single molko ♪ ♪ ♪ >> the government accountability office made recommendation on ways to eliminate government waste. that oversight oversight hearing is next on c-span2. from the state department gives its global human rights report card. later president obama tends the right house signage there. >> c-span live everyday with a some policy issues that impact you. coming up thursday morning, pennsylvania charles dent will join us to discuss the debate it with republicans legislative agenda and his role as cochair

one fiscal and military issues. 2016 presidential campaign and a preview of the april 2016 primary. in california judy chu will be with to discuss immigration issues and a supreme court hearing as well as the kids act. politico would be on to talk about the challenges the obama administration's faces and in implementing changes made to the people waiver program in the aftermath of the paris and san bernardino tax. watch c-span's "washington journal" beginning live at seven eastern on thursday morning. join the discussion. >> now elite at waist and efficiency and duplication in

the federal government. hear from the head of the government accountability office along with irs, pentagon and medicare and medicaid services officials. congressman from utah chairs the oversight committee.

>> the government is so big, so why, so expensive so expansive were talking about trillions of dollars in expenditures. were always seeking ways to have government dollars be more effective and more efficient. this morning the government accountability office has released its sixth annual report on opportunities to reduce fragmentation overlap and duplication in the federal government to achieve financial and other benefits.

over the course of the six years the gao has highlighted over 250 areas and recommended more than more than 600 corrective actions. we cannot thank enough the men and women who serve on the gao and the good work that they do. doing hard work, looking under the hood and really coming up with important recommendation that we as members of congress desperately need in order to do our jobs properly. 41%% of the recommended corrective actions have been fully addressed widget geo reports will save about one to 5,000,000,000 dollars by the year 2025. this report reveals that persistent efforts to address inefficiencies and resolve wasteful spending can provide significant benefit to the public. with only 41% of actions address more obviously needs to be done. and taking action at just three agencies, the department of defense, the department of health and human services and the internal revenue service, if

we did just those three would save it literally billions upon billions of dollars. come by these agencies account for more than half of all federal spending in fiscal year 2015. more. more than half of all corrective actions in the g owes reports is in this agencies. yet all three agencies have more than 60% of the recommended actions still open. for example, the gao estimates the irs can save hundreds of millions of dollars and increase revenue by enhancing its online services. the 2013 gao recommend the irs develop a methodology for its allocation of enforcement reports resources. the irs developed a a methodology that has trojan not to implement it. it cost taxpayers time and money. they need to explain their refusal to take the corrective action. in an area highlighted an issues highlighted in issues report the irs is using a paper-based system to receive and track tips on tac non- compliance in nine different offices.

gao estimates the coronation of information sharing could help the irs identify and collect billions of dollars in tax revenue. it should not take a gao report to point out that correlating investigation prevent duplicative work and ensures taxpayer resources are used efficiently and effectively. in 2015 gao recommended centers for medicare and medicaid services should answer states report accurate and complete data on state sources of funds. it seems fairly reasonable. gao estimates they could save hundreds of millions of dollars with gms they have not taken this action. in in 2013, the gao recommended the department of defense implement joint abasing meeting multiple military services using a single basic to achieve efficiency. the dod has yet to complete this action, even though it could save as much as $2.3 billion over 20 or.

why do we need to come back year after year to discuss the same actions? that's in part what we will be discussing today. i'm usually the federal government has an obligation not to waste a taxpayer dollars. were pulling money out of somebody's pocket on the tried to give it to someone else and use that, we need to be very cognizant of this wasteful tax taxpayers spending. we should all consider part of the job description of preventing waste, this it agreement over policy can lead to disagreements over appropriate spending but imperative to prevent ways is something we can all agree on a both sides of the aisle. when we know know it is about waste and inefficiency we have to act. the gao annual report provides roadmap to tackling known ways waste and inefficiency that is out there. so so we have a lot of questions. and we do look forward to it. i want to maximize time for matt

member input. i will recognize the ranking member mr. cummings of maryland for his opening statement. >> thank you very much mr. jimmy. thank you for holding what has become a tradition for our committee and for making sure that gao's report it wants. the oversight is one of the core functions of our committee. today we'll we'll focus on that gao's fixed annual report and duplicative programs and opportunities for cost savings and the federal government. this report allows the executive branch and congress to work together to identify critical areas where we can reduce waste and make federal programs more efficient and effective. this is interesting because it focuses on both the executive branch and congress. since 2011 gao's report have consistently shown that congress

has been doing far worse than the executive branch in implementing gao's recommendation. today's report is no different. it shows that congress could be doing much more to foster a more efficient and effective, and accountable government. but into the gao the executive branch is fully completed 81% of gao's recommendations. 81%. that is an impressive success rate strictly in light of the budget and what it has endured in recent years. congress on the other hand has implemented only about 46% of g owes recommendations. even that 46% it's kinda generous because gao is giving credit for taking partial action

by just moving a bill through committee even if it has not been passed, at the house or the senate. during during lester's hearing you thanked gao for" providing congress and the executive branch with a roadmap to achieve needed savings. according to gao the administration has done a much better job of following that roadmap then we here in congress. specifically gao 459 recommendations for the executive branch and 372 have now been fully or partially completed. in contrast, gao has made 85 recommendations to congress but only 37 of those have been fully or partially completed. gao's new's new report highlights where congress could legislate right now to eliminate waste and

duplication. for example gao recommended to congress passed legislation to prevent private citizens who report tax fraud to the irs from retaliation by their employers. this this is vital that we protect these whistleblowers and reward them for their service. that is why in february senator baldwin and i introduce the warren act. our bill would would increase incentives for people who blow the whistle on financial -- including misrepresentation of tax liabilities and public filings. the bill bill has been endorsed by many organizations including americans for financial reform, and communication workers of america. i hope that congress will pass the bill this year. gao also recommend that congress lowered the threshold requiring employers to electronically file

of u2's to help detect fraudulent refund claims. gao 2016 report also recognizes improvements by federal agencies and includes a number of recommendations for federal agencies going forward. for example, gao highlighted a number of success stories at the centers for medicare and medicaid services. including eliminating duplicative contracts and improving processes for identifying improper payments. two improvements to mitigate the program cms helped recover nearly 65 $7 million of improper medicaid payments in fiscal year 2015 according to gao. on the flipside, they found the department of defense still has

79 major programs of a total acquisition cost of over $14 trillion. dod spends $100 billion each year on the systems but has failed to strategically manage those in investments resulting in inefficiency and waste. taxpayers and our troops deserve better than that. i i want to thank all of our witnesses today , i think you free you and your talented staff are providing critical critical service to congress and the american people with this annual report. as well as with the work that you do every day. you help ensure our tax dollars are spent wisely, hope that you will share with all of your employees how grateful we are for their pursuit of excellence and for them helping to provide us with roadmaps to make a difference. with that i yelled back.

>> inc. you. i will hold the record open for five legislative dates for any members would like to summit a written statement. i'll now recognize our panel of witnesses. we have quite a few people to swear in but we are first pleased to welcome the honorable jean, the controller for the united states that the united states government account ability office. sir, sir, we're pleased to have you come before committee. again, you are one of the more important people we have come here even your insight and your commitment to these issues. again i can't thank your staff enough for the great work that they do behind the scene. a number of the key staff people are here, we want to maximize the opportunity for members to dive deeper into some of these issues and pursuant to committee rules we will swear these people

and as well. these experts that are here include ms. kathleen barrett, managing director for defense capability of the management team, mr. paul france it, managing director and acquisition and sourcing management team, mr. chris mem managing director, ms. nikki clower's the managing director healthcare team, ms. soares williams brown managing director of financial investment team. mr. philip , ms. barbara, managing director director and education workforce and income security team, our forensic team my apologies if and i did not get all of those things proper. we also have mr. john, deputy commissioner for services for the internal revenue service at

the united states department of treasury, mr. david tillotson, deputy director of defense and chief management officer of the management of defense. and doctor patrick conway, doctor you have a title here, acting principal director, deputy minister, deputy chief administrator for innovation and quality and chief officer at medicare and medicaid services i thank you for all your good work and for being here, pursuant to all witnesses, please rise in racy right hand. >> do solemnly swear and affirm the testimony you are about to hear it will be the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth. >> thank you. you may all all be seated please let the record be seated let the record show that

all members responded in the affirmative. we ask that all seated at the table please limit your oral testimony to five minutes. members should should have ample time to ask questions. it is your discretion if you want to yield time to a particular individual as we get into the question. we will have a seat there if need be. but you are now recognize for five minutes. >> thank you much mr. chairman, good money to you, members of the committee. we are very pleased to be here today to discuss gao's sixth annual report on overlapped application of duplication. and also other ways to reduce cost savings. we introduced 92 new two new actions that the congress and executive branch can take in 37 different areas. to give you some example, in the, in the overlap duplication fragmentation area we highlight 12 areas, for example we found the defense department is

procuring commercial services for satellite and in the billion dollars that they spent, about 30% of that was spent outside of their central procurement agency. that was by the different services and other agencies throughout the department. as a result of essential agency the costs were about 15% less then purchasing it outside the central offices. we think there is better, money to be safe there. tens there. tens of billions of dollars. we also found nine referral programs that irs for whistleblowers and others to report improper activities that would give irs some tips to follow up for tax enforcement purposes and potentially produce billions of dollars in revenue. the systems were manually operated, there are fragmented fragmented and not coordinated. there were opportunities to streamline and provide better

