President Donald Trump has removed the chairman of the federal panel Congress created to oversee his administration’s management of the $2 trillion stimulus package.
Glenn Fine, who had been the acting Pentagon inspector general, was informed Monday that he was being replaced by Sean O’Donnell, currently the acting inspector general at the Environmental Protection Agency.
Fine is a career official who had served as acting Pentagon inspector general for four years and three months. Before that he was inspector general at the Department of Justice for 11 years.
The move, which was first reported by Politico, will be seen by some as another instance of the president chafing at independent oversight. On Friday, he notified Congress that he was removing Michael Atkinson as the inspector general of the intelligence community – a decision that was criticized as a response to Atkinson’s having alerted lawmakers to the existence of a whistleblower complaint about the president’s dealings with Ukraine. The matter ultimately led to Trump’s impeachment.
“Mr. Fine is no longer on the pandemic response accountability committee,” Department of Defense spokeswoman Dwrena Allen said in a statement. He will, however, continue to serve in his current position of principal deputy inspector general at the Pentagon. He had until now held both the acting and deputy positions.
Because Fine is no longer acting inspector general he is ineligible to hold the spending watchdog role.
Allen confirmed that on Monday, Trump nominated Jason Abend to be the permanent inspector general at the Defense Department.
(c) 2020, The Washington Post · Ellen Nakashima
{Matzav.com}
