Henry Wray

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  • Mercatus Center Visiting Fellow, Government Accountability Project

Henry Wray was a visiting fellow with the Mercatus Center’s Government Accountability Project. He led the research for Mercatus’s Annual Performance Report Scorecard: Which Federal Agencies Best Inform the Public? and advised federal agencies on how to improve the transparency and quality of performance information.  

Mr. Wray served for more than 30 years in the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) and the United States Congress. At GAO, he started in the Office of the General Counsel, where he served for many years as an associate general counsel, overseeing a group of attorneys who provided legal support to one of GAO’s auditing divisions. He also served for four years as GAO’s Ethics Counselor. In addition, for two years he headed the GAO audit group responsible for evaluations of the U.S. Department of Justice, the law enforcement components of the U.S. Department of Treasury, and the Federal Judiciary. He completed his GAO career while serving several years as a detailee to the U.S. Congress on the professional staff of the House Budget Committee, the House Committee on Government Reform, and the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. After retiring from GAO, he served as counsel for the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. In 2001, he became Senior Counsel to the House Subcommittee on Government Efficiency, Financial Management, and Intergovernmental Relations. Prior to coming to Washington, he served as deputy attorney general in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Justice.

Mr.Wray earned a BA in Political Science from Washington & Jefferson College and a JD with Honors from the National Law Center, George Washington University. He remains an active member of the Bar of the District of Columbia.

Publications & Appearances

Implementing Solutions: The Importance of following through on GAO and OIG Recommendations

The outstanding work of the GAO and agency IGs has never been more important than it is today given the massive financial and performance challenges facing the federal government. I commend the subcommittee for its efforts to ensure that this work gets the attention and action it deserves so that it can achieve maximum impact. I would be happy to provide any further assistance that might be useful to these efforts.

A Process for Examining the Budget of an Agency within a Federal Department

This paper describes a series of questions and procedures to be followed by congressional staff in analyzing and preparing for a hearing on the budget of an agency. The items outlined in this paper are general principles and can be used to examine most agency budgets. For purposes of illustration, however, the paper uses the FDA, an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), as an example.