communication for the people providing tips. also we found there is potential for duplicative healthcare spending between people on medicaid or on the state exchanges. there are some amount of transfer time that could be made if people's income level change or they become eligible for medicaid or other services. we find activities outside the normal transition. and we recommend that in order to minimize any duplicate fund spending that coronation would need to ta place in better oversight by cms over the medicaid programs at the state level and with the exchanges. in areas of cost savings and revenue enhancements we have a number of they shoot that are new. we have opportunities to save a lot of money in overpayments for the social security administration. there are billions to be saved and we are revamping some of the payment

policies that guide medicare spending. there is greater need for oversight, you could save hundreds of millions of dollars if not billions by greater oversight of cms over medicaid spending in the states activities. there is also millions that could be saved by the federal agencies have a better access to access personal property at dod and ammunition that is discarded but could be used by other federal agencies. so we don't have to buy it twice in that process. there are some fees that could be raised that have not been raised in over 20 years to help provide more resources, in particular to deal with for maintenance in our national parks. to date, as mr. chairman mentioned in mr. cummings in their opening statements, congress and the ministration have acted on many of our

recommendations, of the 544 may previously 41% implement it, 31% implement it, 31% partially, 21% not yet implemented at all. there are tens of billions of dollars in additional savings to be had and if those recommendations are fully acted upon. today, as you mentioned mr. chairman in your opening statement about one to 5,000,000,000 dollars dollars have been saved or will be saved over the coming years. we are please congress is taken actions dollar savings have come from congressional action. also in a number of areas where the agencies have taken actions it is because of congressional urging as well. there is a lot more that could be done. i'm very pleased to be here today to talk about this opportunities and in addition to the areas that we have added to the list. thank you for holding this annual hearing, it makes a big difference.

i will pass on to our staff your thanks and appreciation for their hard work. thank you for your comments and i'll be happy to answer questions at the appropriate point. >> thank you. >> thank you. chairman and ranking members and members of the committee, i am here to discuss findings of the government accountability office, gao related to its sixth annual duplicative programs. we appreciate the studies of the irs and its programs, their findings, insights and, insights and recommendations are invaluable to us as they help assure that we are successful in accomplishing our mission of collecting over 3,000,000,000,000 dollars annually. without independent auditors any valuators we simply could not be as effective. since fiscal year 2013, the irs

has taken to address the recommendations made including those highlighted in this report. between fiscal year 2011 and 2015 the irs received more than 2100 recommendations for gao and our inspector general auditors. with gao recommendations accounted for roughly 30% of those. even the sheer number and scope of recommendations the irs receives on a wide variety of areas the reality of resource and budget limitations precludes us from taking every action recommended as quickly as we might prefer. the irs has to look at total universe recommendations across the enterprise through a larger lens make strategic decision about actions most important to address those audit findings. to that end, we very much appreciate the initiative gao started this year where they

review and prioritize the open recommendations. this helps us to better understand what they think are the most critical. overwhelmingly, gao and irs are on the same page. our top priorities top priorities are generally the same as theirs. this increases our confidence that we are acting on the most important recommendations first. the two irs programs highlighted in this year's gao duplicative program study, referrals and identity theft are illustrative of the value we get to of what we get and the actions we take. irs referral program which involves individual and business is reporting alleged noncompliance of tax laws, gao study reports in several areas needing improvement. we got right to work. we now have a team in place test with parts of the referral process to be more streamlined and effective. in fiscal year 2012 through

2015, they would not lead to audit this is a much higher overall rate which is hovering around seven tenths% of the general population. what is more, the audits audits are based on those referrals yielded over 209,000,000 dollars in additional tax assistance recommendations. these figures reveal. these figures reveal that are screening processes effectively identify the productive referrals for audit. it is making an important contribution of this administration. with improvements trying to make as a result of the gao recommendation our referral process are being streamlined and will be more efficient and effective. while unique, relative relative to other referrals the gao report on irs whistleblower program offers a snapshot in time for a program under constant scrutiny for its process that it continually refined.

even before gao began its most recent evaluation of the whistleblower program we have begun addressing the major issues that have been identified. the gao findings confirm that we are taking the right action and streamlining the process for claims, making dramatic reductions to the inventory of cases in particular phases of the process and instilling new leadership with a strong background in bringing about operational deficiencies. another irs program highlighted in this year's gao click it if report is our identity theft program which gao has all most continually reviewed in recent years and prompted important program improvement. as confront the growing problem is still an identity refund fraud, the irs is using a multipronged approach to protect taxpayers and their information. the irs has made this a high priority and has been making steady progress. the additional 290,000,000 dollars in fiscal year 2015 funds reported to the rs by the to the irs by the congress had

allowed us to allocate more resources to combating this insidious crime. about 2000 individuals have been convicted on federal charges related to refund fraud involving identity theft over the past few years. using our filters our filters we stopped 1.4 million returns last year and prevented criminals from collecting about a $.7 billion in fraudulent refunds. gao has been helpful in identifying areas where proven to this program can be made. we have acted on those recommended improvements and continue to look for ways to strengthen our defenses against this crime and stop the victimization of taxpayers in the entire system. i'll be happy to take questions at the proper time. thank you. >> thank you so much for your testimony. >> thank you mr. chairman. verse well, good morning to the chair, ranking member. >> and you pulled the mic a little closer to you.

>> certainly. thank you to the chair, the ranking member cummings, the members of the community, thank you for the opportunity to discuss the progress on addressing the general accountability's office findings related to duplication, fragmentation and overlap the department. i wanted my thanks to the chair and ranking member to the honorable mr. jean and the da of the work that they do candidly, while one is not as happy to hear that we could be doing things better, the truth is we all know full well that we can do things better. in fact as the acting deputy that is actually my description to find those things. to be perfectly honest, having assistance in identifying opportunities bothers me not at all. we look forward to continued work with the government accountability office. as the 80 cmo or assistant deputy chief officer i provide direction advice and improvements to business processes and practices in the department with evidences on

finding efficiencies in overhead and mission support. clearly, our intent of my office and align very well. last year the deputy secular asked to put together a series of initiatives that would help free up needed funds to meet emerging needs in the top line of the department. initiatives relating include high court's reduction, service contract reviews, information technology optimization and to include exchanges and commissaries. we have been working on slick business processes to include the hiring process, conference approvals process for ordinary ding dod issues. >> .. a

>> identified a total of 101 recommendations in the first four annual reports from 2011-2014 and we have fully or partially addressed 80 of thechl. -- them. we have more to do and will continue to make progress. one specific area we make significant progress is in the area of dod contract management for broad acquisitions. in the report published in 2015, the doa recognized the progress made in oversight of contracts and noted significant steps to plan and monitoring progress over the last several years has been made. as a result, the decision to

remove contracting and scopes of the highrisk areas. another example of the department's progress and aligned with the recommendation in the 2016 report involves the management of leased space. we set out to reduce the space. our initial plan calls for reduction of 1.2 million square feet prior to 2020. we have eliminated space by making better use of government space and intend to get an additional 886,000 square feet out by 2020 saving $340 million a year. we will look broadly across the entirety of dod property and broadly across the country and i anticipate more progress in that area. mr. chairman, ranking member, the department looks forward to

working with this committee and joa to implement actions. we look forward to continuing to work on the opportunities identified in the 2016 report. thank you. >> thank you for your testimony. dr. conaway, you are recognized for five minutes. >> thank you. chairman chaffetz, ranking members cummings, and the committee, thank you for the opportunity to discuss the medicare and medicaid programs. we are skewereds of medicaid and medicare marketplace, cms is serving almost 140 million americans and we want the programs to be as efficient and effective as possible. we review the recommendations and take them seriously. we are making progress to reduce

duplication and reduce tax dollars by providing beneficiary with high level care. one of our driving forces at cms is changing the way health care is delivered moving paying providers for quality rather than quantity of care. as a practicing physician i know how important this is. an estimated 30% of medicare patients are tide to alternative models and many are benefiting from better coordinated. our work to reduce trauma represents lives saved and lower cost. we have seen less hospital stays and medicare isn't facing expenses for extra care.

cms has taken several steps to improve transparency and payments in medicaid around section 1115 research and demonstration programs used by states to pursue innovation. we are collecting upper payment data including provider-specific information and reviewing statutory compliance. all section 1115 demonstrations are available publically and include terms that must be followed as a result of the demonstration. we identified and made available the criteria we are using. more states are using manage care to serve medicaid recipients. recognizing the change in the work, we proposed changes to the care aligning with private coverage, promoting care, and strengthening integrity and enhance the beneficiary experience.

the commitment to integrity underlies all of our work. we are utilizing analyting technology, fraud preventions to identify leads to further protect the program from inappropriate billing. in the first three years, 820 million was identified and stopped in inappropriate payments and a 10-1 return in 2015 alone. using risk-base screening enhances ability to screen providers on enrollment and identify those at heightened risk for creating fraud. this saved the program 2.4 million. we have deactivated 540,000 providers and suppliers that don't meet requirements.

