Pete Domenici: “this conference report provides $338.4 million for the General Accounting Office. This is $44.4 million less than 1996…”

“this conference report provides $338.4 million for the General Accounting Office. This is $44.4 million less than 1996 appropriations. This reduction is the second year of a program to reduce GAO funding by a total of 25 percent. GAO should be commended for agreeing to this downsizing program. GAO's work here is an example to Federal agencies for how to downsize quickly, while still performing the agency's mission. In addition to this model downsizing, there are two matters of note for GAO this year. First, this year is GAO's 75th anniversary. I want to express to the evaluator staff at GAO my sincere appreciation for their hard work, much of it on difficult and controversial issues and all of it under the strenuous circumstance of a major downsizing. Also, this is the last year of Comptroller General Charles A. Bowsher's 15-year term. After September 30 Congress and the President will jointly select and appoint a new Comptroller General. As that process is started, I want to express three thoughts that I believe should be kept in mind as a new Comptroller General is selected. First, it has been traditional to select an individual with an accounting background as Comptroller General. However, most of GAO's work is actually not accounting; much of it is evaluations and other types of investigations. We should consider for Comptroller General an individual who has a broad background in the type of work GAO actually does, not necessarily just accounting.”