GAO's bid for more money puts focus on staffing needs

Government Accountability Office officials urged House appropriators on Thursday to approve their fiscal 2008 budget request for $530 million --an 8 percent hike from last year --saying the agency is strained at its current staffing level and faces serious challenges in conducting thorough oversight of government programs and agencies.

"Our staff has become increasingly stretched and we are experiencing backlogs in several areas," such as health care, homeland security and energy, GAO Comptroller General David Walker told a House Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee hearing.

He urged lawmakers "not just to consider what the budget is from 2007 to 2008, but [to] take a look at what's been going on the last five years and what you want your return on your investment to be." To support that statement, Walker said that GAO's oversight saves the government $105 for every dollar spent on the agency.

As Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., underscored the need to trim excess spending wherever possible, other committee members drew up something of a to-do list for GAO, the investigative and auditing arm of Congress.

Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee ranking member Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., questioned whether the House should move to revive the Office of Technology Assessment, a nonpartisan policy and analysis arm of Congress that a Republican majority abolished in 1995. Walker said GAO now performs an assessment of the government's technology operations once a quarter, and that it would make more fiscal sense to expand the office within GAO rather than finance an independent OTA.

Rep. C.A. (Dutch) Ruppersberger, D-Md., chairman of the House Intelligence Technical and Tactical Intelligence Subcommittee, expressed interest in GAO expanding its oversight of the intelligence community.

"We need checks and balances, and that includes intelligence," Ruppersberger said.

Walker conceded that GAO "is not very involved in the intelligence community," adding that "a lot of the challenges it faces are the same challenges all agencies face," from its organizational structure to managing overhead costs.

Walker also touched on his plan for oversight of Iraq reconstruction projects, telling receptive lawmakers that his budget request includes funding to base three GAO officials in Baghdad's Green Zone for three-month tours of duty.

"We need a limited, recurring presence in Iraq to be able to have eyes and ears on the ground," Walker said. GAO labeled the Defense Department's contract management office "high risk" in its biennial review of all government agencies this year.

Wasserman Schultz, who said she was calling on all agencies to "detail the gotta-haves and the nice-to-haves" in their appropriations requests, hinted that GAO may have to do more with less this year. Wasserman Schultz questioned Walker on the need to increase GAO's staffing levels, and encouraged him to review discretionary spending for any excess.

Walker pointed out that GAO's budget, adjusting for inflation, has declined by 3 percent since 2003. That trend "does not adequately recognize the return on investment that GAO has been able to generate," he said.

The comptroller general said that an appropriations increase would allow the agency to both fulfill more report requests from committee chairmen and ranking members and also replace its retiring workforce. Eighty percent of GAO's total budget is spent on employee salaries, and Walker made a plea for help to cope with increasing costs.

"We help Congress do their job," he said. "Now it's time for you to help us do our job."