White House to unveil GAO nominee

DAILY BRIEFING

White House to unveil GAO nominee

According to well-placed sources, the White House has decided to nominate David M. Walker, a partner in the Arthur Andersen accounting and consulting firm, to serve as comptroller general and head of the General Accounting Office.

Walker, a partner and global managing director at Arthur Andersen, was assistant secretary for pension and welfare benefits at the Labor Department during the Reagan Administration. He also served as acting executive director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. from 1985 to 1987.

Walker is now undergoing final clearances at the White House, sources said, but is expected to be formally nominated within two weeks.

The comptroller general's job has been open since September 1996, when Charles A. Bowsher's term ended. Walker was on a list of three candidates for the top GAO job, all Republicans, that Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., and House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., forwarded to President Clinton in January.

Comptrollers general serve 15-year terms, but some on Capitol Hill are considering reducing the length of that term, possibly to a five-year term with two renewals.

In addition to the Walker nomination, the White House is expected to nominate John T. Spotila, general counsel of the Small Business Administration, to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the Office of Management and Budget.

The new round of nominations should allow the administration to complete its top management team at OMB. The nomination of G. Edward DeSeve to serve as deputy OMB director for management has been on hold on Capitol Hill as GOP Senators waited for a comptroller general nominee acceptable to them.