For the first time in nearly two decades, Congress is on the hunt for a new boss at the federal government’s top watchdog agency.
With the retirement of comptroller general Gene Dodaro, longtime Government Accountability Office employee Orice Williams Brown is stepping in to lead the more-than-3,000-person agency in an acting capacity.
Congressional leaders are now supposed to recommend candidates for President Donald Trump to nominate for a 15-year term. If confirmed by the Senate, that person will lead the agency as it works through dozens of investigations into whether the Trump administration broke the law throughout 2025 by withholding billions of dollars Congress previously approved.
“We’re going to look for someone who’s honest,” Sen. Rand Paul said in an interview. “I think it would be a mistake to get somebody who’s been real active in political processes.”
As chair of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the Kentucky Republican is by law granted a seat on the bipartisan panel of 10 lawmakers tasked with recommending at least three potential replacements for Trump to consider nominating.
Paul and many other top Republicans on Capitol Hill are fans of GAO. But this past year, other conservatives and Trump’s senior advisers have openly ridiculed the legislative branch office charged with auditing federal agencies, aiding lawmakers in carrying out their constitutional duties and challenging White House actions that encroach on Congress’ power.
In recent months, the comptroller general has also been under pressure to take legal action against the Trump administration for withholding federal cash — especially after the Supreme Court appeared to imply this fall that the GAO head is the only plaintiff with standing to sue under decades-old impoundment law.
The next comptroller general must be “willing to call balls and strikes regardless of which party occupies the White House,” Michigan Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, who will be on the panel to recommend candidates, said in a floor speech this month.
Dodaro leaves “a legacy of tremendous credibility, integrity and independence,” said Peters, the top Democrat on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
From the Senate, the bipartisan panel will also include Majority Leader John Thune, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the president pro tempore.
In the House, the roster will include Speaker Mike Johnson, Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, House Oversight and Government Reform Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) and Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the Oversight panel’s top Democrat.
Jeffries said this month that he will be talking to his caucus about what kind of candidates to support.
Comer, meanwhile, used the GOP buzzphrase “waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement” to describe the kind of oversight work he wants the next GAO head to focus on.
“We want them to be aggressive, and we want them to work closely with us on identifying — not just problems, but solutions to the problem,” he said in an interview.
Comer hailed Dodaro in a tribute speech on the House floor this month as “deeply respected across the government and the oversight community for his integrity, candor and dedication.”
If history is any indication, it could take a while to seat a long-term replacement.
Dodaro served as acting director for more than two years before the Senate confirmed him to the post in 2010. There was also a two-year gap before his predecessor, David Walker, was confirmed.
Paul in a recent interview indicated there has been some discussion about launching the bipartisan selection commission, but “I don’t know much more than that.”
