Trump administration

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 | 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 ...

President’s Address on Environmental Leadership

by Tim Whitehouse | August 23, 2019
PEER's Response to President Trump's address on environmental leadership: The United States is reversing course on the substantial environmental gains that have been made under previous administrations ...

COMMENTARY | The Trump Administration’s War on Climate Science

by Tim Whitehouse | April 29, 2019
The Trump administration’s pro-industry, anti-science agenda has undermined the work of every federal agency that conducts climate science and has a broad chilling effect on agency personnel ...

Trump Administration’s Budget Would Impair Safe Drinking Water

by Susan Sargent | April 26, 2019
The proposed FY 2020 budget cuts $8.124 million (8%) from the drinking water program ...

BLOG: Bernhardt’s Bad Actors

by Peter Jenkins | March 31, 2019
Eight political appointees are leading most of the Department of the Interior bureaus without the required “advice and consent” of the Senate. President Trump’s tactic violates fundamental “checks and balances”. Acting Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt is complicit in ...