Travis J. Farris was appointed the first Counsel to the Inspector General at the FCC OIG under its current organizational structure in 2025. In addition to standing up an office of Counsel, he is responsible for the coordination and delivery of all legal services within the Office of Inspector General. Mr. Farris also serves as the FCC OIG Whistleblower Protection Coordinator.
Prior to joining FCC OIG, Mr. Farris served at the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Inspector General (DOE OIG). At DOE OIG, Mr. Farris started as an attorney-advisor in 2020, became the first Special Counsel for Administrative Remedies (SCAR) in 2021, and then was appointed Chief Counsel to the Inspector General in 2023. As the SCAR he established the Administrative Remedies Division at DOE OIG, and brought most ethics duties in-house. While Chief Counsel, Mr. Farris oversaw the merger of the Office of Counsel and the Administrative Remedies Division, and implemented structural as well as substantive initiatives at that office.
Before joining the Department of Energy Office of Inspector General, Mr. Farris spent eleven years at the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General (SBA OIG), where he began as an Assistant Counsel and, in 2014, became Counsel to the Inspector General. As Counsel to the Inspector General at SBA OIG, he supervised and coordinated the delivery of all legal services within the OIG. During his tenure, Mr. Farris designed and administered the Small Business Procurement Integrity Seminar, a modular training program that equipped the Federal oversight community with information necessary to better identify, develop, and pursue small business contracting violations. He also implemented numerous enhancements related to SBA OIG’s suspension and debarment practices.
In 2000 Mr. Farris entered Federal service as a trial attorney at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Program Enforcement, where he litigated administrative remedies including suspensions, debarments, Program Fraud Civil Remedies Act (now the Administrative False Claims Act) cases, and civil money penalty matters. He also assisted the U.S. Department of Justice with False Claims Act enforcement. Mr. Farris began his legal career in 1996 as a litigation associate in private practice.
Mr. Farris is an adjunct instructor with the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency Training Institute. He often trains on legal topics within the Federal oversight community. Mr. Farris has served in various capacities with the Interagency Suspension and Debarment Committee since September 2000. Notable work with that group includes service with the drafting committee for the 2003 Nonprocurement Common Rule on Suspension and Debarment, conversion of that rule to OMB Guidelines in Title 2 of the Code of Federal Regulations, leading a coordination of remedies subcommittee, and providing technical assistance for proposed changes to the Federal Acquisition Regulation suspension and debarment provisions.
Mr. Farris earned his undergraduate degree with a double major in history and English from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. He earned his law degree from the College of William and Mary, Marshall-Wythe School of Law, in Williamsburg, Virginia.