Watchdog defunding

Defunding watchdog agencies is the use of budget, hiring freezes, or reorganization to disable institutional oversight without abolishing it outright. Concrete forms include zeroing out or starving Inspector General offices, eliminating positions from the Government Accountability Office or congressional committees, sub-cabinet reorganizations that fold oversight into the units being overseen, and impoundments of appropriated funds intended to support oversight functions. The publication tracks actions whose visible effect is to reduce institutional oversight capacity, not routine budget rebalancing.