House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer railed against President Trump’s choice to nominate a White House lawyer to oversee the massive coronavirus stimulus program and re-upped calls for more congressional oversight.
In a pair of statements released Saturday, the two powerful congressional Democrats blasted Trump’s Friday night announcement that he’s picking Brian D. Miller of Virginia to become Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery, which will oversee the implementation of the $2.2 trillion stimulus program.
“This oversight position, which will be responsible for overseeing hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars, requires complete independence from the president and any other interested party to assure the American people that all decisions are made without fear or favor,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said. “To nominate a member of the president’s own staff is exactly the wrong type of person to choose for this position.”
Congressional Democrats were very skeptical of the giant stimulus program to help struggling businesses hard hit by the coronavirus and insisted on several measures to make sure billions doled out to businesses are spent wisely and audited. Among the provisions was $25 million to created a new Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery to be an independent check on the Department of the Treasury’s loan program.
“The Inspector General providing oversight of the federal response of this historic relief package for workers and families must be independent from politics,” Pelosi, D-Calif., said Saturday. “The president’s nomination of one of his own lawyers clearly fails that test.”
When Trump signed the stimulus bill into law, he included a signing statement that said the inspector general could file reports to Congress only with “presidential supervision,” angering Democrats who believe Trump is trying to undo their purposeful checks on his Administration. – READ MORE
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