Republican senators celebrated the return of the oversight group for inspectors general after pressuring the Trump administration to release its funding.
The Office of Management and Budget decided to apportion close to $4.3 million for the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) announced Tuesday. That will keep the council, which polices the internal agency watchdogs across the government, up and running until the current short-term spending patch expires on Jan. 30.
Collins, chair of the Appropriations Committee, and Grassley, who leads the Judiciary panel, said in a joint statement, “We are pleased that following our continued outreach, OMB is releasing the funding that Congress provided for CIGIE to continue its vital work.”
The senators had also pressed the administration to restore support for the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, or PRAC, which is backed by CIGIE and investigates emergency spending for the Covid-19 virus outbreak. The White House budget office released $5 million for that panel last month.
