00:00You on the Senate floor yesterday and overlooked you today.
00:03Easily overlooked.
00:05Not intentionally.
00:07Senator Reid.
00:08Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
00:09Thank you, Mr. Secretary.
00:12We've all been talking about bottlenecks, in fact, in the Department and elsewhere throughout the government.
00:18In fact, last month, Senator Cruz warned about the growing backlog of contracts awaiting approval at the Department of Congress.
00:25He warned that NOAA alone has 5,700 contracts set to expire this year.
00:32And it's been reported in the press that you are insisting on personally reviewing every commerce contract over $100,000?
00:41That is true.
00:43Well, that seems to be something that is not particularly efficient.
00:48And that results in the 5,700 contracts just in NOAA.
00:52So, again, if you can't find reliable support to do those reviews, I think you're wasting your time, frankly.
01:02So I am tasked with the responsibility of my department.
01:06And contracts over $100,000 should be reviewed by the Secretary.
01:11Now, I may have more energy and more time.
01:14And if you drive by the Department of Commerce late at night, you're going to see our lights on because I'm going through it.
01:20I do it with my team.
01:23I do it with the people who run the bureaus.
01:25And I teach them how to analyze contracts, not to push forward what was done before.
01:31And I'll give you one quick example.
01:32They come to me with planes, hurricane hunters.
01:36And they said they were $672 million.
01:38I said, wow, how many planes do we get?
01:41We get two.
01:42Two planes?
01:43Wow.
01:44Can I see the plane, please?
01:46Just show me a picture of the plane we're going to.
01:48And they show me this picture of a plane.
01:51You remember old planes?
01:52They had like mullions in the windscreen.
01:55And they show me that.
01:55Three propellers on each side.
01:57And I said, my God, when was this plane new?
01:59They said, no, no, no.
02:00You're buying a new plane.
02:01I said, no, when was the first one?
02:041955.
02:05Excuse me, Mr. Secretary.
02:05These things have to stop.
02:07You're talking about a $600 million acquisition.
02:11That's a lot more than a $100,000 contract to do something like cleaning in the buildings that you occupy.
02:18Oh, we end up, we cancel huge numbers of absurd contracts for software nobody uses.
02:25I said, how many people use the software?
02:27Zero.
02:28These are waste.
02:29Excuse me.
02:29These are fraud or these are abuse.
02:31How many CEOs of companies, major companies in the United States, are reviewing contracts
02:38at the $100,000 level?
02:40And if they would, what would the board of directors say to them?
02:44The first year you're there, if you don't do it, you should be fired.
02:47You should know everything that's going through.
02:49You should do it with your staff.
02:50You should teach your staff how to do it.
02:52And then you should delegate them to do it once you've taught them.
02:55You don't do it.
02:56You're abdicating your responsibility.
02:58That's how I view it.
03:00That's how I ran my business privately.
03:02And that's how I'm going to run the government.
03:04I'm responsible for us.
03:05Well, let's go ahead and get those 5,700 contracts done.
03:10There are not under any circumstances, any contracts sitting there, there are none.
03:15Can you get it done this weekend, work overtime with the gang and get it done?
03:19There are no contracts waiting for me.
03:21And if there were, I'll be there all night tonight making sure they get turned out with my team,
03:26teaching my team how to do it.
03:27That's right.
03:28NOAA budget cuts.
03:30I'm echoing what's been said before, but NOAA is a key aspect of our whole society.
03:39Farmers plant based on NOAA weather.
03:41We do research so that we understand changing oceans, et cetera.
03:45And this cut, as described by Craig McLean, who was served as NOAA's top scientist during
03:52the first Trump administration, has said, in his quote, the proposal slash NOAA funding
03:58by nearly 30% would take us back to the 1950s in terms of our scientific footing and the
04:03American people.
04:03And I'm echoing what's said by many other people.
04:08You're going to destroy NOAA.
04:09Well, that's consistent.
04:10Under no circumstances.
04:12We have 2,100 meteorologists and 120 retired this year and we hired them back.
04:19I was able to have them exempted from the hiring freeze.
04:23We care about meteorologists.
04:25We care about hydrologists who do the rivers and the ponds.
04:28So we are fully staffed with forecasters and scientists.
04:33Under no circumstances am I going to let public safety or public forecasting be touched, be touched.
04:40But I'll tell you what we did cut.
04:42We did cut programs writing children's books for climate anxiety.
04:48Yes, that was in NOAA.
04:50And you agree with me.
04:51That's not part of our mission.
04:54Our mission is to forecast.
04:55Our mission is to protect.
04:57Our mission is to advise.
04:58Our mission is to research.
04:59Not write children's books on climate anxiety.
05:03How much money did you save there?
05:05We saved tens of millions of dollars on nonsense out of NOAA.
05:09Nonsense out of NOAA.
05:12I want to also associate myself with those comments made by colleagues about the MEP program.
05:17We find it to be very effective.
05:19And the notion that, oh, we're not going to repeat what we did 10 years ago, et cetera, it's working.
05:25In the U.S., it's been estimated in FY24 that MEP secured $5 billion in new investments
05:32and created and retained 108,000 jobs.
05:37It's worth the investment.
05:38And this notion that, oh, we have new techniques, yes, we have AI, et cetera, but we have very common things that businessmen look for.
05:46Like, how do I establish my financial relationships with banks?
05:51How do I get this new equipment, which is not sophisticated AI?
05:54It's machine tools.
05:56And how do I do that?
05:58MEP does this.
06:00Thank you very much.
06:01Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
06:02I'll recognize Senator Kennedy, the senator I've been so anxious to hear from.
06:08We'll see if I was right.
06:10Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
06:11Thank you, Mr. Secretary, for being here today.
06:13Mr. Secretary, I think I'm like most Americans.
06:16I don't know.
06:17I guess you, Mr. Secretary, I understand you.
06:21I'm glad you guys are.
06:22I appreciate you, Mr. Secretary, I know you.
06:37Costa Rica.
06:38I'll saypoint the devil around Indonesia.
06:40So I'm glad you have America.
06:42Right?
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