'Shocking Misuse Of Federal Funds': Ryan Mackenzie Presses Kari Lake Over VOA's $250 Million Office

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During a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (R-PA) asked USAGM Kari Lake about Voice Of America.

Transcript

00:00Investigation. Chair now recognizes Representative McKenzie. Thank you, Mr.

00:04Chairman, and thank you, Ms. Lake, for joining us today. I think it is imperative

00:09that we recognize the challenge that VOA faces in terms of the infiltration that

00:15we've been talking about during this hearing of the anti-American information

00:19that has been put out, whether it's pro-Russia, pro-China. All of this is

00:24problematic, and I think it's also a problem that members on this committee

00:29aren't willing to recognize that problem. If we can't all come together and

00:34recognize the fact that this organization and this agency is conflicted in many

00:39ways, I don't know how we're going to address the problem. So I appreciate the

00:43fact that you've recognized that, and your reform efforts are critical. If we

00:48want to actually advance America's interest around the world, get out this

00:52truthful information, we need to make sure that we are then going to be in a

00:57position to spend the dollars that we're appropriating for this program

01:00effectively. So the question that I have relates to two, I think, misuses of public

01:06funds. The first is about a lease. So we have a video that has been provided that

01:12shows a facility that was leased for 15 years, $250 million, $250 million of taxpayer money to

01:23lease this lavish building in downtown Washington, D.C. on Pennsylvania Avenue.

01:27Nice. Yet at the same time, they are still occupying the Cohen Building. So tell me

01:34about this new lease and what we know about it at this point. Well their plan was

01:38to take this operation and move it into this building, a quarter of a billion

01:41dollar boondoggle that Amanda Bennett, the former CEO under Joe Biden's

01:46administration, the former CEO of USAGM, signed in this lease right before, in the fall,

01:52right before the election, to make the American taxpayers pay for this gorgeous

01:57facility. Have you ever seen a federal facility this beautiful, by the way? And

02:01there you go, you've got waterfalls, you've got Italian marble, glass, and they were

02:07going to move everybody over into this building. One slight problem, it's not set

02:11up or equipped to do any broadcasting, and this is a broadcasting agency. So we

02:18canceled that. We canceled that and tore up the lease and said we're not going to

02:21pay for that lease. Thank you for doing that because that is just a shocking

02:25misuse of federal funds. And if we do want to actually carry out the good work

02:30that VOA possibly could do, we need to make sure that American tax dollars are

02:34being spent appropriately and not on wasteful leases like this one. So

02:38appreciate your effort to cancel that lease. The second thing that I would like

02:42to talk about is relating to some really egregious settlements that were carried

02:48out previously for former employees of the agency. And you referenced it in your

02:55opening testimony. So I would like to hear a little bit more about this. Again, it

02:59sounds like a misuse of federal funds. And if you could share some more

03:03information on that. I think a lot of DC lawyers figured out a quick way to make

03:07money is to sue this agency. This agency will roll over and pay off any settlement.

03:12As a matter of fact, one of our former attorneys at the agency, upon seeing how

03:18many settlements were made there, said that she's never seen so many large

03:22settlements go out in any agency. I have in this binder 19 settlements. We only

03:30picked the big ones over $250,000 settlements. 19 $250,000 settlements were made

03:37out of USAGM in the last five years. A couple of them were for folks, a man named David

03:45Kligerman who used to work for the agency. Now he works I believe over at Middle East

03:50Broadcasting. He left the agency after the McGuire Woods report came out showing miss

03:58spending, miss abuse of the agency, abuse of the federal tax dollar. And then he came

04:03back when Biden and put Amanda Bennett in, hired him back and paid him a $650,000

04:10settlement. His attorneys made a fortune as well. I think they figured out that

04:15they've got compliant, a compliant legal office at USAGM that will settle anything.

04:19All you got to do is sue the agency and they'll throw tons of money your way. And

04:24that's another way they've pilfered tax dollars of the American people.

04:27Well, I appreciate your work to highlight the waste and misuse from the last administration.

04:32When our country is trillions of dollars in debt, running multi-trillion dollar deficits

04:38every single year, we have to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars. It's finally time to do

04:42that. I'm glad this administration is taking on that effort, attacking waste and abuse of

04:48federal funds like I just talked about here. And if we actually want to get back to the mission

04:53of promoting American interests around the world, we need to do that with the tax dollars

04:58that we have available. And so these reform efforts that we're talking about today are

05:01so critically important. And I, again, want to thank you for our efforts and work with

05:06you hand in hand as we actually get back to the critical missions that this agency could

05:10provide for America and American interests around the world. Thank you.

05:14Thank you. Chair now recognizes representative Titus. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Before

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