White House rescinds Education Dept. watchdog pick after ethics concerns
The Trump administration has backtracked on its pick for acting inspector general of the Education Department after coming under fire for the move.
The White House on Friday backtracked on its decision to install an Education Department official to serve as the agency's acting watchdog after criticism that the designation posed a serious conflict of interest.
On Wednesday evening, the administration unexpectedly appointed Phil Rosenfelt, the Education Department's deputy general counsel, as the agency's acting inspector general, a development first reported by Politico on Thursday morning. The choice immediately sparked an outcry from congressional Democrats who said it would compromise the federal watchdog's independence and the integrity of its investigations, given Rosenfelt's broad-ranging work crafting and defending Education Department policies as the agency's in-house legal counsel.
Inspectors general are supposed to act independently of their agencies' leadership, in order to reduce fraud and abuse on behalf of taxpayers and the public.
The White House referred questions about the decision to the Education Department.
A spokeswoman for the Education Department, Liz Hill, said Friday that the administration reversed course after "the matter came to the attention of new personnel in the White House."
"After they re-evaluated the situation, the decision was made, in an abundance of caution, to rescind the designation," Hill said.
Rosenfelt is a respected career veteran of the Education Department who briefly served as acting secretary while Secretary Betsy DeVos was awaiting confirmation. Congressional Democrats said in a letter to DeVos on Friday that "it would be virtually impossible to resolve these many conflicts" posed by Rosenfelt's work.
"While I appreciate that the White House has reversed its decision, the unprecedented attempt to replace the acting inspector general with an internal department official raises serious concerns," Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., chair of the House Committee on Education and Labor, said in a statement. "We will continue to focus on ensuring that the IG is independent and can investigate potential issues without restrictions."
The administration's move to install Rosenfelt as acting inspector general came as a surprise to staffers both inside the agency and on Capitol Hill.
Replacing an inspector general with an agency official like Rosenfelt appears to be unprecedented, according to outside watchdogs as well as two congressional aides serving on committees with oversight responsibilities.
"I certainly can’t remember a precedent when someone represented an agency as their attorney while serving as an acting inspector general for the same agency," said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog group.
The appointment raised concerns that Cabinet officials and agency heads would be allowed to handpick the people charged with overseeing their work, the aides said.
“Literally everything they are investigating touches the office of the general counsel,” a congressional aide, who requested anonymity because the aide was not authorized to speak publicly, said of the inspector general's mandate. “You can’t pluck somebody from within the agency to police the agency’s activities.”
Catherine Grant, a spokeswoman for the Office of the Inspector General, also hit back at Rosenfelt's selection.
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