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The chief watchdog for the Department of Health and Human Services, being replaced as part of President Trump’s purge of inspectors general, told lawmakers on Tuesday that freedom from political intrusion is “a key safeguard for the programs we oversee.” Christi Grimm, HHS’s principal deputy inspector general, spoke out for the first time since she was excoriated by the president for a report from her office that found “severe shortages” earlier this spring of supplies to help hospitals cope with the novel coronavirus pandemic. (Goldstein, 5/26)

Grimm, who’s served as the acting Health and Human Services inspector general since January, detailed 14 different projects underway to track the Trump administration's response to the pandemic, including a newly announced audit into $50 billion that the Department of Health and Human Services is disbursing to health care providers. The office’s work already has been controversial: Grimm in April released a survey her staff conducted that found hospitals generally lacked supplies and equipment to prepare for the Covid-19 pandemic. Trump swiftly attacked the findings as Grimm’s “opinion” before wrongly claiming that Grimm — a career civil servant — was an appointee of former President Barack Obama. Trump nominated a full-time replacement for Grimm three weeks later. (Diamond, 5/26)

Asked by Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., whether hospitals had received sufficient support from the federal government, Grimm said, “We did find shortages of protective equipment – masks, gowns, and recorded expected shortages of ventilators,” but the government took steps to address the issues. Democrats criticized the Trump administration for its moves to oust several inspectors general, including State Department Inspector General Steve Linick, who had been investigating Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's use of State Department staff to run personal errands for him and his wife. (Wu, 5/26)

The White House said Tuesday that President Donald Trump followed the law when he fired multiple inspectors general in the last two months, but the administration offered no new details about why they were let go. A White House letter issued in response to concerns from a prominent Republican senator does little to explain the decision-making behind Trump’s recent upheaval of the inspector general community. (Tucker and Daly, 5/27)