Vought takes aim at GAO in new guidance

The Office of Management and Budget called into question the authority of Congress’ watchdog, the Government Accountability Office, in a Tuesday update to the government’s guidance on internal controls.

OMB Director Russell Vought has long clashed with GAO, dating back to his tenure in the first Trump administration. In September, he said that he didn’t think the congressional oversight office should exist at all, calling it a “quasi-legislative independent entity.”

This week, Vought wrote in new guidance that OMB has been deferring too much to GAO, which sets internal control standards for agencies.

“Doing so has failed to prioritize agency internal control processes to adequately protect American taxpayer dollars, leading to documented examples of widespread abuse,” he wrote. 

In 1982, Congress passed a law requiring agencies to establish internal accounting and administrative controls in line with standards prescribed by the head of GAO, the Comptroller General.

Congress directed OMB to establish guidelines for evaluating agency accounting and control systems to see if they’re in compliance, in consultation with GAO.

Despite all this, Vought wrote that prior versions of OMB’s guidance have “overly deferred to the direction and priorities of external entities whose views are not binding on the Executive Branch, such as the Government Accountability Office.” His assertion that GAO’s recommendations are not binding to executive federal agencies is a position OMB has established in other guidance as well.

"We stand by our work for the Congress on fraud, improper payments, and ensuring the taxpayers’ dollars are efficiently and effectively spent,” a GAO spokesperson told Nextgov/FCW in a statement.

They noted that “by law, GAO and OMB are responsible for establishing internal controls for federal agencies in consultation with each other.”

Vought wrote in the introduction to the new guidance that the update reflects the Trump White House’s commitment to combatting waste, fraud and abuse — something that is part of GAO’s mission via its work auditing federal programs, reporting to Congress and providing recommendations. GAO’s work has resulted in about $1.5 trillion in financial benefits since 2002, according to its spokesperson. 

GAO is also responsible for monitoring cases of impoundment, where agencies withhold funding enacted by Congress, an issue that came up in Trump’s first term. Trump has said that he wants to challenge the law against impoundment, which he says is unconstitutional. Vought has declined to commit to adhering to that law when asked during congressional hearings.

As of July 2025, GAO had opened at least 46 impoundment investigations and found in some cases that agencies had violated the Impoundment Control Act. The White House said after one such finding that it would cooperate with the top watchdog only when it does not “unduly burden” Trump’s agenda.