Government power that operates in secret cannot be held accountable. When agencies act without disclosure, when oversight officials can be fired for doing their jobs, and when retaliation against dissent happens behind closed doors, citizens lose the ability to know what their government is doing in their name, let alone stop it.

This isn't hypothetical. Inspectors general and ethics officials have been removed for investigating the officials they were appointed to oversee. Anti-corruption and anti-weaponization offices have been defunded or dissolved entirely once they started doing their job.

As Senator, Lydia will:

• Restore statutory protections for inspectors general and ethics officials, including a requirement that removal be reported to Congress with cause, not at will
• Push to codify durable, non-defundable status for federal anti-corruption and anti-weaponization oversight offices, so they can't be dissolved by whichever administration they're currently investigating
• Expand federal whistleblower protections to cover retaliation carried out through contract termination, security clearance revocation, or reassignment, not just firing