Iowa's fangless watchdogs

The GAO, which saves taxpayers billions of dollars a year, is under threat. But the so-called fiscal conservatives in Congress keep mum

The Washington, D.C., headquarters of the Government Accountability Office. (Photo source: GAO)

Members of Iowa’s congressional delegation love to cite the GAO.

Since the dawn of DOGE, they have increasingly styled themselves as watchdogs against wasteful government spending. And in the process, they frequently turn to Government Accountability Office reports to criticize government spending.

Why wouldn’t they? The GAO, along with inspectors general, are the ultimate pros at finding waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government.

Created in 1921, the GAO is a non-partisan, independent agency that works for Congress, and its latest annual report says its recommendations have led to $725 billion in government savings since 2011. That’s serious money. Which, if you ignore all its bloviating, puts DOGE to shame.

I’m a big fan of the GAO’s work, too. But perhaps not for the same reason as many of the politicians in Congress who like to cite its reports. I believe the GAO should find waste and inefficiency wherever it exists in government. No matter who the occupant of the White House is.

I also think it should do its lawful duty, which can include determining whether the executive branch has illegally refused to spend funds appropriated by Congress.

Apparently, Republicans believe this, too. Or at least they did when Joe Biden was president.

In 2021, congressional Republicans, including most of Iowa’s delegation, complained that the Biden administration was illegally refusing to spend congressionally appropriated funds on Donald Trump’s border wall and asked the GAO to investigate. In one letter, which Sen. Joni Ernst signed on to, Republicans stated Congress holds the “power of the purse” and “an appropriation act is a law like any other.”

These days, though, they don’t seem so eager to defend their powers; not to mention the law.

They may not be too eager to defend the GAO, either. This week, members of the House Appropriations Committee panel moved forward on a bill to slash the GAO’s funding by about half, to $415 million a year. The bill also would eliminate the agency’s ability to bring civil action to enforce the law when it comes to congressionally appropriated funds.

So far, I haven’t heard a peep of protest from the so-called fiscal conservatives in Iowa’s congressional delegation.

There’s probably a reason for this.

The GAO is in the crosshairs of the Trump administration. In just five months, the agency has twice found the administration illegally withheld congressionally appropriated funds.

Screengrab of the website for the Government Accountability Office.

Last week, the agency said the administration illegally withheld grants and contracts for museums and libraries around the country.

In May, the GAO found the Federal Highway Administration unlawfully withheld money Congress had appropriated to build electric vehicle charging stations in the 50 states.

Sen. Chuck Grassley actually voted for the 2021 bi-partisan infrastructure law that included this funding, and Iowa was allocated $51 million for charging stations. (Last October, the Iowa DOT announced it had awarded an initial $16.2 million to build 28 fast-charging stations in the state, but this is now on hold.)

Trump’s questionable spending freezes, enacted in the early days of his second term, aren’t rare. Politico reported in April the GAO had undertaken 39 investigations into Trump funding holds. At the time, US Comptroller General Gene Dodaro, who heads the GAO, said the administration had “not been responsive” to its questions.

In fact, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought made it clear he didn’t care what the GAO found. He as much as conceded the GAO would issue even more reports that the administration had acted illegally. But he called them “non-events with no consequence.”

It’s almost as if he knew he had nothing to fear from the Congress that ordered this spending.

Which, of course, he doesn’t.

This wasn’t hard to predict. Remember when Trump fired a bunch of inspectors general at the start of his term? Grassley co-authored a letter in response—after initially musing that Trump may have had “good reason” for the dismissals—but nothing appears to have happened since then.

As a watchdog, Grassley no longer has any fangs. Neither do the rest of the Republicans in Congress. Not with Trump in the White House.

Now, House Republicans want to defang the GAO.

Make no mistake, a neutered GAO would cost the taxpayers a lot of money. It would incentivize the waste and abuse DOGE disciples like Ernst and Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks profess to be fighting.

I should note the GAO found in 2021 that the Biden administration did not violate the law when it came to border wall spending. That angered some Republicans, who at the time complained of bias. They still are complaining. But to me, this sounds like sour grapes. Apparently, these Republicans missed the GAO decision last week finding the Trump administration acted lawfully when it came to limits on spending related to wind energy.

In other words, you win some, you lose some.

Members of Iowa’s congressional delegation claim to be fiscal conservatives. In my opinion they are not. Ernst votes for huge appropriations bills while trying to divert attention with her “squeal” awards. Meanwhile, the federal debt, as a share of the US economy, has grown from about 31% of GDP to 121% of GDP in the 44 years Grassley has been in the US Senate.

Still, if they were true fiscal conservatives, wouldn’t they stick up for the GAO?

Look at it this way: This is an agency that costs millions of dollars but saves billions of dollars. That’s the very definition of fiscal conservativism.

Now, it could come to pass these Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee won’t get their way. It’s possible their attempt to neuter, or intimidate, Congress’s real guardian against waste, fraud and abuse will fail. But wouldn’t it be nice if members of Iowa’s delegation—who brag to the voters they’re fighting wasteful spending—stuck up for the pros who are actually doing the work?

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