31 U.S.C. § 712
Section 712 · Investigating the use of public money
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 8 court decisions — leading case 626 F. Supp. 1374 - Synar v. United States (1986)
Most recently applied in 631 F. Supp. 2d 17 - National Ass'n of Chain Drug Stores v. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (June 2009)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
The Comptroller General shall—
(1) investigate all matters related to the receipt, disbursement, and use of public money;
(2) estimate the cost to the United States Government of complying with each restriction on expenditures of a specific appropriation in a general appropriation law and report each estimate to Congress with recommendations the Comptroller General considers desirable;
(3) analyze expenditures of each executive agency the Comptroller General believes will help Congress decide whether public money has been used and expended economically and efficiently;
(4) make an investigation and report ordered by either House of Congress or a committee of Congress having jurisdiction over revenue, appropriations, or expenditures; and
(5) give a committee of Congress having jurisdiction over revenue, appropriations, or expenditures the help and information the committee requests.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
In clause (1), the words “at the seat of government or elsewhere” are omitted as surplus.
In clause (2), the words “estimate the cost to the United States Government of complying with each restriction on expenditures” are substituted for “make a full and complete study of restrictions . . . limiting the expenditure therein with a view to determining the cost to the Government incident to complying with such restrictions”, and the word “desirable” is substituted for “necessary or desirable”, to eliminate unnecessary words.
In clause (3), the words “executive agency” are substituted for “agency in the executive branch of the Government (including Government corporations)” because of section 102 of the revised title.
In clause (4), the words “committee of Congress” are substituted for “committee of either House” for consistency.
In clause (5), the words “at the request of any such committee, direct assistants from his office” are omitted as surplus.