When the Trump administration’s DOGE attempted last week to assign a team to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the move followed a months-long offensive by DOGE staffers who have strong-armed their way into federal agencies, accessed sensitive data, and helped fire thousands of workers.

But doing that at GAO would violate the basic structure of the federal government, says David Walker, a former head of the agency.

“The DOGE team needs to read the Constitution again,” Walker told NPR. “There are three separate and equal branches of government.”

The GAO is an influential watchdog agency that operates under the legislative branch — Congress, not the White House. GAO leaders refused DOGE’s request to embed staffers at the agency.

  • Corkyskog
    161·
    3 days ago

    Can the media please stop pretending that DOGE is about waste fraud and abuse?

    • xyzzy@lemm.eeEnglish
      3·
      3 days ago

      They… didn’t?

      The first reference is framed very skeptically. It’s written in such a way to lead readers to think: if GAO exists for this purpose and is good at it, why did they create DOGE?

      That said, GAO and DOGE supposedly have a very similar mission, says Walker, who has been nominated to Senate-confirmed positions by both Republican and Democratic presidents over the years.

      Both GAO and DOGE are supposed to root out waste, fraud and abuse. But GAO has been doing that for decades, has a staff of several thousand people and, Walker says, is really good at it.

      The second is near the bottom and is just reporting what the White House claims.

      The White House did not respond to NPR’s request for comment for this story but has defended DOGE for finding waste, fraud and abuse throughout the federal government.