"Congress is providing a little more budgetary heft to EPA's inspector general, which has been fighting with the agency's leadership over access to staff and information.

Funding will rise somewhat for EPA's internal watchdog under year-end spending legislation to be voted on in the House today. Under the bill, the agency's Office of Inspector General would receive about $53.1 million in fiscal 2020 — roughly $2.8 million more than it received in fiscal 2019.

The IG has been pushing for a bigger budget.

In a Feb. 8 letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, acting EPA IG Charles Sheehan said budget cuts for his office would "substantially inhibit" it from performing audits and investigations to root out waste, fraud and abuse at the agency. Sheehan said the IG office's requested budget of $58 million should be proposed instead."

Kevin Bogardus reports for Greenwire December 17, 2019. [2]