House Democrats intend to fight a GOP proposal to slash a government watchdog agency’s budget nearly in half, a senior Democratic lawmaker said Monday.
Rep. Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, decried a Republican proposal to cut the Government Accountability Office’s budget by 49 percent in the coming fiscal year.
Lynch said that such cuts to the watchdog’s office would be “a self-inflicted wound meant to obstruct Congress’ ability to check President Trump’s unprecedented corruption, abuse of taxpayer dollars, and complete disregard for our laws and Constitution that define his administration.”
Republicans included the proposal in the text of a spending bill to fund the legislative branch. That measure is slated for a House subcommittee vote Monday evening. The proposal also includes a prohibition on GAO bringing a civil action against the administration for the impoundment of funding approved by Congress.