perhaps most importantly, increased screening efforts have allowed 7,000 applications to be denied preventing claims from ever being submitted. cms is dedicating to better care, protecting patient safety, reducing health care cost, and providing people access to the right care at the right time when and where they need it including continually strengthening medicare and medicaid programs that provide vital services to millions of americans. we look forward to working the goa and this committee. thank you. >> thank you, dr. conaway. i will recognize the gentlemen from tennessee for a series of question before that i think it

is important as we look at these issue to recognize one of the greatest assets the federal government has and that is its federal employees. in doing that, it is easy to look at the inefficiency and problems and underline the federal workforce. i want to go on record and say thank you to the 99.5% of the federal workforce that does an outstanding job each and every day. sometimes we focus on the .5% and paint a broad brush. i don't want this hearing to do that as we really look at meaningful ways to make sure we have a cost savings. with that, i would recognize the gentlemen from tennessee, my good friend, mr. duncan for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and thank you chairman chaffetz for calling one of the most important annual hearings we

hold. mr. dodaro, the work your agency does is extremely important and valuable for us. i have several different questions and i will not have time to get into all of them. we have background information saying the department of defense has weapon acquisitions programs that total 1.3 trillion spending over a 100 billion annually on web system acquisition. i know you have put out several recommendations over the years and especially in 2011 a report saying it was very inefficient and there were duplications and so forth. do you think the department of defense has done enough in regard to your recommendations you have made on that in the past? or could there be additional savings in that area? >> i think they could definitely do more. we have appreciated what they have done. they have adopted some of the best-practice recommendations we

have suggested. they have begun looking at things but i am concerned reforms haven't been implemented consistently. i will ask mr. francis who is the expert in this area to give a more thorough answer but there is more that could be done. >> all right. >> good morning, mr. duncan. i think one of things we talked about is portfolio management which is an approach for the department to look at. it is a weapon system portfolio as a whole because one of the looming problems for defense is when you get beyond the next five-year plan there is much more demand for money for weapon systems than money available. so the department has to take a look across weapon systems to see what the best mix of investments are for them. right now the department has multiple processes that are fragments for budgeting, requirements, and acquisitions

through the services. we pretty much have a process that optimizes for individual weapon systems but we need to look more across the board. >> thank you very much. week before last i was on a trip with three senators and another member of the house and we met with admiral harris, the head of the pacific command, and we were talking about the problems the defense department is facing in acquiring some of the more expensive weapons and things they need. we talked about how the costs have been shooting up within the pay and benefits and so forth. many top leaders have talked about that cutting into the buying the equipment they want and admiral harris thought we needed to have another brat. do you have any opinion on that,

mr. tillis? and mr. dodaro, have you looked into that? >> it is the department's opinion another round of bracket would be appropriate. it relates to making better use of the space we have and we agree we should do that but having said that there is a large amounts of space that is more industrial and involves a lot of bases that are largely underutilized and we believe there is extra capacity that could be used so we will endorse another round. >> there is definitely access property. our work focuses on reviewing past rounds as shown that the department needs to make additional improvements in the methods of estimating the savings and bringing them to realization. tay are far in access of what

dod eventually achieves through the rounds and the continual changes and requirements in other things. our opinion, if congress decides to grand them their request for another round of recommendations, or brak, they need to implement a recommendation so congress has assurance they are really, at the end of the day, will be the savings achieved through any process. we have outstanding recommendations the department hasn't implemented. >> you mentioned saving billions own social security payments. will you tell us what needs to be done in that area? >> yes. right now people can receive full disability benefits and unemployment benefits at the same time. there is some ability -- if somebody is on disability they can get permission to work because we want them to be back to work.

if they take a job and are eventually laid off from that position they can collect both benefits and we don't think this as a prudent use of the federal government benefits to get full disability and unemployment benefits at the same time. cbo estimated we can save 1.3 billion ever a period of time if the changes are made. >> the chair recognizes the gentlemen from pennsylvania mr. cartwright for five minutes. >> i thank chairman meadows, and thank chairman chaffetz for calling this important hearing. mr. tillotson, one of the issues goa included in this year's duplication report is dod's storage of occupational and environmental surveillance data. am i correct in that? >> yes, that is correct >> can you explain what the term means occupational and

surveillance data? >> certainly. as the department conducts its industrial activities there is a requirement with law and osha standards that we collect information on any conditions that may eventually cause us to have to go back and look at impacts on the worse force or work environment. >> this has an impact on active duty service men, women and veterans. am i correct? >> that is correct. >> dod uses this information to tract biological, chemical and physical health hazards to our service men and women? >> that is correct. >> what benefit does dod get from collecting that type of information? >> two benefits come out of it. we collect it first of all and if we link environmental issues with impacts on active duty or service members or civilian workers it allows us to take corrective action to allow the

condition does want continue and allow ourselves to provide appropriate compensation. i think the department is moving aggressively in the totality of the community to look at how to better manage the medical information across the active duty and civilian force. >> i think you touched on it. the department of veteran's affairs makes use of this environmental and health information to establish disability for veterans. correct? >> that is correct. >> it is critical this information is usable and accurate and to protect service members and veterans; right? >> yes, sir. >> mr. dodaro, thank you for being here as well and all of your good work. according to goa it is not clear that the quality of the data that is being collected is reliable. in a report issued in may of

2015, goa said and i quote some of the military services have developed their own guidance resulting in inconsistent approaches of level of effort reducing dod's ability to be confidant the data are sufficiently reliable. have i read that correctly? >> that is correct. >> does it concern you dod does not know if the data it is collecting is accurate? >> yes, it does. >> mr. tillotson, goa represented in the 2015 report that dod established clear policies and procedures for performing quality assurance reviews of the data collected. dod responded to goa it would need additional resources to clarify its policies. is dod taking any actions to improve the quality of the data it is collecting? >> we are doing that. new policies are in draft to be issued this year. we made the resources available

to do this because we, like you, felt it was important undertaking to put in place. we have tied that into our broader issues of increasing standardization of medical practices across the department. the establishment of the defense health agency, the establishment of the defense health program appropriati appropriation, have been value-added activities and this congress has acted on that. >> thank you for that. separate from quality is how the information is processed and if that is being done efficiently. according to the report thshgs data is stored in two databases. did goa identify problems with two separate systems? >> i will ask the head of the health care team to respond. >> yes, sir, we did. as you mentioned there was two

cys cyssyste systems where the data is stored and we found problems with reentry of the data but we could not get a reading from all of the issues. >> mr. tillotson, why is dod using two separate systems? >> this is part of the corrective action we have underway. prior to the establishment of the defense health care program and more integration across the department medical practs were run in the military departments. >> it has been more than ten years since goa highlighted the issues with problems of the management of occupational health data. mr. tillotson, why is it taking so long to fix the problems? >> i cannot give you a satisfactory answer but i can say we are working on it. >> we owe our service members, active duty men and women, and

our veterans to correct the information accurately and fix these problems. i urge you to give it your every attention. >> thank you we will. >> the chair recognizes the gentlemen from florida, mr. micha for five minutes. >> some of the waste at the federal government is identified annually by goa and appreciate what you have done mr. dodaro of bringing this to our attention. a couple areas. first, some of dod's -- you probably have one of the biggest hawks in congress. i voted for the ommi bus because we cut cut cut dod. i sit in the hearings and i am the senior personal on the national foreign subcommittee in the panel and i see more and

more waste. i see another report, mr. dodaro, that dod -- in fact the inventory of properties and assets is almost non-existent. is that correct? >> we have been very concerned about the lack of information. >> they don't have good inventory of their properties and assets and this report highlights it again. that is a concern. we have billions of dollars worth of assets both domestically and internationally. we cannot even account for it. so again, i think this is troubling. the or thing, too -- other -- is i work with some of the folks in the dod authorization committee. we did substantial acquisition reform. you talk about procurement and

acquisition being part of the problem. they are outdated, bureaucratic and there is read tape and you don't get the best buy for the taxpayers. >> that is a problem but what is a problem is if you don't know what you have. >> acquiring new assets is just as bad. one of the things that concerns me is we pass these reforms. i know it takes a while to implement. i have one of the biggest acquisitions in the army down in my district. i say to the folks we pass this stuff last year. first, there is no secretary of army in place, there is no chief of staff, there is no one over the programs, you have these vacancy which is part of the problem. i ask have you implemented the

reforms. no no no. maybe mr. tillotson you could tell us what is happening here. >> certainly. let me address all of through your issues. on the inventory. i agree with mr. dodaro. it is not as it should be. it is part of the broader audit part and the folks meeting this afternoon to talk about the progress that include inventory. it is an area -- >> inventory we cannot audit. >> right. we agree. on the issue of acquisition reform, mr. kindle has movaled moved out with the new guidance to put the new procedures in place. i would respond to mr. dodaro's remarks about strategic portfolio management. we agree. and the deputy security of

defense over the last three years led a strategic portfolio review on an annual bases. not only are they done within the military departments but comes to a departmental level where the vice chairman, secretary of defense, and the heads of the security it do a review in plans and week rationalize investments going forward. >> we have a bill dealing with property disposal and management. how many people in the audience own property? would you have the federal government manage that property? hell no. you would be nuts. the biggest one is dod. you cannot get anyone to make a decision to dispose of property. we have 177,000 acres sitting

there and 16,000 next is the airport. i am trying to get 400 acres of surplus property to transfer to do a commercial cargo center next to our port in canaveral. 5,000 jobs it would create. and i have been working on it for four years. you have to get the permits to the military people as well. i am on my third commander. they change them every two years. we need them for three years at least, maybe four. some stability and dealing with incompetent in the past. i get someone competent and then they are gone. how can you manage anything with the turnover? it drives me batty. just one thing for the members. did you see what the private sector did this last week in landing the booster rocket on the barge?

