The Senate voted Tuesday to confirm former White House aide Brian Miller as the new special inspector general on coronavirus spending, despite strong Democratic opposition.
Mr. Miller’s nomination was approved on a 51-40 vote.
The new position is one of three new oversight provisions created by the $2.2 trillion coronavirus recovery bill, which also included a joint-chamber Congressional panel and an inspector general committee.
Mr. Miller will be in charge of ensuring that $500 billion of the coronavirus relief is properly used by the corporations aided.
Mr. Miller spent 10 years as inspector general of the General Services Administration, which oversees thousands of federal contracts. He was lauded for acting independently to investigate corruption during his tenure.
However, it was his previous position in the White House counsel’s office under President Trump and his work on the president’s impeachment defense team that raised Democrats’ concerns about whether he could remain independent.
“Mr. Miller refused to provide any sense of his work or responsibilities in the White House counsel’s office and refused even to say whether President Trump was right or wrong to fire a rash of inspectors general in recent weeks,” Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer said in a statement last month.
“Mr. Miller’s inability to demonstrate independence from his current employer, and speak out when he sees actions from administration officials that are clearly out of bounds, is deeply troubling given that this president seems to demand blind loyalty from federal inspectors general,” he added.
Last month, Mr. Trump fired State Department Inspector General Steve Linick. He has also fired Michael Atkinson, the inspector general for the U.S. intelligence community; Christi Grimm, inspector general of Health and Human Services; and former acting Defense Department Inspector General Glenn Fine earlier this year, who was slated to head one of the other oversight provisions.
Lawmakers sparred with Mr. Trump over a provision written into the stimulus law that would direct Mr. Miller to report directly to Congress if he was “unreasonably” blocked from accessing information.
During his virtual nomination hearing last month, Mr. Miller vowed to stay true to his post.
“I will be independent. If the president removes me, he removes me. If I am unable to do my job, I will resign. But I will not comment on the White House counsel’s operation,” he said.
• Gabriella Muñoz can be reached at gmunoz@washingtontimes.com.
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