(The following appeared on the Washington Times website on March 23, 2011.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Top Amtrak officials failed to give “adequate consideration” to a federal mandate to inform Congress before they removed the rail service’s longtime inspector general in 2009, according to a new independent review.
The findings by the Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General were reported in a letter Wednesday to three top Republican lawmakers who requested an inquiry into the removal of Amtrak Inspector General Fred Weiderhold.
The report comes two months after Republican Rep. Darrell Issa of California, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, called for the firing of Amtrak Chairman Thomas Carper and General Counsel Eleanor Acheson, saying they “unlawfully interfered” with the independence of the rail service’s Office of Inspector General when Amtrak got rid of Mr. Weiderhold.
The full story is on the Washington Times website.