ABSTRACT
The most important part of the political world in which the General Accounting Office (GAO) operates is the Congress of the United States. Probably more than ever before, the GAO is an “agent” of Congress. It may be a “part” of the legislative branch, but it is not realistically a “part” of Congress. The relationships between Congress and the GAO can hardly be described as a “street.” They are a network of multifarious pathways connecting segments of both organizations—or, in some cases, failing to connect them. The GAO and Congress are interdependent, their relationships multiple and complex. In fact, the growth in function, influence, and difficulties of Congress was approximately contemporaneous with the development of the “third GAO” in the first dozen years of Comptroller General Staats. Congress has in fact taken the initiative in a number of substantive areas, even in cases in which the President has submitted his own proposals: social security, the environment, taxation, and other areas.
