The law also gave $20 million to the nonpartisan congressional watchdog, the Government Accountability Office. The legislation established a new special inspector general for pandemic recovery appointed by the President, a new oversight body within the inspectors general community and an independent congressional panel appointed by House and Senate leaders. The $2.2 trillion stimulus package, the largest in history signed into law last month, created several overlapping oversight entities to keep tabs on spending that would be doled out by the Trump administration. An even bigger looming question is whether the White House and President Donald Trump – who has made clear he’s no fan of oversight and criticism of his administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic – will cooperate. The oversight work is starting, but there are already questions about whether the commissions and panels are getting set up fast enough and de-conflicting enough to stay on top of the spending. The watchdogs, if they’re even in place, are now just trying to keep up. Hundreds of billions of dollars are flowing every day from the largest emergency economic package in US history.

Congressional watchdog groups