Continued excellent work by Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA11), who I’ll *greatly* miss when he’s no longer in Congress. And we ALL should miss him, by the way…because, for all those who falsely believe that old=bad, the fact is that age is absolutely irrelevant to the quality of work you do (e.g., young people can do good or bad work, old people can do…yep, good or bad work). And if you don’t understand that, just replace the word “old” with some other intrinsic characteristic (gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, whatever) and see how it sounds…
Ranking Members Connolly, Morelle Warn DOGE to Stay Out of Legislative Branch After Musk’s Cronies Attempt to Infiltrate GAO
Washington, D.C. (May 16, 2025)— Today, Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Rep. Joe Morelle, Ranking Member of the Committee on House Administration, sent a letter to Amy Gleason, the “Acting Administrator” of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), after DOGE tried to assign a team of their personnel to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), an independent agency within the Legislative Branch.
The Ranking Members’ letter comes after GAO strongly declined any request or actions to have DOGE assigned to GAO.
“We write with extraordinary alarm about attempted intrusion by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) into the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a nonpartisan legislative branch agency,” the Ranking Members wrote. “This action is a direct assault on the independence of a coequal branch of government and threatens to undermine the separation of powers that is foundational to our constitutional republic. DOGE must immediately cease any attempt to embed personnel within GAO or any other agency of the legislative branch.”
On May 13, 2025, personnel from DOGE contacted GAO in an effort to discuss assigning DOGE personnel to GAO. GAO responded to DOGE on May 16, 2025, emphasizing, correctly, that GAO is a legislative branch agency that is not subject to Executive Orders, and its mission is to assist Congress.
“GAO provides essential, nonpartisan services to Congress and answers directly to Congress, not the executive branch. DOGE cannot and must not have any access to GAO. DOGE must immediately cease any attempts to subvert the coequal authority of the legislative branch,” the Ranking Members concluded.
Under well-settled law, GAO is “an independent agency within the Legislative Branch… [and] the Comptroller General, who leads the GAO, is an ‘officer of the Legislative Branch.’” The Trump Administration even acknowledges GAO’s status as a Legislative Branch agency in a 2019 Office of Management and Budget (OMB) memorandum which reads, in relevant part:
OMB respects GAO’s opinions as those of an agency of a coequal branch of government. However, under the constitutional doctrine of separation of powers, a legal opinion by a Legislative Branch agency cannot bind the Executive Branch… As the Department of Justice has directly affirmed: “[b]ecause GAO is part of the Legislative branch, Executive Branch agencies are not bound by GAO’s legal advice.”
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