Federal law already requires accountability. What is missing is enforcement.

For decades, states, agencies, and nonprofit organizations that receive federal funds have been required to comply with the Single Audit Act and related federal oversight laws. These requirements are not optional. They are conditions agreed to in exchange for taxpayer money.

Yet year after year, Inspector General reports and Government Accountability Office audits document the same failures:

• Widespread misuse of federal funds
• Improper payments flagged but not recovered
• Waived safeguards and ignored warnings
• Continued funding despite unresolved audit findings
• Little to no personal accountability for approving officials

In 2020 alone, the Government Accountability Office identified approximately $175 billion in improper federal payments. These figures do not reflect ambiguous rules or unclear standards. They reflect a pattern of non-enforcement.

When laws exist but are not applied, the result is not flexibility or compassion. It is a parallel system where rules apply to ordinary citizens but not to institutions or politically connected actors.

This erosion of accountability damages public trust. Taxpayers are not asking for new laws or expanded bureaucracy. They are asking for existing laws to be enforced consistently and without exception.

We respectfully call on the Executive Branch and Congress to take the following actions:

Uniformly enforce the Single Audit Act and related federal oversight statutes across all states, agencies, and recipients of federal funds.
Freeze and claw back federal payments where audits show misuse, fraud, or material noncompliance.
Require timely public disclosure of audit findings, enforcement actions, and recovery efforts within a defined timeframe.
These steps are not radical. They are foundational. Without enforcement, oversight laws are symbolic rather than meaningful.

A government that audits but never acts sends a clear message: compliance is optional and consequences are negotiable. That is not sustainable.

Accountability is not partisan. It is the minimum requirement of a functioning republic.

This petition is supported by a publicly documented open letter submitted to President Donald J. Trump outlining documented cases of audit failures, statistical anomalies in congressional finances, and the long-term consequences of selective enforcement.

Read the supporting open letter here: Open Letter to President Trump 

If federal law still matters, it must be enforced equally.
If it cannot be enforced equally, the public deserves to know why.