The Trump administration has cut off funding to the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE), disrupting independent oversight operations across the federal government and drawing swift bipartisan condemnation.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) confirmed to MeriTalk that it has declined to apportion fiscal year 2026 funds for CIGIE, citing what it described as partisan and misleading conduct by inspectors general.
“Inspectors general are meant to be impartial watchdogs identifying waste and corruption on behalf of the American people,” an OMB spokesperson said. “Unfortunately, they have become corrupt, partisan, and in some cases, have lied to the public. The American people will no longer be funding this corruption.”
The move has caused widespread outages across government oversight infrastructure. The main CIGIE website now displays only a single message: “Due to a lack of apportionment of funds, this website is currently unavailable.”
That message has also appeared on 28 affiliated Office of Inspector General websites, including those for the Departments of Agriculture, Education, and Justice, as well as AmeriCorps, the Export-Import Bank of the United States, and several other agencies.
OMB defended the decision in a statement to MeriTalk, pointing to a House investigation that alleged the Pentagon inspector general misrepresented the timeline of the National Guard’s deployment on Jan. 6, 2021. The agency also cited a 2019 Justice Department inspector general report that found no evidence political bias influenced the start of the Russia investigation – both of which, OMB said, were “misleading” and “damaging to President Trump.”
The decision was met with immediate criticism from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers. Lawmakers from both parties are now pressing OMB for an explanation and demanding an immediate reversal.
Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called on OMB to reverse course, warning that CIGIE and its Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) could soon furlough staff and suspend operations despite Congress having already appropriated their funding.
“Absent immediate action, CIGIE and PRAC will need to furlough staff and terminate important functions that help prevent and detect waste, fraud, and abuse throughout the government,” the senators wrote in a joint letter to OMB Director Russ Vought. “Any adverse consequences will be solely due to OMB’s decision not to apportion available funds, rather than any lapse in appropriations.”
CIGIE was established in 2008 to coordinate oversight across federal agencies and support the work of inspectors general. Congress reaffirmed its support for the entity earlier this year by extending its authorization through 2034 and allocating additional funding through the administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Joining the chorus of alarm, House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., issued a sharp rebuke of the administration’s actions, calling them a “five-alarm fire.”
“OMB has unlawfully defunded the [CIGIE] – a direct attack on independent oversight,” DeLauro said in a statement. “We are a rule-of-law country, and at this critical moment, Congress must protect Inspectors General on a bipartisan, bicameral basis.”
DeLauro also called for sweeping reforms, including exempting IG funding from OMB control and establishing an independent Inspector General within OMB itself.
“OMB is choking off resources of the Council of the Inspectors General to halt their operations, undermining CIGIE’s independence and impairing their entire mission,” she said. “This moment demands action. The fastest way to restore trust is to guarantee Inspectors General true independence – and to finally establish an Inspector General at the ‘nerve center of federal spending,’ [OMB].”
Grassley and Collins requested a formal response from the agency by Oct. 3, including the legal basis for withholding funds and a detailed account of any internal reviews being conducted.