WASHINGTON — Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is now seeking to investigate a federal agency with a mission similar to its own: the Government Accountability Office, which has been hunting for waste and inefficiency in government since the 1920s.

The GAO said in a statement Friday that it had rejected a request from Musk’s group to “assign a team” to the century-old budget agency.

“As a legislative branch agency, GAO is not subject to executive orders and has therefore declined any requests to have a DOGE team assigned,” the agency said in its statement.

A spokesperson for the GAO declined to say when the agency was first contacted by Musk’s group. A spokesperson for Musk’s group did not immediately reply to a request for comment. The confrontation between the two watchdog groups was first reported by Wired. Musk’s group has audited agencies across government and claims to have found $170 billion in savings.

— The New York Times