Schumer, Peters, Jeffries And Garcia Statement On Sham Nomination Process For Next GAO Leader

Washington, D.C. - Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), U.S. Senator Gary Peters (D-MI), Ranking Member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and U.S. Representatives Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY-08), House Democratic Leader, and Robert Garcia (D-CA-42), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, issued the following statement after Chairman Rand Paul (R-KY) initiated a sham process to recommend nominees to serve as the next Comptroller General of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) for a 15-year term:

"This afternoon, Chairman Rand Paul's office requested submissions of candidates to serve as the next Comptroller General of GAO with a deadline of less than 24 hours. This is clearly a sham to enable President Trump to appoint a handpicked nominee to lead Congress' watchdog. We cannot allow President Trump to install a fox in the henhouse at an agency Congress relies on to provide independent, nonpartisan oversight, and expose waste, fraud, and abuse across the Trump Administration.

"Counter to the last time a GAO Comptroller was selected in 2010 in a yearlong, bipartisan process, Republican leaders have never convened the Commission for meetings, and the Commission has not interviewed a single candidate for this critical role, despite repeated requests to begin the process over the last two years. Every Member of Congress who values independent oversight and good stewardship of taxpayer dollars should call this out for what it is - a transparent effort to ram through another Trump crony at the 11th hour, and undercut Congress' ability to conduct effective oversight of the Trump Administration."

GAO is Congress' nonpartisan watchdog, conducting research, investigations and audits that support Congressional oversight of the Executive Branch. By statute, a bipartisan, bicameral Commission is central to the process of selecting a new Comptroller General. The 10-member Commission recommends at least three candidates, and the President chooses a nominee from the Commission's recommendations. In the past, the Commission engaged in an extensive process, seeking a wide range of applicants and reviewing and interviewing candidates in a bipartisan manner. The bipartisan Commission is made up of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the President pro tempore of the Senate, the majority and minority leaders of the House and Senate, the Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and the Chair and Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. All three times the Commission process has occurred in the past, the president has selected a nominee with bipartisan support.

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