Nearly two-dozen signatories joined the American Governance Institute on a letter to House and Senate committee leaders September 21, calling on them to make legislative changes to how the leader of the Government Accountability Office is selected before a permanent replacement for retired Comptroller General Gene Dodaro is nominate. Current law allows the President to a select a nominee from a list provided by a congressional commission, undermining the independence of Congress’s principle oversight and accountability agency.

The current system reflects a compromise between the executive and legislative branches that was rendered moot by a Supreme Court decision in 1986. Nevertheless, Congress has not acted to remove the President from the selection process of legislative branch office leadership, as it has recently with the Architect of the Capitol in 2023 and proposes to do with legislation recently introduced by Rep. Morgan Griffith for the Librarian of Congress and Director of the Government Publishing Office.

The letter explains that members of both parties have introduced bills granting Congress sole appointment power for the Comptroller General over recent decades through the existing ten-person commission. It urges action on a new version of the legislation now while Acting Comptroller General Orice Williams Brown, a career GAO executive, is serving a as steward.

“Whatever structure Congress chooses,” the letter explains, “preserving GAO’s independence, impartiality, professionalism, and credibility across party lines is essential to its ability to serve Congress and hold the federal government accountable.”

The letter is available here