When President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address in February made an unexpected mention of the importance of the independence inspectors general need to have in protecting taxpayer dollars, and that he had entered the Oval Office with too many of them sidelined, and rampant fraud, naturally it caught the attention of New York’s watchdog of 100 state agencies.

In fact, Biden’s statement compelled New York Inspector General Lucy Lang to reach out to fellow IGs at all levels across the country—to cosign a statement affirming the critical nature of independence in their roles of rooting out corruption and protecting democracy.