Trump administration knocks out at least 15 oversight websites, saying IGs 'lied to the public'

At least 15 government oversight websites were down — and with them, access to watchdog reports and required hotline and whistleblower links — as of Wednesday evening. That's not due to the federal shutdown that began at midnight; it's a deliberate move by the White House, whose Office of Management and Budget is withholding funds from the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, or CIGIE.

The CIGIE's homepage, which was operating normally on Tuesday evening, has been replaced with a single line of text: “Due to a lack of apportionment of funds, this website is currently unavailable.”

The same line is displayed by the Office of Inspector General websites for the Departments of Agriculture, Education, Justice, Interior and Veterans Affairs, and by those of AmeriCorps, Export-Import Bank of the United States, Federal Trade Commission, International Trade Commission, National Archives and Records Administration, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Office of Personnel Management, Smithsonian Institution, and Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

The watchdog website for the National Labor Relations Board's OIG page gives a 404 error. The Architect of the Capitol’s IG page says “Not found”; a new page offers only hotline information and blames the change on a “funding issue impacting Oversight.gov functions.”

CIGIE is an independent entity charged by Congress with addressing oversight issues that involve more than one government agency. It provides training for investigators and auditors and acts as a watchdog for the government watchdog community.

It also runs Oversight.gov, which houses over 34,000 reports from most of the 70-plus OIGs, and operates 28 OIG websites that house legally required hotlines for whistleblowers to report suspected cases of government waste, fraud and abuse. That site is also down.

https://www.govexec.com/oversight/2025/10/government-watchdog-websites-go-dark-omb-withholds-funds-ig-committee/408543/