AOC Wanted to Allow for Better Oversight of the Intelligence Services. Why Did These 23 Democrats Say No?

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is the federal government’s auditing arm, responsible for provides auditing, evaluation, and investigative services for Congress and rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse.

The GAO has the power to conduct oversight of all federal agencies. But it can’t do that well if the agencies don’t cooperate. And surprise, surprise: the intelligence services are big culprits there.

That’s why Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez filed an amendment to the xxx to to assert the GAO’s investigatory powers over the intelligence community and require the Director of National Intelligence to ensure that GAO personnel are provided with access to information in possession by the intelligence community that the Comptroller General determines necessary for analysis, evaluation, or investigation requested by the relevant committee of Congress.

Here’s AOC laying out the case for her amendment on the House floor on December 9:

However, it failed 196 to 233. One Republican — Tom Massie (KY-04) — voted for it. And 23 Democrats voted against it.

Here are the 23: