Assistant Director

GAO

Benjamin Licht is an Assistant Director in the Strategic Issues Team at the U.S. Government Accountability Office. During his two decades at GAO, much of Ben’s work has focused on enhancing the federal government’s use of data and other types of evidence to improve performance.

He currently leads GAO’s work assessing the implementation of several major management laws, including the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993, as amended, and the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018. He also regularly advises GAO audit teams and officials at other federal, state, local, and foreign government agencies on performance management and evidence-based policymaking topics.

In 2009, Ben helped launch the U.S. Senate Budget Committee’s Task Force on Government Performance. While on a year-long detail from GAO to the Task Force, Ben played a major role in crafting the GPRA Modernization Act of 2010. That law significantly updated and expanded the federal government’s framework for collecting and using performance data to improve results.

Ben earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire and a Master of Public Administration degree from The George Washington University. He has received numerous awards during his career at GAO, including Meritorious Service Awards in 2011 and 2018 for his contributions to improvements in federal performance management and evidence-based policymaking.