Congress
Time for Congress to find a new top watchdog for Trump to nominate
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.”
President Donald Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson will meet at the White House Tuesday with the executives of top artificial intelligence companies, according to two people granted anonymity to discuss private plans.
The meeting comes as Congress is coming under increasing pressure to put federal guardrails on AI development, as fears mount that technological advancements could soon spiral beyond human control.
Responding to some warnings that AI development was on track to cause human extinction by the end of the decade, Johnson has said he wants Trump and AI CEOs to “go in a big room, close the door and sort this out.” He has yet to endorse major legislative action to address the issue, as Trump has resisted calls for government regulations, citing concerns about lagging behind China.
The president and speaker were in attendance at the State Dinner on Thursday night in honor of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Washington, as were OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google CEO Sundar Pichai. It was not immediately clear which of these executives would be invited to next week’s meeting, and who will be participating.
News that the meeting had been scheduled was first reported by Axios.
A group of 10 Democrats has signed on to Rep. Greg Casar’s (D-Texas) bill that would ban superintelligence and pause advanced AI development until a vetting regime could be stood up.
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), both of whom are mulling a 2028 presidential run, are cosponsoring the bill, named the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act.
Khanna, in a statement, noted that he convened a hearing this week on AI safety cooperation between the U.S. and China as ranking member of the House China Select Committee with AI experts who underscored the need for a verifiable pause on superintelligence.
AI superintelligence is an as-yet hypothetical form of the advanced technology that surpasses humans’ cognitive capabilities, but exactly when AI crosses the threshold into superintelligence remains contested. The bill would subject violators to a 20-year prison sentence.
The support from prominent progressives in the Democratic caucus comes as the party is navigating how they would approach AI regulation should they retake control of one or both chambers in November.
Other cosponsors include Reps. Analilia Mejia of New Jersey, Yassamin Ansari and Adelita Grijalva of Arizona, Val Hoyle of Oregon, Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts, Chuy García of Illinois, Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania and Nydia Velázquez of New York.
“We absolutely have to slow down and regulate the advancement of dangerous AI technologies that have the potential to spiral out-of-control and threaten humanity,” Ansari said.
To Lynch, a string of recent AI-led cyberbreaches has “shown us that the advanced forms of this are out of control,” he said in an interview. “We haven’t really solved that control problem yet, nor have we got the alignment problem right yet.”
Casar’s bill, introduced this week with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), is among the most stringent AI regulations proposed by either party.
Rather than focusing on bans as Casar and his progressive allies have done, centrist Democrats are looking to legislative proposals they say can address the technology’s risks without stifling innovation.
Senate Republicans are discussing whether to call up a data center utility costs bill as they make plans to stay in Washington next week rather than beat an early exit before the midterms.
Two GOP aides who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the Senate will remain in town amid pressure from some corners of the party to send members home early to campaign.
Asked if the Senate will stay next week, Majority Leader John Thune said Thursday it’s “looking that way.”
While some lawmakers had hoped to move a long-brewing bipartisan energy permitting deal, those hopes have evaporated, and GOP leaders are instead eyeing votes on the Ratepayer Protection Act — a top priority of endangered Ohio Sen. Jon Husted.
Thune said Thursday moving to the data-center-focused bill next week “is an option.” The Senate is also expected to take up a Democratic resolution condemning the Iran war and several presidential nominations.
The Ratepayer Protection Act easily passed the House earlier this month, but some Senate Democrats are arguing it does not go far enough and party leaders could be motivated to deny Husted a pre-election win.
Josh Siegel contributed to this report.
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