[JURIST] The US Legal Services Corp. [official website] debated firing the inspector general currently investigating the federally funded program's use of funds for luxuries [JURIST report; LSC press release], the Associated Press reported Sunday. Meeting transcripts obtained by AP indicate that board members criticized Kirt West and warned each other to be careful of their actions in his presence.

The board planned to discuss West's status at a meeting in April before Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Michael Enzi, R-Wyo., and Rep. Christopher Cannon, R-Utah, warned Frank Strickland [official profile], the board's chairman, that any attempt to fire West would be inappropriate. Cannon has since put forward a bill [materials] that would require 9 of the 11 LSC board members to agree on any measure to remove the inspector general, up from the current simple majority. The legal aid program, which provides legal services to the poor, reported in February that it turns away more than half of those eligible for its services due to a lack of financial resources [LSC press release]. It has claimed that several media reports about its staffers' spending practices are inaccurate [press release]. AP has more.