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.

Can National Parks Practice Social Distancing?

by Jeff Ruch | April 13, 2020
The still-unfolding pandemic has underlined the public health risks that national parks and refuges pose both to the visiting public and their own employees. How can national parks dedicated to attracting crowds operate in a new era of social distancing ...

National Parks Epitomize Trump COVID Inconsistency

by Jeff Ruch | April 8, 2020
As more than 100 national park units have closed, hundreds more remain open in an uneven handling of COVID-19 by the Trump administration ...

BLOG: Trump’s War on Watchdogs

by Jeff Ruch | April 7, 2020
Trump conitnues war on watchdogs in latest firing of Michael Atkinson, the Inspector General for the intelligence community ...

BLOG: COVID-19 Power Grab

by Chandra Rosenthal | April 2, 2020
Buried deep in the $2 trillion coronavirus bill, was a change in the tax code that “could result in $170 billion in tax breaks for real estate investors ...

BLOG: How Mitch McConnell Gutted the Pandemic Response

by Tim Whitehouse | March 25, 2020
While he has been the Senate Republican Leader, Mitch McConnell has led efforts to cut $1.6 trillion in critical funding for CDC and NIH research. And now, as our public health services are begging for resources to save lives from the pandemic, Americans are living the policy result of Sen ...

PEER Letter to Suspend Action During Coronavirus Crisis

by Peter Jenkins | March 23, 2020
A coalition of more than 90 conservation groups issued a letter to Interior Secretary David Bernhardt urging the department to "suspend major policy changes, changes to regulations, oil and gas lease sales and public comment periods ...