David M. Walker

David M. Walker, as Comptroller General of the United States, has headed the Government Accountability Office (GAO) since 1998. He is also the founder and CEO of the Comeback America Initiative. Walker served as the President and CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation prior to beginning the Comeback America Initiative.

Profiles
According to his official biography, Walker is "the seventh Comptroller General of the United States and began his 15-year term when he took his oath of office on November 9, 1998. As Comptroller General, Mr. Walker is the nation's chief accountability officer and head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), a legislative branch agency founded in 1921. GAO's mission is to help improve the performance and assure the accountability of the federal government for the benefit of the American people. Over the years, GAO has earned a reputation for professional objective, fact-based, and nonpartisan reviews of government issues and operations." 

Walker's Fiscal Wake-Up Tour
In the fall of 2006 Walker began a "Fiscal Wake-Up Tour" designed to "state the facts and speak the truth regarding the nation’s current financial condition and long-term fiscal outlook in order to increase public awareness and accelerate actions by appropriate federal, state, and local officials." Partnering organizations include the Concord Coalition, Heritage Foundation, Brookings Institution, Committee for Economic Development, Association for Government Accountants, AICPA, AARP, Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and others. The campaign to sound the alarm on US fiscal irresponsibility is scheduled to last through 2008. 

The tour was featured in a documentary film made by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation called I.O.U.S.A

Contact
Government Accountability Office 441 G Street, NW Washington, DC 20548 By phone: (202) 512-3000 (Locator) By email: webmaster AT gao.gov URL: http://www.gao.gov/

Related SourceWatch Resources

 * Citizens' Health Care Working Group
 * U.S. budget deficit
 * U.S. economy

Articles

 * Matt Crenson, "GAO Chief Warns Economic Disaster Looms," Assoicated Press, October 28, 2006.
 * David M. Walker, "Foresight For Government," The Futurist, March-April, 2007.
 * Kyle Almond, "One man's campaign against federal debt," CNN, March 29, 2007.