you have to look at that and see what the private sector can do when we unleash them. god forbid we should give them a lease on doing things with private property and moving projec projepr projects. thank you. >> i thank the gentlemen from florida. i know excess property has been a priority for the gentlemen from florida for a long time. >> the bill we are passing doesn't apply to dod. the one everyone has been working on. >> the chair recognizes the gentlelady from illinois. >> thank you. welcome to the witnesses. dr. conaway, last year the united states spent over a trillion on medicare and health related expenditures. i think we can agree there are opportunities to increase efficiency and reduce waste in spending. i am the chair of the

congressional black caucus brain trust. this is something i am interested in and meet with a lot of people concerned about the future of medicare and medicaid. i want to start by clarifying what is covered by the term improper payments. it covers overpayments and underpayments. is that correct? >> that is correct. improper and over payment and under payment. >> and improper payments can be made to fraudulent claims but also mistakes? >> the majority are due to documentation or errors in the submission of the claim that was on further review a legit medical service. >> one area goa identified for duplication has been health care coverage for people hovering along the poverty line and moving between medicaid and the coverage provided by the

affordable care act exchanges. in the report today, hhs conquered with goa's recommend recommendations and highlighted the actions the department has taken to determine medicare eligibility when they do the exchanges. what steps has cms taken to make sure recipients of medicaid or federal subsidies are not receiving duplication in coverage? >> let me describe some of the steps we have taken. the account transfer process. we have accounts transferred from the marketplace and medicaid working with the states and private plans on a daily bases. we review account transfers on a weekly bases. in terms of duplication in coverage by medicaid and marketplace and the most common reason for this to give a tangible example is someone may

have coverage, lose their job and qualify for medicaid. we do data matching and are working with the states doing periodical periodically data matching and continue to work through the access of issues testing systems at the federal and state level, through data matching and using data, we are reducing any people that may have coverage in both the marketplace and medicaid at the same time. >> another area was how cms verified the eligibility of medicare providers and suppliers and found without stronger controls and better verification cms may be making payments to providers without addresses or who have an expired license or have actually died in some cases.

one recommendation was to upgrade the software. >> thank you for that question. we agree the recommendation and are updating the software. we are doing four major actions on this area. one, the software updates for address verification and other verification modalities. two, increase visits so we are visiting sights an increased frequency, three more continuous monitoring of data and checking with postal data and other services in terms of enrollment. we are upgrading systems and using data to address the program integritty iss issues >> do you have enough people in the right places to carry this out? >> thank you. i have managed the private sector and federal government

and it is incredibly challenging. we have in total approximately 6,000 cms employees trying to manage a program of huge scope and complexity. i think whether it is program integrity or marketplace medicaid we have have a staff, and i appreciate comments earlier, is mission driven. when you look at employee viewpoint surveys that comes across. the other feeling is they don't have the resources, training and ability to improve the system as much as they would want. >> and just quickly, mr. dodaro, any comments about what you heard or anything you want to add? >> no, i am very pleased cms has taken action on a number of recommendations in these areas. there are still outstanding recommendations particularly as it relates to medicaid.

i am very concerned we have not had a good oversight over the manage care portion of medicaid at the state level. cms is in the process of instituting a process that will provide more audits of what is going on in the manage care portion of medicaid at that level. i am concerned we have a disagreement about the definition of budget neutrality for demonstration projects. the ones we have looked at we don't believe with budget neutral and it is costing the government tens of billions in additional money. they made the criteria more transparent but we don't agree with the implementation of criteria we have seen. there were many recommendations we made congress could do to

streamline spending in the medicaid program. we have ongoing dialogue with cms and continue to keep up with that and press our outstanding recommendations. >> the chair recognizes the gentlemen from michigan, mr. walberg for five minutes >> thank you, mr. chairman and thank you for the panel for being here and mr. dodaro, thank you for the heavy lifting and pinpointing you continue to do. one man's opinion an over large federal government but nonetheless. one area i am interested in is the unobligated balances that are out there. some are staggering in nature at least in my opinion. is there any value to allowing agencies to hold access appropriati appropriations for the next

fiscal year and i would add quickly at what point does it become a problem. >> i think agencies need, and it depends on the program and activity, so is variable but they need have a little potential buffer depending on the nature of the program. the ones we looked at had set criteria for what they thought they needed and were well above such and that is why we called it ecs"ecstatic nation: confide, crisis, and compromise, 1848-1877" ec -- excess. they should be de-obligated or resended by a congressman. >> let's good -- get a specific one. one area i was dealing with the district. the council and border security

programs. it was $440 million over its target for un-obligated balances in fiscal year 2014. how did that account end up half a billion almost over target? >> as mr. dodaro mentioned, very often these types of programs over at state department or department of energy will have spending obligations that will cross fiscal years. they have had targeted put in place, and the amount of money they need each year to handle that flexibility or understand their spending crosses years. when it is way out of whack as it was here they need to be able to roll that back or need have greater transparency and understanding as to what money they need, how they will spend it, and be tougher on reporting where they are on that.

>> i guess my concern would be if that be the case, they said at 25%, why not next year the same instead of 40%? that doesn't get in touch with trying to live within one's means and truthfully set the standards. >> they could move it each year saying going from 25% to 40% or down beyond that. these are goals they set for themselves. they are based on historically what they think they need to carry over from year to year. they have to justify it and not at the level there should be. that is the whole point on this. >> there are things we do every year and we scrub accounts and provide information to the appropriations committee. they will not approve additional money in some cases if there is

a large carryover balance. >> i see it right around 40% is

where they ended up overtarget. is there any accountability thus far? >> there is typically accountability at an individual level or institutional level but we are talking about management processes that get a better transparency and better management at the time so you don't -- there would be flucuations but what we want to see is if you set your own targets we want you close and if not we need good explanations why this year was an anomaly. >> another problem is in the area of broadband. they explained they had that level of balance develop as broad activity feeds and only broad activities. they didn't have enough -- did they have that problem and -- >> what we found was when we look at all agencies across government and state there is no difference and there are weaknesses in place and opportunities for agencies to tighten up their anti-fraud activities. we think within the parameters of the 25% is something that state or any other rates will be

able to improve internal controls. >> i thank the gentlemen from michigan. the chair recognizes the gentlemen from ohio. >> thank you. you state the irs has made steady progress to the vast majority of budget changes. however in 2013, the treasury and sectary in the wage investment division of the irs referral process -- >> we have people looking at referral programs.

>> we will limit the number of organizations that have referrals. in other words, we intend to bring the referral process down to one activity. we will have an opportunity for taxpayers to make referals. we are looking at recommendations and hope the tax administration helps. and i believe we will be response -- responsive to the issues that have been raised. >> there is a promise of the irs being behind the eight ball on that one. can you explain why the irs is

not furthering sharing information? >> lots of the programs change over time. so there is a constant evalua evaluation and ongoing exercise we have not seen. in this particular instance, we have a series of referral programs and each individual is offering a division over a period of time. we are very much focusing on attention and because of that we are taking action. >> so we can expect results shortly? >> absolutely. mr. dodaro, as you know, fraud is rampant throughout the organization with regard to unemployment benefits why doesn't have irs use data to

verify self-reported earnings? >> i am not sure. >> what does the doa need to do the make sure unemployment is filled correctly? >> we will have to get back to you. >> this is critical.

>> we will like to have models to follow. i think they need some parenting. let me bring up another one. i believe in a fair wage for a fair job. but we see a huge change in the number of businesses. >> we haven't looked at the issue in a while. i would have to go back and take a look. we did a long time ago but it has been a number of years since we would have the resources to look at it. >> as long as it is a transparent schedule, which has been the major complaint for the

smaller business, along the lines of my district and in my state i had a lot of cub subcon stra tractors put out of business working with the department of defense. we will take a look at that. >> i understand your concern. >> i appreciate it. >> the chair recognizes mr. walker. >> thank you, gentlemen. thank you others for being here today. i have a couple questions starting with mr. dodaro. why is the referral process being conducted through the mail? isn't this an archiac process. >> yes, it is.

>> one referral office had 87,000 one year. they annually reading them and then when referred to another part of the irs they manually look at it again. i am pleased they are going for the online electronic process but this is outdated. can you talk about the plans to put it online? more specification about what it looks like? >> we are in the planning stages so we cannot give you more about what it is going to look like. we have to engineer the process. but it is clear our processes have been working for the taxpayers and it is sparking major changes. >> i feel that.

>> mr. dodaro, greater coordination between the referral program can save the american taxpayer and the irs. can you talk about that? >> first of all, i think it will increase the time.

this makes the ability for them to move more quickly.

>> they grow over time on a singular bases. one has a referral program and another one does. they were viewed as referral programs rather than an integrated set of initiatives underway. similar to the local governments having a 311 number so you don't know what the problem is. that is what needs to happen with this program.

