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The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has been a thorn in the side of both Trump administrations. The president, however, gets to pick the leader of the watchdog office. Some say that choice should belong only to Congress, and is urging lawmakers to act now.
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Donald J. Trump doesn’t like being criticized. That’s become even more apparent in his second term.
47’s on-going fights with journalists he believes do not provide proper coverage is the latest example. But he’s also taken action against government agencies and employees that have opposed (or appeared to from his point of view) some presidential actions.
Trump started off his second Oval Office occupancy with a Jan. 24, 2025, late-night mass firing of 17 independent inspectors general (IGs). The administration continued to dismiss additional government inspectors.
In case you were wondering, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) has, so far, been spared. You can read the Internal Revenue Service’s independent watchdog’s recent report on the tax agency’s latest compliance trends.
Another federal watchdog that’s always been on 47’s radar is the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the legislative branch’s investigative arm.
Some are concerned that Trump’s role in selecting the office’s next leader, officially the Comptroller General, could be complicated by his administration’s animosity toward the GAO.
That fraught watchdog-White House relationship wasn’t expressly mentioned in a recent letter sent to Congress urging lawmakers to enact legislation that excludes the executive branch from the Comptroller General selection process.
Rather, the letter signatories, who include individuals and organizations, focused on why they believe only the House and Senate should have formal, legal, and sole power to select the head of the GAO. And, note the letter writers, Congress should act now.
But given the two Trump administrations’ acrimonious history with the GAO, you can’t blame some (yeah, I’m talking about me) for reading between the letter’s lines.
Trump vs. GAO: Several GAO findings have not set well with either Trump White House.
Most notably, in Trump’s first term the agency said his hold on military aid to Ukraine in 2019 included a violation of the 1974 law restricting presidential “impoundments.” That led to Trump’s first impeachment.
The latest run-in came this month, with the GAO finding that the federal government spent an estimated $9.5 billion on employees it paid to not work in 2025, largely due to the deferred resignation program tied to actions of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Elon Musk, who created the quasi-government group, and the White House have repeatedly claimed DOGE led to hundreds of billions in savings.
And last year, the White House Office of Management and Budget even informed the GAO that it would cooperate with it only when the agency does not “unduly burden” Trump’s agenda.
That animosity over two Trump terms has some on and beyond Capitol Hill worried that the Trump administration will try to take over the GAO and use it for 47’s own ends.
Hybrid system to select GAO head: They fear commandeering could be facilitated by the structure that determines who is the Comptroller General, the head the GAO.
The Comptroller General, who serves a single 15-year term, can only be removed by Congress, which the GAO serves. But the appointment of the GAO leader is a bit more complicated.
Currently, a special legislative commission recommends at least three candidates for comptroller general to the president, who picks a nominee. The Senate must then confirm the appointment.
It’s the involvement of the (and notably this) president that has prompted some to call for an official change to the law. They say that since the GAO reports to Congress, the House and Senate alone should appoint its chief.
Among the “they” calling for such a change are the 23 signers of the Sept. 21 letter, both individuals and organizations, and sent to key lawmakers in both chambers. The correspondence argues that since the GAO is a legislative body, the Comptroller General who heads it should be appointed by Congress rather than the president.
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Supporters of Sole Congressional Selection
of the Comptroller General
| American Governance Institute | Government Information Watch | Norman Ornstein, retired scholar, The American Enterprise Institute |
| Alexiaa Jordan, the Financial Lab | GovTrack.us | Partnership for Public Service |
| Americans for Prosperity | Inclusive America | Project On Government Oversight |
| Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) | Kel McClanahan, National Security Counselors | Protect Democracy United |
| Demand Progress | Kevin R. Kosar | Public Citizen |
| Fix Our House | Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy | R Street Institute |
| Fix the Court | Lorelei Kelly, Principal, Public Good Group | Rev. Glynden Bode |
| Free Government Information (FGI) | Taxpayers for Common Sense |
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“The question of congressional appointment of the Comptroller General has a long bipartisan pedigree,” according to the letter, which cites legislative proposals starting in 1972 to change the process that were supported by both political parties.
Most recently, Rep. Ed Case (D-Hawaii) introduced a bill last year that would give Congress sole authority to appoint and remove the Comptroller General. Case’s Legislative Branch Independence Act would extend the sole Congressional hiring/filing power also to the Librarian of Congress and Director of the Government Publishing Office positions.
The letter also points to the 1986 Supreme Court “decision in Bowsher v. Synar, which held that the Comptroller General is an officer of the Legislative Branch subject to congressional control and therefore ‘may not be entrusted with executive powers.’”
Timing is right: The letter also notes that Congress now has a perfect opportunity to consider the GAO’s leadership appointment structure as an institutional matter.
Gene Dodaro’s term as head of the GAO ended on Dec. 29, 2025. Acting Comptroller General Orice Williams Brown, previously the agency’s Chief Operating Officer, now leads the GAO.
In the short-term, notes the letter, “the GAO is being run by experienced leaders who exercise full authority and planned for the current circumstances, affording Congress the time to get this right. Acting Comptrollers General have shepherded the agency over multi-year periods and have done so ably.”
Such a support system has led in the past to prolonged periods between official appointments of a Comptroller General. The letter urges Congress not to dally this time.
But this opening, supporters of the appointment procedure change write, offers an auspicious time to act. “The 119th Congress is in its final months and legislation changing the appointment of other legislative branch agency heads is already moving through Congress,” according to the letter.
Changing the legal authority to name the head of the GAO need not require reinventing the selection process, add the letter writers. They say the same bipartisan, bicameral membership Congress already established for the Comptroller General selection commission could continue to perform that role under a different statutory framework.
But what does need to change, and expeditiously, is the proper, preeminent role of Congress in making the choice.
“We urge Congress to resolve the institutional framework for selecting the next Comptroller General before the next appointment is made,” the groups wrote in their letter. “Congress, and Congress alone, should choose its agency heads.”
Will Congress step up in what Matthew B. Lawrence of the Emory University School of Law characterizes as the potential next battlefield in the fight for separation of powers? Or will it retreat further.
