The independent Government Accountability Office is under assault by Republican lawmakers seemingly emboldened by the Department of Government Efficiency.
Elon Musk’s DOGE team targeted the GAO, which has been the federal government’s chief audit agency for more than a century, for downsizing shortly after Donald Trump returned to office, and GOP lawmakers and administration officials have been moving to undercut its legal conclusions and independence ever since, reported Politico.
“The GAO has no role,” said Senate majority whip John Barrasso (R-WY). “The GAO has no authority.”
Senate Republicans ignored GAO guidance last week and ended waivers allowing California to establish its own pollution standards, and White House budget chief Russ Vought has been attacking the agency for finding the administration had illegally withheld congressionally approved funds to support electric vehicle infrastructure.
“They are going to call everything an impoundment because they want to grind our work to manage taxpayer dollars effectively to a halt,” Vought posted on social media. “These are non-events with no consequence. Rearview mirror stuff.”
Vought also claims the GAO had played “a partisan role” in the “impeachment hoax” during Trump’s first presidency when the agency concluded ahead of the House vote that the president had violated the same “impoundment” law by withholding congressionally approved aid to Ukraine, and GOP senators seemingly agreed.
“GAO has lost credibility as an independent body,” posted Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) in response to Vought’s claim.
Comptroller general Gene Dodaro, who leads GAO, has been meeting with lawmakers on Capitol Hill to defend the agency and justify its budget request for next year, and he has argued that DOGE is “actually using our recommendations to help carry out their activities” to help drum up support from Republicans.
“We’re just responding to help Congress,” Dodaro said in recent congressional testimony. “We’re not trying to influence things one way or the other. We’re nonpartisan. We’re asked a question; we give an answer. It doesn’t matter who it is.”