The chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and 18 other committee chairs have introduced legislation to give GAO the authority to litigate when agencies withhold information.
A GAO pay reform bill winding its way through Congress originally carried similar language which was dropped in the face of White House objections.
HR-6388, the Government Accountability Office Improvement Act of 2008 appears intended to line up committee chairmen behind just this one change in a bid to prevent agencies from stonewalling GAO when they request investigations.
"GAO needs unfettered access to federal agencies to help Congress identify waste, fraud, and abuse in federal programs," said Waxman. "This bill says that federal agencies and the White House can’t withhold records that GAO is entitled to review."
Provisions in the bill give GAO the authority to interview federal employees and administer oaths, and include a reporting mechanism so that Congress will be informed when federal agencies do not cooperate with GAO.
