House GOP advances bill ‘gutting' government watchdog
The GOP-led House Appropriations Committee voted along party lines on Thursday to advance the legislation, with Democrats rising in sharp opposition to the plan.
The annual legislative branch funding bill, one of 12 full-year appropriations bills the committee aims to greenlight before the August recess, includes funding for House of Representatives operations, the Library of Congress, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), U.S. Capitol Police, and other agencies.
The bill calls for $5 billion for fiscal 2026, a 5 percent drop from current levels, when not accounting for Senate items. The total discretionary allocation rises to $6.7 billion, however, when considering those items.
'While we had to make a number of tough choices in this bill, we believe that as the legislative branch, it is our responsibility to lead by example and make responsible funding decreases where appropriate,' Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.), head of the subcommittee that crafted the plan, said in remarks on Thursday.
The largest proposed cut outlined by appropriators in the bill amounts to a nearly 49 percent decrease in funding for the GAO, allocating $415 million for the agency in the fiscal 2026 budget. Democrats have also criticized a provision in the plan that they say would block the agency from bringing civil actions against other agencies for not complying with the Impoundment Control Act of 1974.
'This is about the GAO having nearly 40 open investigations into whether the White House is illegally withholding money that we, as a committee, previously appropriated. Supporting the administration's actions that contravene the rule of law means the committee compromises,' Rep. Adriano Espaillat (N.Y.), top Democrat on the legislative branch appropriations subcommittee, said at the start of the markup session.
'With this, 2,200 jobs will be lost. In addition, Congress will forgo tens of billions in cost savings that result from GAO work each year,' he continued.
The cuts come as GAO officials have made clear that they have a string of probes into the Trump administration's efforts to freeze federal funds.
At the same time, Trump officials have raised scrutiny over the agency in recent months, with White House budget chief Russell Vought accusing the office of 'improperly calling programmatic review impoundments' in a Senate hearing earlier this week.
'We're going through a programmatic review. We will look at our options under the law with regard to that funding. Each set of funding is different, as you know, and we will be continuing to evaluate that program,' he also said before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday.
Democrats have accused the Trump administration of undertaking a sweeping, illegal funding freeze, blocking hundreds of billions of dollars in federal dollars previously approved by Congress.
During the committee markup on Thursday, Democrats also singled out a proposal to cut funding for the Library of Congress by 10 percent for fiscal 2026.
At the same time, the plan calls for increases to the U.S. Capitol Police, the CBO and the Architect of the Capitol, with a boost for salaries and expenses for House officers, employees and committee operations. The plan also calls for a funding increase for the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights.
With the bill's passage on Thursday, the House Appropriations Committee has passed almost half of its annual funding bills for fiscal 2026. The House also passed its first fiscal 2026 appropriations bill, which lays out the party's vision for the Department of Veterans Affairs's full-year funding, earlier this week.
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