WASHINGTON, DC – New York City Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez thought she was on to something when she introduced a an amendment aimed at giving the Government Accountability Office more leverage when it comes to investigating intelligence agencies.
Unfortunately, even with a Democrat majority in Congress, her amendment was voted down as part of a broader bill for democratic reforms.
23 Democrats joined Republicans to defeat AOC’s amendment 233-196.
“USGAO has the authority to conduct oversight of all federal agencies. However, most U.S. intelligence agencies don’t fully cooperate. Today, we introduced an amendment to put that to an end. GAO should be able to fulfill its mission of rooting out waste, fraud and abuse,” AOC said.
“This amendment doesn’t give GAO any new power, just restores the authority Congress always intended. We also drafted this with the intelligence community, who want to protect their important work & resources from abuse, especially after Trump tried repeatedly to do just that,” AOC said, invoking Trump.
AOC crafted the amendment ‘in partnership’ with House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, but the pair were denied by the members of Congress to move the amendment.