Transparency of government agencies is taking a hit as the government shutdown extends over a month’s time. ICE shut down its media office for lack of funding. Food safety inspections were suspended for 23 days and Freedom of Information Act requests are on hold. (Newsweek, January 16, 2019, by Chantal da Silva)
The shutdown also jeopardizes the work of inspectors general charged with government audits and keeping operations free of fraud and waste. Cuts have devastated the offices of inspectors general with the Department of Interior shutting down its office and retaining only one investigator involved in a current trial. The Environmental Protection Agency now employs five out of its usual 267. Even the Department of Justice suffered cuts with only 267 staff members remaining out of the usual 488. (Project on Government Oversight, January 18, 2019, by Sean Moulton)