Congressional Democrats claim GOP leaders are trying to choke off the selection process for the federal government’s top watchdog in a bid to let President Donald Trump install one of his allies before Republicans cede the majority in January.
Top Democrats in both chambers divulged Wednesday night that Republicans gave them less than 24 hours to submit candidates to serve as Comptroller General, otherwise known as the head of the Government Accountability Office — an official uniquely empowered to sue Trump on Congress’ behalf for clawing back federal funding lawmakers have approved.
“This is clearly a sham to enable President Trump to appoint a handpicked nominee to lead Congress’ watchdog,” the Democrats said in a joint statement. “We cannot allow President Trump to install a fox in the henhouse at an agency Congress relies on to provide independent, nonpartisan oversight, and expose waste, fraud, and abuse across the Trump Administration.”
The lawmakers signing onto the statement include Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and the top Democrats on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Committee on House Oversight and Governmental Affairs — Gary Peters of Michigan and Robert Garcia of California, respectively.
GAO is currently headed by an acting comptroller general, Orice Williams Brown, who is under increasing pressure to sue the Trump administration for withholding federal cash after the president canceled hundreds of millions of dollars without Congress’ consent this fall. Brown assumed that role last December, when Gene Dodaro retired at the end of his 15-year term.
By law, a bipartisan panel of 10 lawmakers is supposed to recommend candidates for Trump to nominate for Senate confirmation. And when Dodaro retired last year, Senate HSGAC Chair Rand Paul (R-Ky.) — one of the lawmakers on the broader recommendation committee — said he intended to “look for someone who’s honest,” warning that it would be “a mistake to get somebody who’s been real active in political processes.”
Democrats now claim Paul and other top Republicans are working to “ram through another Trump crony at the 11th hour, and undercut Congress’ ability to conduct effective oversight of the Trump Administration.”
The Washington Sun reported last month that the administration has floated the idea of nominating Eric Ueland to head GAO; POLITICO has not independently confirmed that the White House is considering the former longtime Senate aide who now serves as a senior official at the White House budget office.
In the months leading up to Dodaro’s retirement last year, Democrats on Capitol Hill began to lament the fact that a president who continually challenges the bounds of Congress’ funding power would get to nominate the watchdog tasked with defending the authority of the legislative branch.
In the more than 10 months since Dodaro left the role, Republican leaders on the bipartisan selection commission have held no meetings, nor have they interviewed any candidates for the role, said Schumer, Jeffries, Peters and Garcia Wednesday night.
Peters and Garcia are supposed to be on the panel that recommends GAO candidates, since they are the leading Democrats on Congress’ oversight committees.
Spokespeople for Paul and Senate Majority Leader John Thune did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
