Schleifer Releases Plan To Strengthen Federal Oversight Laws

Schleifer Will Introduce Legislation that Protects Executive Branch Inspectors General and Federal Whistleblowers, While Restoring Balance of Power Among Branches of Government

Schleifer: “We must pass laws to protect our constitution from Trump and his cronies.”

White Plains, NY – Adam P. Schleifer, a Democratic Candidate for U.S. Congress in New York’s 17th District, announced his plan for strengthening federal oversight and accountability laws. Schleifer notes that presidential power has expanded under both Republican and Democratic institutions, metastasizing far beyond what the founding fathers envisioned. Despite a gradual expansion of presidential powers and erosion of constitutional intent over the past five decades, Schleifer explains, no president has accelerated it as quickly as President Trump.

“Our constitutional system is on edge,” Schleifer comments. “The malign superficiality, narcissism, and corruption of President Trump threaten the fabric of the constitution he has sworn to uphold. We must pass laws to protect our constitution from Trump and his cronies.”

Schleifer will bring to Washington years of experience serving as a federal prosecutor, where he investigated and successfully prosecuted financial fraudsters, predatory payday lenders, and others who deceived and bullied others in hopes of improper benefit. Schleifer’s plan calls for legislation to classify inspectors general, or government watchdogs responsible for investigating corruption and protecting whistleblowers, as “principal” officers and limit their removal by the president only “for cause.” He notes that while a president has the authority to remove a Senate-confirmed inspector general, Congress only needs an explanation, not a legal cause, to justify the removal, a loophole that Trump continues to exploit.

Schleifer points out that such legislation would have likely spared a number of inspectors general who have been fired by President Trump over the past spring. These include Steve Linnick from the State Department and Mitch Behm from the Department of Transportation (DOT). Trump’s replacement for Behm, Howard “Skip” Elliot, will be maintaining his old position as a DOT division manager while managing his new inspector general office responsible for investigating his actions, a move that raises serious conflicts of interest. It would also likely have spared Michael Atkinson, the intelligence community inspector general also fired by Trump who flagged to Congress a whistleblower complaint that ultimately led to President Trump’s impeachment. For whistleblowers like these, Schleifer will strengthen their federal protections, including by prohibiting presidents or members of Congress from publicly revealing their identities without their consent. Such a protection is currently not afforded under federal law.

Finally, Schleifer would use congressional oversight and accountability measures to protect the integrity of our elections. Schleifer would pass legislation requiring all presidential and vice-presidential candidates to release their tax returns before and during their term in office. He would also address gerrymandering and the partisan extremism it generates by sponsoring legislation under Article I, Section 4 of our Constitution that would vest the power of redistricting either in the hands of independent electoral commissions or in Congress itself, thereby removing it from the state houses that have drawn our existing and dysfunctional district lines.

About Adam Schleifer:

Adam Schleifer, 38, graduated from Chappaqua’s public schools in 1999 and went on to attend Cornell University and Columbia University Law School, where he served as a Senior & Staff Development Editor on the Columbia Law Review. After graduating from law school, Schleifer served two years as a federal law clerk, first in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and then in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Schleifer then built a career at one of the nation’s leading law firms before reentering public service, first as a New York State consumer-protection regulator, and then as an Assistant United States Attorney. Schleifer has prosecuted regulatory and federal-criminal actions against predatory payday and subprime auto lenders; taken dangerous and illegal weapons out of communities; prosecuted crimes of sexual violence and predation; and protected our clean air by prosecuting a conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act. Adam Schleifer and his wife, Nicole, are residents of New Castle.

Read more about Adam Schleifer at www.AdamSchleifer.com.

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