The Curious Case of the Amtrak IG's Retirement

In June, we wrote about the firing of the Inspector General for the Corporation for National & Community Service under somewhat suspicious terms. The plot, however, has begun to thicken, as the Amtrak IG, Fred Weiderhold Jr., has also “voluntarily” resigned after he submitted a report on how the railway’s officials had repeatedly interfered with his investigations of Amtrak’s activities.

As Politico reports,  Weiderhold was offered $310,000 in exchange for agreeing to a separation agreement that will prevent him from discussing the circumstance of his “resignation,” in addition to 18 month of healthcare and outplacement assistance. Although Weiderhold maintains that his decision to abdicate his position was “voluntary” the continual crusade against Inspectors General under this administration raises eyebrows.

Senator Chuck Grassley has headed up a campaign to get to the bottom of the alleged resignation of this IG – the third one to leave their post since the Obama Administration came to the White House. Grassley rightly maintains:

“The public’s business ought to be public, but it has taken over a month of digging for Congress to get to the truth about Amtrak firing its inspector general,” Grassley said. “It makes you wonder what Amtrak wanted to hide by trying to muzzle its former watchdog.”

Grassley was the sponsor of legislation last year that mandated a 30 day notification period before an IG can be removed from office, and the official must be provided with reasons for his dismissal. The co-sponsor of that legislation? None other than then-Senator Barak Obama.

And that’s not even the end of it - the dubious nature of Weiderhold’s removal is compounded by the choice to replace him with the Vice President and General Counsel at Amtrak. Eleanor Acheson heads the legal department Weiderhold’s report cited as a particularly contentious arm of Amtrak that hampered his abilities to provide full oversight of the board’s activities. I don’t proclaim to be an expert on Inspectors General, however I find it hard to believe that a leader in the company and head of the legal division who has already been cited as an adversary to Amtrak’s IG will make an honest and impartial supervisor of the railway’s activities…

Not to be trivialized in this entire scenario is the nature of Amtrak itself. Technically a private company, the railway has been taxpayer-subsidized since its inception in 1970. In 2009 alone, $6.8 billion in taxpayers’ money has been funneled into this infinite black hole, with no end in sight.

What’s more,  President Obama has now created 44 “czar” positions and continues to undermine the practical safeguards (put in place by legislation HE sponsored in the Senate) to keep bureaucracies accountable. Americans should be deeply concerned about the “transparency and ethics” lines they were sold in November as Inspectors General are dismissed without cause, paid off with tax dollars and their departments are left unsupervised and unaccountable with the money they spend.

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