During an address on Monday, President Biden stressed the importance of oversight and accountability in spending the funds in the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package enacted last week.
The “American Rescue Plan” is the latest in the federal government’s historic spending over the past year in response to the novel coronavirus pandemic. “It requires fastidious oversight to make sure the relief arrives quickly, equitability and efficiently with no waste or fraud,” Biden said. “We have to prove to the American people that their government can deliver for them and do it without waste or fraud.” This delivery will come in the form of vaccinating everyone, getting kids back to school, boosting the economy, helping businesses and sending relief payments.
While not mentioning former President Trump or the Trump administration specifically, Biden said that after the $2.2 trillion CARES Act was enacted last March, “one of the first things the previous administration did was fire the head of the inspectors general committee.” He was referring to the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, created under the CARES Act, and Glenn Fine, then performing the duties of the Pentagon inspector general.
The Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency appointed Fine to lead the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee on March 30, 2020, but then on April 6, President Trump removed Fine from his acting IG position, thus stripping him of his ability to lead the committee. Fine went back to his previous position of principal deputy IG at the Pentagon and then announced on May 26 he was resigning.
This came after Trump issued a signing statement for the CARES Act that objected to some of the oversight provisions ..
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