statement on the passage of the Legislative Branch Appropriations Bill by the House Legislative Branch Subcommittee that significantly cut funding for the Government Accountability Office

Concord Action Executive Director Carolyn Bourdeaux’s statement on the passage of the Legislative Branch Appropriations Bill by the House Legislative Branch Subcommittee that significantly cut funding for the Government Accountability Office: 

“The attacks on the legislative organizations that help Congress provide oversight, find waste, fraud, and abuse, and defend its Constitutionally-mandated power of the purse are contributing further to a budget process that is already badly broken. 

Congress hasn’t passed a full budget on time since 1996. The reconciliation process was intended for deficit reduction, but instead has been hijacked by both parties to pass party-line legislation that adds trillions to the national debt. Now on top of this, Congress is attacking nonpartisan institutions like the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and is proposing to cut the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) budget in half. 

This must stop. The GAO and CBO represent nonpartisan institutions that were put in place to help Congress create a check on executive authority and maintain fiscal discipline by ensuring honest numbers and objective compliance with federal budget laws. By attacking these institutions, remarkably, Congress is undermining its own authority and doing lasting damage to institutions dedicated to the standard of rigorous and objective analysis under the law.”