The White House is facing tough questions over its firing of a longtime railroad official, with some alleging that a murky process led to the dismissal and requires reform.
Martin Dickman, who had served as the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board inspector general since 1994, was let go in March on grounds of creating a hostile work environment. But Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) says the reasons he was let go have not been made clear by the Biden administration.
“Your communication failed to adequately provide Congress the details and case-specific reasons for the RRB IG’s removal, as required by law,” he wrote in a letter to President Joe Biden last week.
Dickman was confirmed for the oversight position during the Clinton administration and had served in that capacity ever since. But he has been under investigation by the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, or CIGIE, since January 2023.
Biden was presented with the findings of that report and subsequently dismissed Dickman, saying he’d created a toxic work environment. Tennessee Valley Authority Inspector General Ben R. Wagner has taken on Dickman’s role in an acting capacity while keeping his TVA post. Biden will need Senate confirmation for a full-time replacement.
But Dickman’s attorney, Justin Weddle, says that system that led to his ouster is flawed and has done his client a disservice after a long, otherwise unblemished career.
“Dickman served with distinction at the Railroad Retirement Board for three decades under five presidents, and the effort to remove him despite that unblemished record is the unfortunate result of a broken system for receiving and investigating whether complaints relating to Inspectors General are founded or unfounded,” he said. “The body charged with addressing such complaints, known as the IC (Integrity Committee), lacks accountability, fairness, and transparency.”
Weddle added that CIGIE failed to follow its own procedures by not allowing Dickman a chance to respond to its report and sent the White House “unvetted and anonymous allegations” while “tossing around conclusory and amorphous phrases such as ‘toxic work environment’ — as if they had been scrutinized and found credible in a process conducted according to proper procedures. They were not.”
The Washington Examiner has contacted the White House and CIGIE for comment.
Grassley’s issue also stems from Dickman’s investigation and how it was communicated to Congress. The 90-year-old senator has fought to reform the process of hiring and firing inspector generals before, once blocking two of then-President Donald Trump’s nominees because Trump had fired two inspectors general.
A bill Grassley introduced that passed in late 2022 requires the president to send Congress written communication before removing an inspector general, outlying the “substantive rationale, including detailed and case-specific reasons.”
But the Dickman case suggests the process is still not operating as Grassley would like.
Biden sent written notice on March 29, saying Dickman’s continued presence in the workplace would jeopardize legitimate government interests and that the CIGIE investigation revealed “evidence of misconduct uncovered by an ongoing, independent investigation.”
Another letter, from White House counsel Ed Siskel, outlined reasons for the move that Grassley says are not supported with details.
“The letter from Mr. Siskel provides broad and vague statements of alleged misconduct, also inadequately providing the level of specificity as required by law,” he wrote.
Grassley is calling on the White House to reissue the letter with more information.
This isn’t the first time CIGIE’s investigative process has been called into question. The New Civil Liberties Alliance filed suit against the group last year on behalf of Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari, saying Cuffari “has been endlessly harassed and had his office’s resources drained by a series of baseless inquiries” lasting more than three years.
That case was later dismissed on grounds that the investigation itself did not amount to unlawful harassment, but NCLA attorney John Vecchione maintains that the CIGIE process is riddled with problems.
CIGIE is an independent entity within the executive branch of the federal government, and its members are not appointed by the president.
“This organization, CIGIE, has become completely ungoverned,” Vecchione said. “I have just been stunned that this is the way our inspectors general are investigated, by a completely lawless system.”
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CIGIE’s investigative process and its results are not transparent, Vecchione added, saying Grassley’s letter is evidence that the group does not follow its own written rules.
“A disagreement about how you do your job should not trigger a CIGIE investigation, but that’s what is happening here,” he said.
