Congressional aide and GOP activism McCarl was a
Progressive Republican and active in party politics. In 1914, Fletcher Merwin resigned as private secretary to progressive Republican
Senator George W. Norris (also from the town of McCook). On Merwin's recommendation, Senator
Simeon D. Fess subsequently appointed McCarl to be secretary of the national Republican Congressional Campaign Committee (which Fess chaired). McCarl was highly active during the 1918 congressional elections, and made numerous political contacts during this time. He continued to work with the committee in the 1920 presidential election, leaving him well-positioned to seek a job with the incoming administration of Warren G. Harding. This legislation, which President Harding signed into law on June 10, 1921, created the
Government Accounting Office (GAO), an independent agency answerable solely to Congress. The head of the GAO was the Comptroller General of the United States, a non-partisan position which could only be filled by the President of the United States with the
advice and consent of the Senate. The Comptroller General served for a single, non-renewable, 15-year term. It is unclear how McCarl won appointment as the first Comptroller General of the United States. Some sources say that McCarl advised Harding on who should fill the position, and that Harding chose McCarl. But other sources say that Senator Norris pushed McCarl for the position. Although McCarl had no financial training or experience whatsoever, Harding nominated McCarl on June 28, 1921, and the Senate confirmed him the next day. Historians Katie Louchheim and Jonathan Dembo note that McCarl had "virtually unlimited power" during his time in office. He was a decisive leader of the organization, asserted a broad range of powers for himself, and fought strongly to make GAO an impartial and independent agency. (Congress passed legislation changing the law.) His decisions were often highly controversial and he was widely unpopular within the government. He was very critical of the
New Deal pushed by President
Franklin D. Roosevelt, claiming that New Deal agencies were set up hastily, spent far too much money, and had amorphous powers. He also criticized Congress for delegating too much authority to the executive branch.
Political scientist Harvey Mansfield, writing in 1939, considered him a zealot and crusader when it came to accounting.
Establishing GAO McCarl struggled to make GAO a competent and authoritative agency. In the first six years in office, he strictly controlled work start and stopping times, banned employees from discussing anything which was not work-related, and required employees to stay at their desks. He relaxed these rules significantly in 1927 after realizing they were harming staff morale. GAO was created out of the office of the
Comptroller of the Treasury, and McCarl inherited most of that office's 1,700 workers. He largely retained the Treasury structure, although he concentrated approval authority for communication with Congress in his own office. He also created a legal office, and ordered that any interpretation of law issue only under his own signature. In 1922, he established a Bookkeeping Section to sign off on all government contractual expenditures, a Transportation Division to ensure that shipping costs were reasonable, and an Investigations Section to make investigations and inspections, write reports, and make recommendations regarding the operation and financial procedures of the federal government. This unit (later renamed the Office of Investigations in the late 1920s) quickly became the major arm of GAO. In 1923, McCarl collapsed five of the GAO's existing divisions into just two, Civil and Military. These two divisions were further consolidated into a single Audit Division in 1926. He established a Records Division the same year. This organizational structure existed largely unchanged until his departure from office (although Bookkeeping was renamed Accounting and Bookkeeping in 1935). McCall was a constant critic of the lack of a central disbursing authority in the federal government. He believed that having a disbursing agent in each agency or department was a recipe for financial misappropriation. He applauded President Roosevelt's decision on June 10, 1933, to issue
Executive Order 6166, which created a Division of Disbursement within the
Treasury Department and eliminated this office within each agency. GAO historian Robert Trask says that McCarl was obstinate and harsh, but the
Washington Post at the time of his death called him "mild-mannered". ==Death==