# Legislative Support Agencies Tree An ASCII-art map of the **legislative branch's own agencies** — the bodies that give Congress the independent capacity to score bills, audit spending, research policy, keep the public record, and maintain the Capitol without depending on the executive branch for facts or money. They report to Congress, not the President, and that independence is the whole point: a legislature that must rely on the executive for its information is not a coequal branch. This is the support-agency counterpart to the [[Congressional Committees Tree]], and the structural companion to the [[Legislative Agencies Hub]]. The six agencies mapped here are the [[Congressional Budget Office]], the [[Government Accountability Office]], the [[Congressional Research Service]], the [[Library of Congress]], the [[Government Publishing Office]], and the [[Architect of the Capitol]]. Officeholders were web-verified as of July 2026. > [!note] How to read this chart > Each agency shows its current **Head**, the year it was **est.**(ablished), and what it **Does**. `(acting)` marks an official serving in an acting capacity. `[disputed]` marks the Library of Congress leadership standoff (see Notes). The `·` is an inline separator. Names inside the code block are plain text — the clickable wikilinks are in the prose above and in See also. ``` LEGISLATIVE BRANCH SUPPORT AGENCIES (119th Congress · mid-2026) │ Legend: Head = current officeholder (acting) = serving in an acting capacity │ est. = year established [disputed] = contested leadership (see Notes) │ ├─◆ ANALYSIS, AUDIT & RESEARCH — Congress's independent "brain" │ │ │ ├─ Congressional Budget Office (CBO) est. 1974 │ │ ├─ Head ...... Phillip L. Swagel, Director (2nd term from 2023) │ │ ├─ Answers to the House & Senate Budget Committees │ │ └─ Does ...... nonpartisan cost estimates + budget & economic projections │ │ │ ├─ Government Accountability Office (GAO) est. 1921 │ │ ├─ Head ...... Orice W. Brown (acting Comptroller General, from Dec 30 2025) │ │ ├─ Term ...... a confirmed Comptroller General serves one 15-year term │ │ └─ Does ...... audits, investigations, legal rulings — "the congressional watchdog" │ │ │ └─ Congressional Research Service (CRS) est. 1914 │ ├─ Head ...... Karen E. Donfried, Director (from Sept 2024) │ ├─ Sits in .. a department of the Library of Congress (below) │ └─ Does ...... confidential, nonpartisan policy & legal research for Members only │ ├─◆ COLLECTIONS, COPYRIGHT & LAW │ │ │ └─ Library of Congress (LOC) est. 1800 │ ├─ Head ...... [disputed] R. Newlen (acting, per LOC) vs. T. Blanche (WH-named) │ ├─ Houses ... Congressional Research Service · U.S. Copyright Office · Law Library │ └─ Does ...... the national library and the research arm of Congress │ └─◆ PUBLIC RECORD & PHYSICAL PLANT │ ├─ Government Publishing Office (GPO) est. 1861 │ ├─ Head ...... Hugh N. Halpern, Director │ └─ Does ...... prints & authenticates the federal record — Congressional │ Record, Federal Register, U.S. Code, GovInfo │ └─ Architect of the Capitol (AOC) est. 1793 ├─ Head ...... Thomas E. Austin, 13th Architect of the Capitol └─ Does ...... maintains the Capitol campus buildings and grounds ``` ## Notes Officeholder findings from July 2026 verification: - **GAO — acting head.** Comptroller General Gene Dodaro's term ended December 30, 2025; his chief operating officer, **Orice W. Brown**, became acting Comptroller General and serves until the President nominates and the Senate confirms a successor from a list proposed by Congress. As of mid-2026 no permanent replacement had been named. - **Library of Congress — disputed leadership.** After the Trump administration dismissed Librarian [[Carla Hayden]] in May 2025, the Library recognized Principal Deputy Librarian [[Robert Newlen]] as acting Librarian, while the White House named Deputy Attorney General [[Todd Blanche]] to the role. A standoff followed when DOJ officials sought entry to the Copyright Office claiming Blanche's authority; Library staff refused. The dispute — an unprecedented executive attempt to seize a legislative-branch institution — remained unresolved into 2026, and is the reason the LOC head line is marked `[disputed]`. - **CBO and CRS.** [[Congressional Budget Office]] Director Phillip Swagel is in a second term (appointed 2023); [[Congressional Research Service]] Director Karen Donfried took the post in September 2024. CRS is not a free-standing agency — it is a department housed within the [[Library of Congress]]. Structural note: this map covers the six information-, publishing-, and plant agencies. Two further legislative-branch bodies sit adjacent to this set — the [[United States Capitol Police]] (the branch's own police force) and the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights — and are tracked separately. ## See also - [[Congressional Committees Tree]] · [[Executive Branch Org Chart]] · [[Federal Judiciary Tree]] · [[How a Bill Becomes Law]] — the companion structural maps - [[Legislative Agencies Hub]] — the annotated index of these agencies with the throughline - [[Congress Hub]] — the legislative branch, its committees, and its support agencies