The Institute of Internal Auditors expressed its opposition to efforts to slash the funding of the Government Accountability Office nearly in half.
Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee have proposed steep budget cuts for the GAO, reducing its budget from about $812 million for fiscal year 2025 to $415 million in fiscal year 2026. The proposed cuts would severely affect the GAO’s ability to uncover financial waste and fraud, and a number of organizations have written to congressional leaders to protest the proposed budget cuts, including the IIA. The Senate Appropriations Committee has since
“For more than a century, GAO has served as a pillar of good governance responsible for providing Congress with ‘timely information that is objective, fact-based, nonpartisan, nonideological, and balanced,'” said a
“Given GAO’s essential role in equipping Congress with objective analysis to ensure government accountability, The IIA is increasingly concerned by recent attempts to politicize the agency through unfounded accusations,” he continued. “While it is certainly appropriate for public officials to question or disagree with GAO, such comments misleadingly suggest that the agency has abdicated its core mission to pursue a political agenda. Unfortunately, specious allegations against public sector auditors are proliferating across North America. Officials frequently dismiss audit findings as ‘political’ rather than engage constructively or implement difficult recommendations.
“This changing environment risks undermining the ability of public sector auditors, such as GAO, to safeguard public resources,” he added. “For example, on June 26, 2025, the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations approved its version of the FY26 Legislative Branch Appropriations Act that, if enacted, would cut GAO’s budget by approximately 50%. Such a substantial reduction in appropriations will prevent Congress from obtaining objective and timely information regarding pertinent government programs. Moreover, it will place taxpayer resources at risk of waste, fraud, and abuse.”
“As leaders of the U.S. House subcommittee with legislative jurisdiction over GAO, The IIA urges you to reject political expediency and stand in strong support of GAO,” said the letter. “Specifically, we encourage you to utilize your committee leadership positions to oppose efforts to drastically cut funding for GAO in FY 2026.”
Other groups have also
The GAO has come under pressure from the Trump administration after opening a series of investigations into whether the administration illegally withheld billions of dollars in congressionally approved funds, according to the
“We issued a letter under my name to Congress criticizing the decision to defund the GAO,” Pugliese told Accounting Today in an interview last week. “Not many people took a stand on it. I’m not thinking we’re going to have the weight of the U.S. government come down on us because I have a slight disagreement with a 50% reduction in GAO’s funding. But we’ve gone the opposite way of DOGE, I guess. Don’t cut, at least don’t touch the watchdogs.”
“The administration says they’re not efficient and they’re not effective and there’s zero evidence as to either,” Pugliese added.
The head of the GAO, comptroller general Gene Dodaro wrote his own letter objecting to the budget cuts.
“Our work is congressionally-driven and reflects congressional committees’ highest priorities. Specifically, about 95 percent of our audit work is mandated or requested by Congress,” Dodaro
Pugliese noted that he regularly meets with Dodaro on many things, the current head of it. “I’m not out there auditing what he does per se, but I think what they do is rather focused and efficient, to be quite frank. They find a lot. They’re nonpartisan. The fact that maybe his affiliation is with one party or the other shouldn’t translate into his job, and it doesn’t from what I can tell.”
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