Good Governance

Senior Counsel

Jeff serves as Senior Counsel to PEER, where he specializes in civil service, scientific integrity, and whistleblower protection issues. Jeff was PEER’s Executive Director from 1997 to 2019 and its Pacific Director from 2019 to 2025. Previously, he was the Policy Director and a staff attorney at the Government Accountability Project, representing whistleblowers from both the public and private sectors. Before coming to DC, Jeff worked in California state government for 17 years, mostly in the State Legislature as counsel to various committees where he drafted hundreds of laws on topics ranging from energy conservation to the rights of employed inventors. Jeff served stints as a deputy district attorney and an appellate court clerk. He is a graduate of the California Correctional Officers Academy.

BLOG | BLM Needs a Future Far Brighter Than Its Past 

by Jeff Ruch | August 26, 2020
Under the Trump administration, BLM has declined even further than in previous decades. We hope for a brighter future for BLM, which is so needed ...

PEERMail | The Post Office, the Environment and Government Services

by Tim Whitehouse | August 17, 2020
The hobbling of the Post Office is yet another attempt to privatize and profit off of government services ...

BLOG | Trump’s Temporary Insanity

by Jeff Ruch | August 12, 2020
Trump's latest attempt to avoid the Senate’s confirmation process is Lanny Erdos of the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement ...

BLOG | Interior Secretary David Bernhardt’s Autocratic Power Grab

by Peter Jenkins | August 3, 2020
Interior Secretary David Bernhardt’s Autocratic Power Grab In an obscure announcement on July 22nd about President Trump’s border wall obsession, the Secretary of the Interior, David Bernhardt, stated that he was handing 66 acres managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to the ...

BLOG | Don’t Mention COVID-19 at NOAA

by Kyla Bennett | July 22, 2020
NOAA has informed its employees to avoid mentions of COVID-19 in publicly available documents as the hyper-political White House attempts to win reelection ...

Illegal Indirect Lobbying by Interior  

by PEER | June 18, 2020
Tweet and Video Violate Ban on Propaganda and Grassroots Lobbying ...