Capitol Hill’s War Against Itself

Amid the Trump administration’s assaults on the Government Accountability Office, the original DOGE, House Republicans have largely sided with the White House over their own watchdog—the latest sign that they would rather abrogate their own constitutional powers than disagree with the president.

Last month, Republican members of Congress themselves voted, in a funding bill that passed out of a House Appropriations subcommittee, to cut the G.A.O.’s budget nearly in half and impose stringent restrictions that would make its oversight job nearly impossible. Photo: Al Drago/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Leigh Ann Caldwell

July 9, 2025

Before DOGE was a twinkle in Elon Musk’s eye, there was the Government Accountability Office—the investigative arm of Congress, its eyes and ears in the executive branch, a behind-the-scenes hunter of waste, bloat, and inefficiency. The G.A.O.’s work has, by its own estimate, led to $1.45 trillion in savings since 2002, and an average of nearly $92 billion a year more recently (although it can’t make those cuts directly). The independent agency also helps enforce the Impoundment Control Act, the law that requires the administration to actually spend congressionally appropriated funds.