HHS Archives - PEER.org

HHS

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.

COMMENTARY | Idiocracy: Loyalty Displaces Competence in Trump World

by Jeff Ruch | August 1, 2025
In his second term, Trump has assembled perhaps the least distinguished Cabinet in modern history, abandoning any pretense of picking people based upon competence ...

COMMENTARY | Trump’s Attack on Science Will Leave Us All Sicker

by Tim Whitehouse | June 23, 2025
The Trump administration’s evisceration of the federal agencies that protect our health and environment is a full-throttled attack on science that will set our nation back for years, if not decades to come ...

New Integrity Rules Differ on Allowable Scientist Speech 

by PEER | February 1, 2024
Agencies Range from Bans on Policy Discussion to “Open Discourse” Pledges ...

First Biden Scientific Integrity Policy Falls Well Short

by PEER | September 5, 2023
Timid Health & Human Services Proposal Will Not Prevent Trump Abuses ...

U.S. Public Health Research to Face New Restrictions

by PEER | August 16, 2023
Impending Ban on HHS Scientists Raising Policy Implications of Research ...