First Letter from Senate Committee Chairmen to Peggy Gustafson (December 2, 2019)

According to more than two dozen whistleblowers who’ve spoken to Congress, the office of the Commerce Department’s internal watchdog is plagued by mismanagement, misconduct, and low productivity, caused in part by plummeting morale. In response, three powerful Senate committee chairmen are demanding that the watchdog’s Obama-appointed leader, Inspector General Peggy Gustafson, allow Congress to question eight of her top aides and two executive assistants about the whistleblowers’ complaints, according to a pair of previously unreported letters signed by the senators and obtained by the Project On Government Oversight (POGO).

This earlier letter from the chairmen, dated December 2, 2019, and addressed directly to Gustafson, rebuked her for an “inadequate response,” as an accompanying press release put it, to their previous requests for information concerning her leadership.