>> the irs needs to evaluate if the program is going to be successful and meet the needs of the people providing the information. the communication here is really important. the other thing we point out is there are monetary awards and so far the irs is only interested by 31 specific monetary awards. they have to look at whether or not they are providing enough incentives for people in communication and rewards. >> thank you, gentlemen. the chair recognizes the gentlemen from oklahoma mr. grisham for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for all of your witnesses that are here today. we do appreciate what you do.

this loan program is essentially performing the same function as four other programs. it was setup as a result of the 2010 reauthorization act. congress was directed to avoid duplication. given the existing programs was it inevitable they would overlap with existing programs or more commerce could have done to allow the programs? >> we think there is more that could be done. we made a recommendation for congress to work with the national institute of standard and technology.

i think congress is trying to deal with a niche. it is going to be difficult to find what the niche is going to be and to avoid duplication. i think congress is frustrated with the lack of time limits in meeting these needs. so we recommended commerce work with them to identify with what the capitol -- capital needs. we are going to stay on this. we have a regular requirement to review it. >> as a report also shows the programs are copying the forms and application process used by the small business administration for its own loan program. how does this contribute to duplication on the issuance of

loans? >> it will duplicate it inmy opinion. >> the goa recommended in the report the commerce department create targeted market materials and coordination with the standards and technology so they offer access to people who haven't access to federal loan guarantees. would you recommend the loan guarantee program be consolidated or would one of the other agencies with the pre-existing program? if not, why not? >> i think it is a possibility that has to be identified once commerce does their historic homework and there is a proper plan.

i think someone might ought to reassess. my understanding is commerce talked to other federal departments and agencies about carrying out the program and there have been no takers in that regard. i will be very interested to see what commerce does with that recommendation. once it has the marketing materials and identified potential gaps in the capital market whether or not it could be done by an existing program or need another program. i think the jury is out on that. >> being a true conservative, i will yield back the balance of my time. >> i thank the gentlemen from oklahoma. the chair recognizes the gentlemen from alabama, mr. palmar, for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. dodaro, i really appreciate the work you guys do. i hate to say it but i enjoy reading your reports.

my point here is that we are in a debate over our budget which we are being asked to increase spending by $30 billion. if we were to reduce the un-obligated balances by 3.5% that would more than cover the increase in spending. does it not make sense to do that? particularly in the context of

holding money in balances and having to borrow money to fund other agencies isn't there an interest cost incurred from the spending? >> it is definitely not an efficient way to operate. i don't believe it would be prudent to do an across the board reduction. i think you have to look at targeted areas and agencies. in some cases it may make sense and in others not. in no case should it be in access of what the needs are. >> right. i just used that in general. not specific. you would have to look at each agencies individually. but it is not sound fiscal management. >> that is correct. >> i want to direct questions to you about the tax gap.

the inspector general for the tax administration, treasury inspector general issued a report, and in his report he said there needs to be more timely and more accurate estimates of the tax gap. currently the irs reports this about every five years. has the irs acted on the inspectoral general recomme recommendati recommendations? >> we intend to have a new tax report out later this month so we are acting on it as we speak. can you tell me how much the irs collected and what was the revenue total collected for the 2015 year? over $3 trillion? >> yes. >> based on the report from the urban institute and brooking institute the tax gap ranges

from 16-20 percent. let's say it is 16%. if $3 trillion came into the irs last year that means 16%. that is 84% of what should have been collected. i will not get into the math but i will just give you an idea. that means somewhere in the rage of $500-$550 billion went uncollected. what is the irs to collect the taxes that are owed? >> we have a number of initiatives. the tax gap itself -- one thing it needs to be completely understood about the tax gap is it is made up of a lot of different committees.

i am on the budget committee. this makes me want to pull my hair out and at my age i don't need to be doing that. we do everything in a ten-year window. if it is $380 billion a year that is 3.8 trillion. we have improper payments. another one of your reports read there.

>> the chair recognizes the gentlemen from texas, mr. hurd. >> thank you for saving the best for second last.

i am going talk about internet on tribal lands. there is a lack of coordination and what risk is a result of this? >> thank for the question. one of the challenges we saw was they were not doing coordinated training and a challenge for the tribal group is getting to the training and having the staff to take advantage of the programs >> have the agencies made any progress on increasing coordination? >> we did the report last year. we will follow up this year. they conquered so hopefully it is conceptual. ...

>> >>.

>> right now the information services agency manages satellite communication agencies when the findings were rendered icc issues and how coherent of policy should have been issued since that time the proportion has put more and when these are agencies with the commercial backbone kind of work with the strategic command in to establish that. >> of all those entities of that procurement policy for

the satellite communications >> with the establishment some cases we deliberately allowed for the contract to reissue the contract. >> in my remaining 15 seconds with their human-resources what is the next best action? indicated say case for congressional oversight to find out the current plan. it is a classic case of mismanagement 422 different

systems with a lack of tension by management and to focus more on that but congressional oversight is prudent to make sure that they write the ship. >> as a set of the homeland security committee in the gentleman from california is recognized. >> thank you for your good work in a lot of every agencies don't do well. so with that said with a last comment with oversight

with the executive branch implementing your recommendations i am told this is day partisan issue respective of who has control. , the gao has 459 recommendations to be partially completed by your analysis and a contrast with those recommendations by congress to be partially completed over time have you or your predecessors given friendly suggestions' how we could feet more successful -- be more successful? >> i give friendly suggestions' all the time. [laughter] >> hopefully they are received.

i pointed out in my opening statement with those big dollar savings has come from that congress has encouraged in directed the defense authorization bill with a certain actions to implement our recommendations congress has a hand. we have a long list of specific recommendations for congress to act that would save billions of dollars. and i can give you examples now. for example, with medicare. the number of hospitals do vertical integration to operate as affiliate's in the hospital. the save as a doctor's

office barite now they go to the hospital affiliated outpatients for government reimbursing them the things that ought to be equalized there are certain cancer hospitals originally deemed special rate payment hospitals where there weren't that many that the payments are equalized. did you did say $500 million right there. with medicare a vantage there is the annual adjustment factor that is supposed to be made for fee-for-service we don't think see a message using the most up-to-date information to make that adjustment in the last time we looked we thought it could be several billion

dollars perhaps on an annual basis going forward we are recommending congress take action to lower the requirement from 250 this will help the irs with a better ability to match and prevented it in the theft is a refund fraud which last year the government lost $3 billion in debt could be more in that area. we have recommendations to the congress to eliminate payments where people can collect unemployment insurance in also ged double benefits we think that has improved. also legislation. >> i will stop you there. that is way beyond my five minutes.

>> i think he would agree of all those measures. >> there are no savings to be had. [laughter] >> the way i read your report is a civil grand jury how many of these have been implemented? and i just wonder is there a better measurement to do this in a friendly manner? even though it doesn't become infatuated and signed into law. it is pretty clear they have for have not. is there another way we can measure that so the public can understand that?

>> i will take a look at that. >> the gentleman from iowa. >> thanks to the panel for being here today i appreciate it. to commend you on the works that you do it is pretty impressive a career businessman from the free share what your department does but i share the zest for reading your reports it is extremely important for the job that you do. thank you very much. >> if we could just go to the 60,000 books level i would appreciate that.

in my constituents are interested is it your opinion it has grown so big or so large it cannot effectively be managed i think it is so large it cannot be managed some of these are very large entities hhs is agencies represented there are good management practices to effectively manage these departments but not consistently applied that should be made that are made

and as a result to have as good effective management. >> what needs to change? what needs to happen? in your estimation? part of the issue there needs to be stronger congressional oversight. if you think about it we're ready to have this happen again every change to take off your top 3,000 political appointees with the vacancies that occur over time. that is part of our democracy but congress has a role for continuity purposes

and there has to be more attention in to put into those positions to have the right qualifications and experience. for proper oversight to ensure that they carry out their responsibilities and when they come into place so the notion of management of second-class status is a fundamental problem. >> we will spend nearly $4 trillion what percentage is wasted due to duplication of those services for waste fraud and abuse?

i think it is as high as 30% it is hard to get good good figure but with improper payments was $137 billion they are required to be reported by the congress over $1 trillion. lot of money goes out the door most of that is overpayments. with that tax gap of $385 billion with the estimate that is a lot of money that should come in in the door and have with the duplication with additional

money that could be saved. >> what do we need to do razz of congress to be more effective? >> we need your support to implement our recommendations. isn't work with us more. congress is a great partner we don't have any enforcement authority we cannot compel people to implement our recommendations that congress can. that is the approach. >>. >> the chair recognizes my good friend. >> just picking up on your last point i don't want you to miss the opportunity but

every dollar we invest as a return of that $134 but this one has a return. >> and i joined that gentleman and is the notion we need to invest. >> for god's sake. [laughter] by the way for this committee in the past has had some awful hearings for the issue of improper payments the largest single chunk of which medicare fraud.

the second is money left on the table that is not collected but owed. so theoretically to zero is in the trillions of dollars because that is the low hanging fruit to make the irs more efficient but also has a return is right now we need that. >> thank you for your thoughtful work. is about identity theft the version of refunds especially is almost

epidemic eight or 10 years ago is a part of your portfolio of concern? >> primarily ted years ago -- 10 years ago to refund fraud. and don't have estimates how many people at this point of 1.4 million returns of those refunds. >> it would have been negligible it is virtually a cost free crime that chances

to identify to illegally divert and prosecute or e then punishing you are they not? >> we have prosecuted. >> i did not ask that question. but it pales in comparison. it is still a drop in the bucket in congress has to provide resources. here i am in a transaction with the federal agency and it will not be. so to what extent is the irs experiencing a function that is the antiquated?

>> it is the solution. >> there are benefits is risks associated the idea is to maximize the benefit minimize the risk provide would give congress credit of the recommendation one of the problems that they had it does not have the w-2 information from employers until april so the clerks were filing -- the crux were filing early bet they fix that now irs will get the w-2 at the end of january so it is a better position to identify this area congress should lower the threshold for electronic filing.

with the issue is can the irs change the process to take a vantage of this electronic information available? did it leads to do a better job to authenticate people before they use those lists -- those systems so futile properly it is causing the problems to occur. >> we have talked about this collaborative flee but so much of the itt of the integrated systems received incompatible with each other think it is codeword to come up with the plan to address

that because we will help you address that problem. >> we recognize said justin and from georgia. >> to i want to stir with a view to speak specifically that is listed in the duplication and it is my distending the state department did not have a strategic facility plan nor did they follow the risk mitigation policies is that true? >>. >> you were telling me they didn't have a strategic plan

for cost containment? >> what does that say about their construction and planning in general? is it not very good at all? >> we think there is a planned to be updated periodically to help orient people to come and go but to the point it doesn't look good in kabul with the embassy construction. >> so all these developments how dangerous it was is they didn't know that in advance?

