The Hill News

Gene Dodaro easily gained the support of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Tuesday to become the next comptroller general of the Government Accountability Office.

For the past two years, Dodaro has served as the acting head of the agency, which serves as Congress’ investigative arm. President Obama nominated him in September to carry out the 15-year appointment.

The full Senate could hold a vote on Dodaro’s confirmation as early as this week.

Both the committee chairman, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), and ranking member Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) issued strong support for Dodaro earlier this month in a hearing where they posed questions of concern to him.

For the past year, The Hill has published a series of articles chronicling the resitance against the GAO from federal agencies, such as the Department of Justice and the Health and Human Services Department. Dodaro told The Hill earlier ! this month that access at these agencies has improved and he remains optimistic that it will continue to get better in the near future.

The GAO contains about 3,000 staff members and has received about 1,000 requests for studies and reports from members of Congress over the past several years, Dodaro said.