{"id":16362,"date":"2025-12-07T17:17:05","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T17:17:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/the-governments-top-watchdog-is-retiring-but-the-trump-probes-continue\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T17:17:05","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T17:17:05","slug":"the-governments-top-watchdog-is-retiring-but-the-trump-probes-continue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/the-governments-top-watchdog-is-retiring-but-the-trump-probes-continue\/","title":{"rendered":"The government\u2019s top watchdog is retiring \u2014 but the Trump probes continue"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Gene Dodaro started his career at what is now the Government Accountability Office in 1973, as then-President Richard Nixon was battling Congress for control of federal cash.<\/p>\n

More than a half-century later, Dodaro runs that watchdog agency amid another epic clash between Capitol Hill and the White House over President Donald Trump\u2019s funding moves. Now, with his 15-year term as comptroller general coming to an end in late December, he\u2019s getting ready to retire.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going into witness protection,\u201d Dodaro, 74, said in a recent interview of his upcoming departure from the independent office with a workforce of more than 3,000.<\/p>\n

He meant it as a joke. But Dodaro\u2019s agency, which is tasked with auditing federal programs and helping lawmakers fulfill their constitutional duties, has been under an unprecedented level of scrutiny this year as conservative lawmakers and the White House publicly challenge GAO\u2019s objectivity and seek to undermine its influence.<\/p>\n

Adding to the pressure on Dodaro, the Supreme Court this fall appeared to endorse the view<\/u><\/a> that only the comptroller general has the authority to sue the Trump administration for flouting impoundment law \u2014 not the groups losing out on federal cash.<\/p>\n

Dodaro has declined to take such legal action, despite the urging of some lawmakers, including Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins. \u201cPeople are already suing in many cases,\u201d he reasoned, adding that the court\u2019s decision \u201csurprised\u201d him and that he won\u2019t be \u201ccajoled\u201d into suing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll see what we need to do. But we need to be prudent and make sure that \u2014 when we do it \u2014 we\u2019re in the strongest possible position to prevail,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Following the Supreme Court\u2019s opinion, Collins said in a brief interview that it \u201cgoes without saying\u201d this dynamic underscores the need for the lawmakers involved in the selection process to find a strong candidate to succeed Dodaro.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Dodaro\u2019s last day is Dec. 29, at which point he will hand-pick an acting comptroller general to take the reins of the agency until the Senate confirms a permanent replacement. A panel of 10 lawmakers seated on a bipartisan commission is supposed to suggest candidates for Trump to nominate.<\/p>\n

Whoever succeeds Dodaro will have to direct ongoing probes into Trump\u2019s funding moves. To date, the agency has issued 11 opinions \u2014 five concluding the administration illegally withheld money, two citing some wrongdoing. Dozens are ongoing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe worst thing for GAO is to look like you have an agenda. That\u2019s what concerns me about allegations like we\u2019re against the current president\u2019s agenda. We\u2019re not,\u201d he said. \u201cOur job, and most of what we\u2019re doing, is in response to actions they\u2019ve taken. It\u2019s not things we\u2019re bringing up out of nowhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because the Office of Management and Budget has stonewalled GAO\u2019s requests for information, the agency is forced to rely on evidence in the many lawsuits against the administration, Dodaro said.<\/p>\n

Moreover, the GAO head said he has never spoken to Trump\u2019s budget chief, Russ Vought. Multiple attempts to make contact during the first Trump administration were unsuccessful, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis public comments have led me to believe that wouldn\u2019t be a successful approach here,\u201d Dodaro said of Vought, who on social media this spring accused the office of taking a \u201cpartisan role in the first-term impeachment hoax,\u201d a reference to GAO\u2019s conclusion that Trump illegally withheld aid to Ukraine<\/u><\/a> in 2019.<\/p>\n

The past 11 months have been politically difficult for Dodaro in other ways. Earlier this year, top Republicans derided GAO<\/u><\/a> for not blessing Senate GOP efforts to skirt filibuster rules to overturn state waivers issued under former President Joe Biden for pollution standards \u2014 and ignored the agency\u2019s conclusion to boot.<\/p>\n

Dodaro fended off Elon Musk\u2019s attempt to send a downsizing team to GAO as part of the president\u2019s now-disbanded Department of Government Efficiency initiative, before House Republicans proposed cutting the agency\u2019s budget in half for the current fiscal year.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the first time the comptroller general has irked a party in power. During the Biden administration, GAO delivered its first-ever estimate of fraud in the federal government, pegging losses at between $233 billion and $521 billion dollars a year.<\/p>\n

\u201cOMB wasn\u2019t happy,\u201d Dodaro recalled.<\/p>\n

\"Gene<\/p>\n

Dodaro\u2019s agency doesn\u2019t always disappoint Republicans. Just last week, GOP lawmakers cheered a new GAO report<\/u><\/a> reinforcing their arguments about fraud in the Obamacare insurance marketplace. To investigate this claim, GAO set up 24 fake accounts; 22 successfully enrolled in plans. It ended up costing the federal government thousands of dollars a month.<\/p>\n

And Congress has averted several crises as a direct result of the watchdog\u2019s warnings. That includes action to replace crucial weather satellites before they fail and to buoy the federal insurance program designed to protect Americans whose pension benefits are at risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cGAO is incredibly valuable \u2026 the ability for Congress to ask a hard question and ask them to chase it,\u201d said Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), who added that Dodaro has for years aided him in a running effort to compel federal agencies to identify and describe each program they oversee.<\/p>\n

Dodaro also started a partnership with experts at the National Academy of Sciences and launched an international effort to help developing countries run audit offices.<\/p>\n

Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), who is supposed to serve on the commission to recommend candidates for a Senate-confirmed comptroller general, said lawmakers \u201cwon’t find anybody as experienced and as knowledgeable\u201d as Dodaro. \u201cThe integrity and professionalism he brought to the job, I thought, was exceptional.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dodaro attributes any praise to decades of relationship maintenance, including with top Trump administration officials who used to be members of Congress and senators who formerly served in the House.<\/p>\n

\u201cI try to pull out all the stops on my Italian charm,\u201d he joked. \u201cWe\u2019re not only in the auditing business. We\u2019re in the relationship business.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next comptroller general could be anyone, and it could be a long time before that person is seated. Dodaro is the only Senate-confirmed GAO chief who was picked from inside the agency, and he held the position in an acting capacity for more than two years before then-President Barack Obama nominated him upon the recommendation of lawmakers. The Senate confirmed him by unanimous consent in 2010.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it can be done quickly, that\u2019s fine. If it can\u2019t, then they need to take their time to get the right person in the job, because it\u2019s 15 years,\u201d Dodaro said of the selection process for his successor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have great confidence in the people at GAO \u2026 and I have confidence in the Congress to take their responsibility seriously and pick someone. This is their person \u2014 to serve them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gene Dodaro started his career at what is now the Government Accountability Office in 1973, as then-President Richard Nixon was battling Congress for control of federal cash. More than a half-century later, Dodaro runs that watchdog agency amid another epic clash between Capitol Hill and the White House over President Donald Trump\u2019s funding moves. Now, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}