>> but that was not in place >> could you say the state department failure with their own costs mitigation is a good stewardship of taxpayers' money when we talk about the magnitude of 2.$7 billion? >> i would not. in your report that you referenced earlier you stated the cost-containment risk mitigation likely contributed to the cost of the project id will finish three years later than it was planned? >> would i be correct to say when we talk about a project of this magnitude they don't only follow their own policy what to expect for smaller

projects? that is big by our standards. i can only take from the at the that they are wasting money. i have the labor the point to along here is what bothers me at the federal law enforcement training center in georgia. here is a state department needs to build the new facility for embassy personnel and i understand that we understand the happened in benghazi initially in the report coming in the $260 million

and then they wetback and compare both sites. in the chicken ahead for atavistic. and did they said wartime. we have it down that much but it caught on. i was born at night but not last night. [laughter] seriously. so here we are duplicating we talk about where we wasted money in the past that might problem i have only been here 59 seconal but it go. i cannot see us wasting money. this is keeping me up at

night. tell me what i can do. >> congress has power of the purse in the they need to use it when they don't believe the indices are taking appropriate action you have the authority that nobody can spend money without their authority and only spend it on what you tell them to spend that '01. >> i guarantee everything in my pockets will be closer at 965 million and four bridges 65 do you know, that i know that. use see why i'm frustrated by the eric people are frustrated? >> i will get this across government every day so i share. >> i have got to get some sleep how're you used to

that? >>. >> i have never gotten used to it. in to make improvements to make a better subject chair recognizes the ranking member of the full committee >> the defense department has weapons system programs with a total estimated acquisition cost of 1. $4 trillion in august 2015 with the process that says a the military plan for more weapons than they can afford are you familiar.

>> yes and i have the author with meet. >> also to invest in the al weapons to make its own decisions about spending definitive is its investments rather than a piecemeal approach to balance long he and -- near and long term leads. >> not to the extent that we think they should. >> in the the of a projected cost will be increased by a 21% by $541 billion on the

taxpayer dollars to you think the duty could save money rather than their approach is currently using? >> yes. >> what you can do with portfolio management what is the right weapons for the funding to the extent that is possible even up optimizing for individual systems any pay as much as you can the department has taken some efforts for comments on that dod does the neck up portfolios but each organization looks at them differently they can't integrate the budgeting and

acquisitions -- acquisition requirements you are right cbo estimates procurement than maybe will look at 32 percent more money for those programs that already has under way in the joint strike fighter what you don't want to do is to do a system by system and get a haircut. >> it doesn't agree with most of gao with the deputy secretary of defense with the appropriate the irresponsibility to oversee

portfolio management. why is dod not played with those recommendations? >> the department disagrees with the gao -- gao to do a better job so we're not in disagreement i would also states over the last three years to have a portfolio reviews with these very alcon in mind with the rational decision. the key has been the department recognizes those individual piece parts to integrate this at that department why raid level.

we are moving in the direction. >> they also say'' akio d does not plan to require annual enterprise level with those budget process. why not? >> i fink the disagreement is over the specifics over how to do a rather than in the intent it needs to be scrubbed at the portfolio of them -- level we don't want to make that the centerpiece of what resources we applied with a process that comes back into being. the differences are in the implementation.

>> the chair recognizes the gentleman from ohio. >> how long had you been at the irs? >> i have had a stint there. >> they include all of the enforcement activities of criminal investigation including telephone services the tax-exempt division. >> did you have any overlapping? >> i did about three months. 80 report directly to the

commissioner? >> there is a tax gap? >> in that figure will be adjusted but it will not change dramatically speaking as 112 recommendations? >>. >> i am not sure are on point with the tax gap. >>. >> is it true you'll be implemented 50 the you

haven't dealt with? >> we have partially addressed. >> still 63% the need to be implemented. solicit have to deal with the tax gap. the you know, anything about the sting ray technology? >> i know it exists and having played that in certain circumstances. >> that mimics a cellphone tower it takes the cellphone data to give the irs that has targeted people access

in the geographic location the irs knows where they're at. >> how many times has used that technology? >> i feet it is about 37 times. >> deal and got a warrant to use that technology? >> did you get a probable cause warrant? >> behalf to get back to you. do they have a nondisclosure with the fbi to not disclose when you employ that did you disclose to them that technology? to have an agreement with the fbi that we will not disclose to use that

technology. >> i'm not certain. >> to of the guide and then i'll outline how they deal with stingray technology? >>. >> so those four things how many or did you get a warrant? that maybe it is sufficient you have a non disclosure it had you received the jones memo? >> we will get that to you. >> in terms of state grey technology i would like to ask if you have never

bifurcated the information if you did not get a warrant was seven your personal household? we recognize the woman from new mexico. >> take you very much. i will go off topic and i will apologize that generally speaking as a chief medical officer in ways to approve -- improve quality in the health care system that you were aware it denied it is a great place i talk about it in nearly every context that i

key and given the situation in our states that wanted to% of behavior were engaged in billing practices with the allocation of fraud so i disagree with that effort with the decision that the executive makes but here is the issue for me that three years later the companies that k bit are now largely:. there is no behavioral health infrastructure, no continuity of care, no requirement for the government to be accurate or credible data with hhs and

in cns have agreed that we have the worst public health outcome in this country with the highest overdose death with complex behavior in the state of new mexico would ruling is incarceration acute institutional care is not right for cost savings or quality and i would guess you are very aware with the highly complex station that has developed that is now successfully on medication and management that is very hard to achieve it has

completely taken away and you see a different site client one dash psychologist or psychiatrist every single time you try to get access would you agree this is not the kind of investment or sound practices of nt medicaid environment? >> they give repression client very aware of the issue of appropriate mental health we have had been working on this issue summarizing the work. >> talk about that a little that i should mention for

the record och they have all been cleared by the attorney general ed has taken three years to require the human services department to paid the providers billions of dollars. so what investments are working enamelware of very little civic we are ensuring it is following guidance. >> how does that get to a new work force? the neck, the medicaid side with access of care issues with proper network. man working with the state.

>> given that three years has gone by and i apologize for interrupting but i was a cabinet secretary for health. can you provide something in writing that talks about the ways in which god forbid it ever occurs in any other state ever again what cms ought to be doing with those acute care dollars? people lost their lives end continue to do so. >> i agree with the principle of access care and we will provide a response. >> said chair. >> we will do a follow-up on

his question but as i understand it is technology that allows law-enforcement to capture sulfone information. >> day is the key should be getting a warrant? >> i am not certain that we didn't. >> day you thank you should have? will you say that is an oversight or we don't need one? >> i am not certain to be honest of the requirements for use of this technology fit is required or not. >> you said you used it 37

times. >>. >> why did you use this? >> in the course of the investigation. what sort of crisis with a real fact situation. >> we using it in drug cases and counterterrism work. >> that is beyond the purview. but not exclusively.

how do you have responsibility? >> with counterterrorism work around money laundering and drug cases to affect the x administration. we have responsibility. >> i have to get back to the committee. >> okay. >> we will move on of disability benefits with what you are doing with that sort of thing. what do you do about overpayment with an overview?

>> not only to prevent the overpayments they permanently waive repayment of over $2 billion over 10 years period a time they're not process work requirements with social security and then take action. and into process of returns very quickly because then they should take them off disability rules. >> i am sure nobody can figure out why they are disabled but what you doing about that?

>> yes we have audits under way to look at the process for the initial disability claims we're supposed to evaluate to make lots of recommendations some have been implemented sarah require legislative action. >> if i have disability for a bad back? >> that depends on the recommendation for better criteria. to be used on a regular basis but there is a schedule they have a backlog of cases. >> i will talk to later

off-camera. >> i recognize myself with the informative dialogue that we have had i would be remiss isn't unbelievable job that our staff does of a regular basis to natalie prepare that members of congress i would recognize a previous colleague obviously this was part of his brain trust so long pass him leaving the upper chamber we continue to see the fruits of his mission and i will

let knowledge that as well. so certainly i will thank you and your staff if gao ain't happy i'm not happy to put it bluntly and then have bipartisan way we're willing to attack that with those differing views of what we should attack first but to be a political instrument we will not do that if we need to redress this sand that. it is of benefit i have then

asked to testify that implementation has fallen short and i say that in a kind way like we are making progress it is like nails on a chalkboard. the matrix of what you will get done. one of the things shared with me is shared services. with the benefits of shared services to talk about those shared services she is looking a.

whose fault in who is ultimately responsible. how can we save money with one agency using services that we don't have to create individual departments? >> one example of benefit there used to be a proliferation one of those taking place of the shared services we you shares service providers so there is a lot of potential in the area of any internal management services.

