GAO Digs Up the Data When Congress Calls

Washington

When they debated Ed-Flex legislation earlier this year, lawmakers of all stripes repeatedly cited a General Accounting Office study--both to attack and defend the bill. Meanwhile, almost any time school construction is discussed in Washington, statistics from GAO research are invoked.

And when the federal E-Rate program came under fire from some Republicans last year, members of Congress turned to the GAO for a study that ultimately yielded the recommendations used to reform the program before it ever doled out a single dollar to schools and libraries for Internet hook-ups.

Though the congressional agency is familiar to the inside-the-Beltway crowd, for many people outside Washington the GAO is little more than a name, or just a set of initials. And, some insiders say the name is out of step...