARES Act in order to ensure the American people that all such aid is used efficiently, effectively, and lawfully. Under the Act, if any request of the Special Inspector General is “unreasonably refused,” such refusal shall be reported to Congress “without delay.”
In spite of Congress’s clear and reasonable – in fact, necessary – demand for transparency, President Trump immediately committed to stonewall us. In a statement issued as the President signed the CARES Act, he made clear that he believes the Special Inspector General cannot provide Congress the required reports without presidential approval. While we would hope that the Special Inspector General will ultimately reject President Trump’s interpretation of the law, the risk is all too real that President Trump will appoint somebody who shares his narrow view of Congress’s powers and the importance of disclosure.
Fortunately, you also have a right and a responsibility to keep Congress informed. In fact, the CARES Act requires the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee that you chair to inform Congress “whenever information or assistance requested by . . . an Inspector General is unreasonably refused or not provided.” If President Trump succeeds in blocking the Special Inspector General from informing Congress when she is denied information, you have an independent legal responsibility to tell us. The position you occupy was designed to ensure that there is an inspector general overseeing CARES Act activities who is not appointed to that task by President Trump to provide a truly independent check on any executive branch wrongdoing. Given President Trump’s stated intention to block information provided by the Special Inspector General, it is essential that you fulfill your statutory duties.
While we hope and expect that you will perform the duties required of you, public confidence in the Coronavirus response requires that you specifically commit that you will not bow to any efforts by President Trump to silence you or any other inspector general. If we are going to address the Coronavirus crisis and put our economy back on track, the American people must have confidence that their elected officials are spending taxpayer dollars responsibly. If we are going to preserve our democracy, they must know that any wrongdoing will not be brushed under the rug. As a public servant selected to be an independent check on the executive branch, you have the ability to comfort the American people that any stonewalling by the Trump Administration will be revealed so malfeasance can be exposed and punished.
We ask you to commit in writing that, as the CARES Act requires, you will immediately inform Congress if the Special Inspector General is denied information, notwithstanding any effort by President Trump to interfere. Please reply at your earliest convenience, but no later than April 10, 2020.
Thank you for your attention. We look forward to working with you on the important work that lies ahead.
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