we haven't done a lot beyond financial minutemen. >> if if you would see a couple of areas to address perhaps we could look at information and technology services that could be shared but if you can get that back to the committee. >> at the top of page three it says july 2015 in to begin that process if it has

received a second stingray? >> i am masher. but according to that letter. >> in but they made. >> i have never heard of stingray before. >> you gave 124 ideas to deal with a $385 billion tax cut they have implemented less than rand 50% or 37% of the recommendations that you gave them but but the use

stingray technology in the second unit to infringe nine their liberties stick that is why raise those questions why he start with those 112 recommendations we are collecting the money we are supposed to collect instead of buying stingray technology it infringing upon the liberties of tax payer americans. >> by reclaiming my time. i saw you shaking your head yes. we need to make sure in terms of the amount of money

and i don't want to put words in your mouth but it isn't linear or fair. is that correct? >> there is a recommendation that would equalize payments for services in congress passed legislation. >> can we get to this committee a plan house cns plans to address that particular recommendation? >> we will work to get back with that information. yes, sir,. >> so we will have some kind of response in 120 days? >> we will attempt. >> what timeframe is reasonable the person doing the work said you could make

a blunder drew 20 days. now we will recognize the ranking member for his closing remarks. >> i will share a concern. want to give our fighting men and women their resources but what we heard with said gao with your particular area also said vera making progress. when i don't want to do is see 40 percent of what you implement has no substantial impact year after year that would make systemic changes in that is what i am seeing and reading that we are making limited progress for

those who try to make those appropriation in decisions then we hear about those gross inefficiencies that they make on a annual basis to implement these. will you be able to report back to this committee within 120 days on the recommendations that is yet to be implemented? >> with that i will recognize the ranking member >> with three made to the

ira's we will make sure the recommendations are cost-effective untypically with the recommendation the agency has flexibility so they have that flexibility to do that we take that into account so some of these require a little bit of the upfront investment we believe the benefits will exceed the cost of the recommendations for what was

implemented last year that his net cost. we can do a lot better. >> is teethirty spending too much? >> they cannot at account for that there really major federal agency that cannot pass the test of unaudited last year alone they have scaled back requirements the only one year budget data not to get an opinion so i am concerned we have another meeting this afternoon to focus on the areas to make improvements so they

promised they would present a comprehensive correction action plan to make changes necessary but right now there is not proper accounting there is not proper oversight for those assets they are in need of significant improvement that is for all kinds of mischief for lack of a stronger word. >> we say control problems. >> faq very much. >> let me tell you why that

only this is important whether it is the highwater mark or low water mark we need to set the standard for each one of you i would hope that next year it isn't the same three agencies that are here because along with that with those improper payments across the same groups for cms to have a role with that. there is a headline today in the last few hours that

encourages social security numbers for taxes you cannot control what is this a the press but my point is it is all about the earned income tax credit and if there is something that doesn't allow all those people to go after those improper payments that where we have this problem of the nothing is either a half let us know i hope this is the last hearing we're not addressing the problem there is too many stories out there the you can pass

the independent audit with the most irresponsible hardest working people it is time to get our house in order. the committee stands adjourned. [inaudible conversations]

and [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations]

that is the only reason i'm here. stick if you would to get testy i've got the numbers

to be the most expensive operating system and to have the highest operating cost what would justify that? >> we are the second largest transit system in america. >> to have the opportunity is an embarrassment and the nation is capital. with moscow paris and london the capital cities. said to have them pay for the system, and just asking

$300 million that is worth their share as weak transport your work force every day we would then to be safe it reliable to leave him like we did in 2005 to do nothing if we do that and something happens i am blaming bad on you. we are the key your help. >> how can you blame us? >> i have been killed aboard one your it is not operating well now and we don't need those resources. what is the breakdown of how the money will be spent? >> let me just say this and

to have one that is capable as she has never been used said he will not give us a dime? this is your system this is my system you'll put your kids and parents of this system? like it is today i have reports year from 20102005 we have done the things we cannot do this again

>> matt and secretary. >> ♪

>> i will make a statement that i have to run from here to a meeting for a number of issues. forgive me if i dash out of fear. there are some events i am curious about.

and then we will wait we will do some homework particularly pleased we hear for the report of 2015 in the entire team for producing for work and effort it is a continuous effort built without the most widely read to a defective publications and i want to stress of the standards of the compiling

of this report then norma's referred to our universal not so deep that we make up for the arbitrary standard in a universal standards and agreed to by most nations in the world these are the international standards. have paid government has the ability including the united states. the point to make over and over his respecting human rights is a moral obligation but an opportunity to harness the full energy and

prosperous society and does not jeopardize the ability to be artistic increase in an entrepreneurial to make debt difference in the building of the community. that is not a theory but a fact proven every day end countries around the world those that suppress freedom of suppression is less likely to have economies that it ovate and diversify and grow. those that discriminate against women and minorities have trouble competing is those that benefit for public trust.

including violent extremism. so that is bad or nonexistent or corrupt that why debt seeing remarkable abuses with the data they treated the people so the matter how lofty the intentions is important to underscore the reports that we released today is the tiny fraction to a vacant

seat freedom indignity across the globe. as part of the agenda with every single nation in the multilateral organizations alien to not a day goes by the officials did not advocate on behalf of basic liberties to speak out against corruption pressing for the release of political prisoners are underscoring our support for constitutional procedures and rule of law. for every official the travels with specific cases with leaders around the world. in the past year backing for

human-rights in democratic principles is a focus of diplomacy. this includes the states of central asia where civil society that includes egypt to distinguish between violent than in the nonviolent dissent in cuba where they are urged the authorities there is no question that most are far more interested to plug into the world economy than recycling those arguments leftover. for those to catch up to the population. of course, not every conversation and bears fruit in not immediately. and not in all areas but

steady efforts we have a seat again and again and i want to emphasize it is a difference worth fighting for. it with those in nigeria or sure -- so there are challenges that need to be over, but we are working closely with each to meet those challenges. the country remains a single party state but hanoi has pledged to allow for the formation for the first time of a significant advance for workers in the azerbaijani

we have welcomed a damper a political prisoners released in the hope for more than with political participation and we have done much to a strength in that country in a relationship. the human rights reports spell out our concerns on every continent. but the most widespread violations with those from the middle east with the syrian conflict caused enormous suffering. i have discussed this crisis repeatedly and i will highlight a few points right now. first the united states once those responsible for committing abuses to be held accountable for their

actions into dead-end we're supporting international efforts to analyze them preserve evidence of these atrocities. second we're doing all the key is to aid the victims of human-rights including counseling and other assistance for women and girls we continue to shrink territory every revenue sources to cut supply to rally the world against genocidal actions and ideologies. finally we are deeply committed to search for a political solution including full access to the communitarian supplies, as a statement of cessation of hostilities the release of the most vulnerable prisoners in a transition in

accordance with the geneva convention and of 2012. given though horrors of the past five years i cannot imagine a powerful blow for human-rights with a decisive end to the war and especially to the torture and bombing in their right under a new beginning for the people lowe's them believe afterdeck aides of dictatorship that syria can never recover and i disagree example of the human species and in spirit so many different times and places show us how resilient people

can be. in many ways it is the untold story of recent years have they have managed to keep their communities alive and violence has declined over the course of the last week's we have seen this with the organization of the resumption of political activity there is no guarantee they can put their country together again after all they have been through they can try. i talk today to geneva on

behalf of the support group and all the nations involved we urge all participants one side or the other the regime to adhere to the cessation of hostilities to negotiate transition to the geneva communique of 2012 which is precisely what they want the iranians have signed up, russians, most of the european countries in we strongly urge to give them

an opportunity to do their work in geneva. i want to talk about torture i want to remove a confusion in recent weeks and months. the united states is opposed to the use of torture in any form that any time for a non stage actor america's commitment to the debate and treated to purses in captivity began as far back as washington for the revolutionary war countless times with a host of international commitments to declare this opposition last year with bipartisan in legislation approved by the

united states congress that others meet and we must meet the standards ourselves i know the inner that arises that they can sometimes prompt re qian revenge but there is a straight line when times are tough and those that do their best to maintain their standards to uphold the core values to make the nation's strong i am pleased to turn the floor over to ask for his remarks. >>.

>> my thanks to the secretary for the hundreds of people that work so hard over a period of months to compile these reports with the hundreds of human rights officers in those that do the legwork we're very proud with the human-rights reports have come to represent after 40 years. in to keep us honest with allies and adversaries we still have debates in in disagreements how to address of challenges outlined in the reports when it comes

time to settle it is a set of facts. so that as rye will start because the crisis shows how vital the defense of human rights how one small country could have consequences the borders. also something that was a little more encouraging think of how the crisis began five years ago. . .

the freedom they were asking for. something we had taken note of. everything we are doing is done to help those people went back. the sacrifices, the country that is free of daesh and

the brutality of the assad regime. a lot of unhappy stories. and they come at a time when it seems that authoritarian governments beginning with influential powers like russia and china striking out against freedoms of expression and the press. if you look at the introduction to the reports you will find the section will be tried to itemize and respond point by point. we travel around the governments. i hope you find it interesting.

i don't think it ought to surprise us. if you are trying to steal an election or stay in office on profit from corruption all of these countries, there are people who face that kind of persecution. secretary kerry and i need people like that cuba to bahrain. the secretary mentioned some places.

we are focused on more progress in the years ahead. in burma political government has killed three political prisoners. seeking piece with ethnic minorities. a monopoly. president obama in keeping with the announce pledge to bring institutions in the army. in nigeria support newly elected government strategy that was the trust of the

population by protecting their rights. we are releasing our support to strengthen the most helpful model of government to emerge from their spring. primed against humanity. working with regional partners to persuade the government releasing political prisoners. encouraging reconciliation and justice

as you follow the story one thing i would like to try this for two years now the obama administration has been asking congress for legislation that would quarrel companies registered in the united states to identify human beings on. the presses every day. i would argue the most important thing they can do is to pass legislation may keepthat keeps a legal and financial system from being used. with that i would be happy.

