Commentary

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 | National Parks Stumble Towards Reforms

by Jeff Ruch | June 2, 2020
In order for national parks to remain “America’s Best Idea,” park managers must move from merely maximizing crowds to actually managing them ...

Statement | We Must All Address Racism and Economic Injustice

by Tim Whitehouse | June 1, 2020
The outrage over recent racial violence and injustice, has been another reminder of our failure to address a history of racism and economic injustice ...

BLOG | EPA Creating A “Pandemic of Pollution” Since COVID-19 Crisis

by Tim Whitehouse | May 26, 2020
Despite the connection between exposure to air pollution and adverse outcomes from COVID-19, EPA continues to accelerate its efforts to gut important air quality protections, unleashing what a new staff report by U.S. Senator Carper calls a “pandemic of pollution.” Since March 1, EPA ...

BLOG | New Age of Impunity: Trump’s Relentless Attack on Oversight

by Jeff Ruch | May 22, 2020
Trump's firing of the State Department’s Inspector General should send a shiver of fear down the spine of every oversight functionary left in Washington ...

BLOG | Opposing the EPA Plan to Restrict Science

by Kyla Bennett | May 21, 2020
The new EPA plan to restrict science is subject to the interests of political appointees and is not based on exisitng scientific integrity standards ...

BLOG | There Is No “Trump Exemption” – That Is Why We Are Suing

by Tim Whitehouse | May 19, 2020
PEER and Western Watersheds Project sued the Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt, alleging that Bernhardt has used temporary appointees to lead the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management in violation of federal laws and the U.S. Constitution ...