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’s funding moves. Now, with his 15-year term as comptroller general coming to an end in late December, he’s getting ready to retire.
“I’m going into witness protection,” Dodaro, 74, said in a recent interview of his upcoming departure from the independent office with a workforce of more than 3,000.
He meant it as a joke. But Dodaro’s 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’s objectivity and seek to undermine its influence.
Adding to the pressure on Dodaro, the Supreme Court this fall appeared to endorse the view that only the comptroller general has the authority to sue the Trump administration for flouting impoundment law — not the groups losing out on federal cash.
Dodaro has declined to take such legal action, despite the urging of some lawmakers, including Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins. “People are already suing in many cases,” he reasoned, adding that the court’s decision “surprised” him and that he won’t be “cajoled” into suing.
“We’ll see what we need to do. But we need to be prudent and make sure that — when we do it — we’re in the strongest possible position to prevail,” he added.
Following the Supreme Court’s opinion, Collins said in a brief interview that it “goes without saying” this dynamic underscores the need for the lawmakers involved in the selection process to find a strong candidate to succeed Dodaro.
Dodaro’s 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.
Whoever succeeds Dodaro will have to direct ongoing probes into Trump’s funding moves. To date, the agency has issued 11 opinions — five concluding the administration illegally withheld money, two citing some wrongdoing. Dozens are ongoing.
“The worst thing for GAO is to look like you have an agenda. That’s what concerns me about allegations like we’re against the current president’s agenda. We’re not,” he said. “Our job, and most of what we’re doing, is in response to actions they’ve taken. It’s not things we’re bringing up out of nowhere.”
Because the Office of Management and Budget has stonewalled GAO’s requests for information, the agency is forced to rely on evidence in the many lawsuits against the administration, Dodaro said.
Moreover, the GAO head said he has never spoken to Trump’s budget chief, Russ Vought. Multiple attempts to make contact during the first Trump administration were unsuccessful, he added.
“His public comments have led me to believe that wouldn’t be a successful approach here,” Dodaro said of Vought, who on social media this spring accused the office of taking a “partisan role in the first-term impeachment hoax,” a reference to GAO’s conclusion that Trump illegally withheld aid to Ukraine in 2019.
The past 11 months have been politically difficult for Dodaro in other ways. Earlier this year, top Republicans derided GAO for not blessing Senate GOP efforts to skirt filibuster rules to overturn state waivers issued under former President Joe Biden for pollution standards — and ignored the agency’s conclusion to boot.
Dodaro fended off Elon Musk’s attempt to send a downsizing team to GAO as part of the president’s now-disbanded Department of Government Efficiency initiative, before House Republicans proposed cutting the agency’s budget in half for the current fiscal year.
It’s 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.
“OMB wasn’t happy,” Dodaro recalled.
Dodaro’s agency doesn’t always disappoint Republicans. Just last week, GOP lawmakers cheered a new GAO report 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.
And Congress has averted several crises as a direct result of the watchdog’s 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.
“GAO is incredibly valuable … the ability for Congress to ask a hard question and ask them to chase it,” 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.
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.
Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), who is supposed to serve on the commission to recommend candidates for a Senate-confirmed comptroller general, said lawmakers “won’t find anybody as experienced and as knowledgeable” as Dodaro. “The integrity and professionalism he brought to the job, I thought, was exceptional.”
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.
“I try to pull out all the stops on my Italian charm,” he joked. “We’re not only in the auditing business. We’re in the relationship business.”
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.
“If it can be done quickly, that’s fine. If it can’t, then they need to take their time to get the right person in the job, because it’s 15 years,” Dodaro said of the selection process for his successor.
“I have great confidence in the people at GAO … and I have confidence in the Congress to take their responsibility seriously and pick someone. This is their person — to serve them.”
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