WASHINGTON — The Senate on Wednesday confirmed Robert Storch to serve as the U.S Department of Defense inspector general in a 92-3 vote, making him the first confirmed official to assume the role since Jon Rymer left the post in January 2016.The vote came a day after the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington-based watchdog group, sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., urging the Senate to confirm Storch‘s nomination.A June legal opinion from the Government Accountability Office found O’Donnell has been serving as acting Pentagon inspector general unlawfully per the Vacancies Act, which “limits the service of an acting official to 210 days beginning on the date the vacancy occurs.”Wilson argued in his letter to Schumer that “[a]cting inspectors general aren’t properly incentivized to engage in the long-term strategic planning needed to tackle grave oversight issues associated with repeated audit failures, corporate price gouging, and billions of dollars in overseas military assistance.”“Additionally, acting inspectors general may not receive the level of respect necessary do their jobs effectively,” he wrote.“Since they are temporary, agency officials can choose to wait them out and stall ongoing investigations into the waste or abuse of taxpayer dollars.”The Senate has made some progress chipping away at a backlog of Defense Department nominees that have been held up on the floor by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., amid increasing frustration from the Pentagon.Hawley last year began a blanket hold on all Defense Department nominees, threatening to keep it in place until Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken resign over the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal."