Chapter 26: Supporting Organizations

Members of Congress are backed by a number of supporting organizations that help keep Capitol Hill running. Among the largest of these are the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the Government Printing Office (GPO), and the Library of Congress’s Congressional Research Service (CRS).

Each of the four agencies has its own specialized functions. CRS, for example, researches and analyzes any issue or problem a member requests. The GPO prints, or contracts with commercial companies to print, thousands of congressional and other governmental publications each year.

GAO is Congress’s examiner of executive branch spending. It conducts independent reviews, audits, and investigations of federal activities; develops standards for the government’s accounting systems; provides legal opinions on government fiscal practices; and settles claims for and against the government.

CBO deals only with budgetary and economic matters. It helps Congress with the budget process and provides economic and policy analysis as lawmakers determine budget priorities and set spending and revenue levels. When the federal deficit soared in the 1980s, CBO’s estimates of the budget gap became increasingly important as Congress worked to keep the deficit within the limits of the Gramm-Rudman antideficit law.

Although the GAO, CBO, and CRS have been given their own tasks, their jobs overlap to some extent. This has led in some cases to duplication and waste, and even to competition among the different groups. In recent years, it became increasingly common for congressional committees to ask two or all three agencies to do essentially the same study on an issue. This is done, it is argued, to provide a variety of perspectives.

The Government Accountability Office is an arm of the legislative branch that was created to oversee the expenditures of the executive branch. Since it was established in 1921 as the General Accounting Office, GAO’s duties have been expanded from routine audits of the accounts of executive departments to probing analyses of program management and planning. It also has conducted controversial investigations of how federal agencies are spending the taxpayers’ money.1

GAO, often referred to as the “watchdog of Congress,” has been called a “one-eyed watchdog” by critics who feel it is too responsive to political pressures. The agency has sometimes found itself caught in a tug of war between Congress and the executive branch.

In countering its critics, the agency cites its own estimate that it saved taxpayers $79 billion over a five-year period in the late 1980s. GAO investigative audits have triggered hundreds of well-publicized news stories about everything from multimillion-dollar cost overruns for a weapons system to the remodeling of a cabinet member’s office.

GAO’s scope has expanded over the years, but its focus remains on helping Congress. When lawmakers need information about a program that will require additional funds, GAO is asked to conduct an investigation. The agency is required to perform investigations requested by committee chairmen and, as a matter of policy, assigns equal status to requests from ranking minority members. If possible, GAO responds to individual members’ requests. When the House and Senate Appropriations committees are working on the annual appropriations bills, GAO staff members act as consultants.

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