From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov

Transcript for:
A Tribute to Comptroller General Gene Dodaro – Sen. James Lankford


Description: 
As U.S. Comptroller General and Head of GAO Gene L. Dodaro’s term comes to a close, members of Congress share tributes, thanking him for over 50 years of dedicated service to the nation. Their messages highlight GAO’s nonpartisan mission and Gene’s steady leadership in strengthening oversight, accountability, and good government. Learn more about GAO’s work at GAO.gov.


Released: December 2025

[Text On-Screen]

Gene Dodaro, it’s your friend, Senator James Lankford from the great state of Oklahoma. Fifty years ago, you were getting started with GAO. By the way, I happened to be in the first grade that year, so I wasn’t tracking what was happening at GAO at that time. But there are few people in the United States that could look at their retirement and look back and say they saved the United States taxpayer literally hundreds of billions of dollars. But you did.

Your leadership and what you’ve done in GAO, and taking on all the different reports that have been out there—about the High-Risk Report that you’ve been so diligent on, helping us lead on, and taxpayers’ right to know, still unfinished—we’re getting closer on this. Your work for transparency, to be able to get out the information in the sunshine so we can get a chance to be able to deal with that, has caused agencies all over Washington, D.C., and members of Congress to be able to look at the reports and the work that you have done, and to be able to save the American taxpayer billions.

Thanks. Thanks for that kind of devotion to the country and for what you have done in the way that you have done it. You have stayed nonpartisan and you’ve stayed focused on the primary issue: How do we hold government accountable? How do we actually solve the problems? What are the recommendations that make a great country even greater?

Bless you in your time of retirement, and thank you for the work that you’ve given to the nation.

  
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