For generations, Americans have accepted a basic premise: government, while imperfect, is accountable to the public it serves. That accountability — maintained through oversight, transparency, and independent institutions — is not ideological. It is how the public knows decisions are being made lawfully, science is being respected, and power is not being abused.

That premise is now being tested in ways we have not seen in decades. This will have serious consequences for our environment and public health. 

Accountability Is Being Dismantled

Over the past several years, a series of Supreme Court decisions and executive actions — spanning more than one administration — have steadily weakened the legal and institutional guardrails that once constrained abuses of power. Long-standing doctrines that reinforced accountability are being narrowed or abandoned, making misconduct harder to investigate and easier to excuse.

The Supreme Court’s recent decision expanding presidential immunity is a clear example. PEER has warned that this ruling carries serious consequences for whistleblowers and the career public servants charged with exposing wrongdoing. As we explained in our analysis, the decision risks creating a system in which unlawful conduct is insulated from scrutiny based on who commits it, rather than what was done.

That is a dangerous precedent. And it should alarm anyone who expects the law to apply evenly.

Legal scholars have sounded similar warnings. New York Times columnist David French has described the Court as increasingly failing at its most basic responsibility: enforcing limits on power. Whether one agrees with his framing or not, the practical effect is clear. When accountability weakens at the top, it cascades downward — fast. 

The Civil Service Is Being Transformed

When accountability fails, we all pay the price.

Federal scientists, engineers, inspectors, and analysts are often the first — and sometimes the only — people positioned to detect corruption, regulatory capture, or abuse of authority. They depend on clear rules, independent oversight, and credible whistleblower protections to do their jobs honestly.

When those protections erode, a familiar pattern takes hold. Influence shifts toward those with money, access, and political leverage. Scientific and technical expertise inside agencies is sidelined. Industries that prefer fewer questions and weaker enforcement — oil, gas, and chemicals among them — gain ground.

PEER has documented this dynamic for decades. The result is not simply inefficient government. It is a civil service that is increasingly pressured to serve private interests rather than the public. The Trump administration is taking this a step further and pushing to replace professionals in government with loyalists who will serve the president, not the law.

Rebuilding trust requires confronting corruption and patronage directly — not normalizing it or stripping away the tools designed to prevent it.

These Attacks Will Leave Us All Sicker

This erosion is not theoretical. Its consequences are measurable and immediate.

When oversight weakens:

• Climate pollution increases.
• Wildlife and ecosystems lose protection.
• Toxic chemicals move more freely into air, water, and soil.

Environmental and public-health safeguards rely on independent science, transparent data, and enforcement insulated from political or financial pressure. Remove accountability, and those safeguards become negotiable. In many cases, they disappear altogether.

We have seen this cycle repeat often enough to recognize it for what it is. 

Rebuilding Accountability Is Necessary

This moment also presents a choice.

Rebuilding accountability does not mean recreating old systems unchanged. It means modernizing oversight to match the scale and complexity of today’s challenges.

A government worthy of public trust should include:

• Inspectors General who are independent, protected, and adequately resourced;
• Data and science that are accessible to the public and used in decision-making;
• Whistleblower and scientific integrity protections that work in practice, not just on paper; and
• Transparency tools that make government actions understandable to the public.

In short, sunlight and accountability are infrastructure. Just as physical infrastructure enables commerce, oversight and transparency enable democracy, public health, and environmental protection.

Accountability Enables Effective Government

Accountability does not weaken the government. It makes the government function.

A system in which oversight is strong, science is respected, and public servants are empowered to act with integrity is not a partisan vision. It is a prerequisite for protecting the environment, safeguarding public health, and ensuring the government serves the public — not the powerful.

At PEER, we believe restoring accountability is among the most urgent environmental and public health challenges of our time. It is also a challenge we know how to meet — if we choose to strengthen, rather than silence, the institutions designed to keep the government honest.

Tim Whitehouse is the Executive Director at PEER.