00:00He yields back his time, thank you very much.
00:02I now would yield myself time.
00:05Gentlemen, thank you very much.
00:07This time that we are spending with you is just one of many areas where this subcommittee,
00:18including Mr. Infume and myself, are concerned about not just waste, fraud, and abuse,
00:27but also misdirected payments.
00:30And we have looked at and determined that it's a government-wide problem.
00:36And while there is discussion necessarily up here that could be a disagreement between the parties,
00:44something called DOGE, which is government efficiency, is a necessary item whereby we bring in fresh eyes
00:54to look at actually the data and information that most of the time Congress,
01:00and perhaps even you, do not see.
01:03And that is an observation about the amount of money that flies out the door.
01:10One of the most instructive things that I have learned is that there is approximately,
01:20at this time documented, some $400 billion that went out from big government.
01:29We're talking about all the agencies, some $400 billion that went out the door from the day after the election
01:37to the day that President Trump was inaugurated.
01:41And it was a determination made by someone to move forward on decisions to spend money,
01:51knowing that there needed to be a review, knowing that waste, fraud, and abuse not only existed across government,
02:02but that it increasingly was an issue that they were challenged with.
02:09And so, regardless of that, I think it's important that you have confidence that Mr. Nfume and I,
02:19not looking back to blame someone, but rather moving forward,
02:26we want to hear from FEMA.
02:29We want to hear from DOD.
02:32We want to hear from the newest of the secretaries and those management organizations.
02:39What are their plans?
02:40How do they intend to structure now based upon information that I think DOGE has provided,
02:48that have become public, that are not hidden, that are not whispered about,
02:53but that become generally available?
02:54And so I want you to know that both organizations, Inspector Generals, Mr. Mayo, Mr. Bagdoyan, the GAO,
03:06that you represent organizations that we will continue on a bipartisan basis, both of us, to look at,
03:15and instead of looking back, and instead of looking back, we will have the vision to, how are we going to fix it?
03:22You both have specialized in DOD.
03:27You've heard person after person this morning to describe to you our desire to engage the Department of Defense at the highest level.
03:37not levels, not levels, level, and to extract from that person, once they are able to understand,
03:46not just from DOGE, but also your accounting, of the significant impairment of a delivery of dollars and material and equipment
03:56that would be available to the warfighter.
04:00And I just want you to know that the conversation today, as you go back home tonight,
04:06or as you have the conversation among your colleagues, is it is a bipartisan issue.
04:14It is seen very many times the same way.
04:18And it should reinvigorate your organizations to know that the day-to-day job that they do when they are told by some organization
04:29it didn't matter, we're noncompliant, we don't care, that they still do their job,
04:36that they still write the reports, that they still point up those things that are factual basis,
04:43that they continue to be on point for understanding that while they may not be in DOD,
04:51we support the men and women that defend this nation,
04:57that they are people who are professional and well-balanced,
05:02and that members of Congress that are here will be supportive of them and not give up that hunt.
05:09So to both of you and your staffs that appeared in my office yesterday
05:14and the hundreds of people that work for you,
05:18please reinforce to them that they are part of the answer,
05:24not the denial of a problem.
Comments