>> moral obligation. hold israeli. >> a simple answer to your question. these issues are issues that of the race in every country around the world. the governments of many, many occasions. they have always argued that israel has a right to defend themselves.

terror attacks my human rights imperative in and of itself. the right to defend itself manner that is consistent

some more depressing news. >> the report: increase and you mentioned also, the lawyers. can you talk a little bit about the drivers behind this trend? >> universal truth. communicating between the surface. chinese people the last

decade in particular have become connected through the internet, the people all around the world. they have grown. new line is respected. corruption is punished. that swept under the rug. the same as people everywhere else. i think the only speak out, the aspirations in china. i think that's another thing. if we continue to speak out

and people in china, over time. >> talked about them. >> how much time you have? >> yeah. obvious reasons. syria is by far the greatest crisis on our mind. anywhere in the world. in the war that has killed upwards of 200,000 people.

but there are supporting young democracies. dealing with setbacks. the sort that we have seen over the last couple of years. friends and partners in the middle east. shared interest in fighting terrorism. the message that we deliver this message. the number of other countries. peaceful opposition. peaceful demonstrations

people are out. you reinforce the fundamental arguments. offers no. they continue to deliver that message. [inaudible question]

>> i hope you read the words. but the words to convey i will start with recognizing turkey has borne the brunt of the war. taken a huge number of syrian refugees and that is something that we applaud.

repeatedly by terrorists acts. we always make clear. in her report, not very strong concern. prosecutions of journalism. about tightening of freedom of expression. the takeover newspapers. i would we spoke out about such problems.

on trial. this has been a feature of our policy. >> a difference between religious freedom and human rights. us international religious freedom. on pakistan. new line on the press report. >> what is the difference?

religious freedom is a subset of human rights. human rights is a very broad concept. we enjoy as human beings. freely without interference. a special report or lack thereof. in terms of sourcing for the reports variety of sources which we consider to be credible. not able to corroborate it. >> people are in the name of religion.

free and pakistan. and these are the parts. different there. speaking from pakistan. >> i don't see any differentiation. >> takes questions from lawmakers will the us is prepared. from a cyber attack or natural disaster. live coverage now transportation infrastructure committee. later in the day house oversight panel examine some of the benefits to military veterans.

live at 2:00 p.m. eastern. >> a couple of meals and the steam shovel. i think again is one of the other ironies. >> sunday night author an investigative journalists. one of the largest engineering and construction companies. projects throughout the world. the american taxpayer should have some access.

>> sunday night at 8:00 o'clock eastern. >> students from around the country have the project. science, technology engineering and math. >> welcome to the white house. there are a lot of good things.

the commander-in-chief. air force one. i don't have to take off my shoes. so the best moments as president involve science and our annual science fair. i have shot a marshmallow out of the can directly under lincoln's portrait. i learned about prototypes. machine out of legos.

flying around the internet. most of theimportant thing i've just been able to see the unbelievable ingenuity and passion and curiosity and brainpower of also seen alarming number of robots. they start a little bit. i'm sure the white house staff was thrilled about.

but this is fun. it speaks to what makes america the greatest country on earth. i want to publicly thanks all the people who help make today possible. i want you to know who to blame something explodes. members of congress and the house we have our science advisor. [applause] lift of the importance of science. this is not a typical combination.

active science enthusiasts. we have, creator randall munroe. they are joined by some of the past including alina simone. i remember meeting you last year. [applause] this is an eclectic and diverse bunch.

youngest innovators. nothing more hopeful. showing the rest of us it is never too early in life. reason and logic. if they work or if they don't. learning from that try something knew. we can tackle some of the biggest challenges that we face. you are sharing in this essential spirit of discovery.

the 273rd birthday. thomas jefferson was obviously a pretty good writer. the declaration turned out pretty well. a great political thinker and a great present. but he was also a scientist. ..

it could've been all the others who were involved in the founding of our country, one of the essential elements that is embedded in our constitution and the design of this democracy is the belief that the power of the human brain, when applied to the world around us, can do amazing, remarkable things. it also requires as we are seeing from these outstanding teams were seen strong teamwork and perseverance and by following the trail of your curiosity of where it takes you your continually adding to the body of knowledge that helps make us a more secure, more prosperous this and more hopeful

society science has always been the hallmark. is the key to our economic success. i cannot think of a more exciting time for american science than right now because we are busy reigniting that spirit of innovation to meet so many challenges. to give you some examples we are on the cusp of new air of a medicine accounts for people's individual genes. i've been doing work with francis collins, the head of nih around how we take the human genome that we have mapped in part thanks to the good work of francis and others, so that we are able to not just cure diseases generally, but figure out what exactly do you and your particular body need in order to keep it running well. we are harnessing technology to develop cleaner sources of energy and save our planet in the process. we are unraveling the mystery of the human brain, unlocking secrets of the universe, in fact

just last month commander scott kelly returned from an almost year long stay on the international space station. some of you may have read about it. he conducted,'s experiments and served as an experiment himself. his identical twin brother mark is an astronaut as well. mark stayed home during this entire time that scott was in the air. that met nasa could study the two of them side-by-side to gain insights into how long-term occupation in space changes your body and your operating systems. it turned out initially it makes you 2 inches taller. [laughter] i saw mark just two weekends ago and apparently you shrink back quickly. it makes your head bigger to which -- but i don't know how big. america also has a selfie taking

rover that is instagram in from mars. the international space station just got its first inflatable habitat for astronauts. spacex and on the commercial privates venture side of space just landed a returning rocket on a drone ship in the middle of the ocean. that is opening up the possibility of reusing our rockets instead of throwing them away once they have launched. the progress we're seeing seen across the border is extraordinary. it's extreme -- somewhere in your generation it may be in this room, pioneers who will be the first to set their foot on mars. the first humans anyway. i don't know about any other life forms. i know what you're capable of because i had a chance to see some of the exhibits. we had some of the press follow, if you are not blown away from some of the young people that we just had a chance to meet, then

you had too big of a luncheon you are falling asleep because if you're paying attention it was unbelievable. we have my who is a senior from san jose, california. where is maia? >> maia is using a low-cost microcontroller, software available on the internet and a smart phone and she designed a tool that allows people with asthma and other lung diseases to diagnose and monitor their own systems. her goal was to smart tone technology to make diagnose stick test a lot cheaper. respiration is not only to chris next big thing in her field, she also wants to make it accessible to more than a privileged few in the world. give. give her big round of applause [applause]. i do have to say, the only problem with the science fair is

it makes me feel inadequate. [laughter] i think back to my high school and first while i do not have a field, maia talked about her field, my field, i don't know i don't know what my field of study was at that time, but it was not bad. we also have 9-year-old jacob from baltimore. where's jacob. [applause]. their ego, and the bow tie. jacob loved programming ever since the age of two when he nearly wiped clean his grandma's computer. which i'm sure she was thrilled with, don't worry, jacob, jacob fixed it. last summer, this young maker wrote a company that manufactured 3d printers and asked if he could have a printer in exchange for feedback on whether their printers are kid friendly.

so clearly he is a good negotiator and businessperson. today he is turning out toys and games for himself and he dreams one day of making artificial organs for people. i should have by the way, he had a very good idea which is that we should have in addition to my science advisory group, all the scientists and leaders in various fields, we should have a kids advisory group that starts explaining to us what's interesting to them and what's working and could help us shape advances in stem education for that was jacob's education. way to go, we were, we are going to follow up on that [applause]. we have a 16-year-old anna -- there he is right there.

when he was little his grandparents walked him 10 miles to a remote clinic in his native india for vaccinations only to find out the vaccines had spoiled in the heat. they eventually got the shots they needed and he thought this is a problem and wanted to prevent other children from facing the same risk and so he developed what he called the vax wagon. a refrigerator on wheels that transport vaccines to remote destinations. that is the kind of innovation and compassion that we are seeing from some of these young people. give him a big round of applause [applause]. we have olivia a high school senior from greenwich, connecticut. there she is, hi.

now think about this, so so olivia swept the google science fair, she read about in the a bowl in the news, she decided i want to make a faster, less expensive test for the disease. as opposed to a lot of adults who are just thinking, how do i avoid getting a bullet. she decides i'm going to fix this. so she wants a faster, less expensive test. an old test cost $1000 and took up to 12 hours to conduct. using silk as a base instead she made a test that costs $5 without requiring refrigeration, with results that are available in under 30 minutes. how about it, what what were you doing in high school? give olivia a big round of applause [applause].

this is just a small sample of the incredible talent that is on display at the science fair. we cannot be prouder of all the students, to all the young people, i want to thank the parents and the teachers and mentors who still behind these young people and encourage them to pursue their dreams, i asked all of the young people who i had a chance to meet how you got interested in this there were a few was parents were in the sciences but for the majority of them there is a teacher, a mentor, a program, something that got them hooked. it is a reminder that science is not something that is out of reach, it's not just for the few comments for the many as long as it is something we are weaving into our curriculum and something we are valuing as a

society. i hope that every company, every college, every community, every parent, every teacher joins us in encouraging this next generation of students to actively engage in pursue science and push the boundaries of what is possible. we have to give all of our young people the tools they need to explore, discover, and to dig their hands and stuff, experiment, invent and uncover something new, and try things and see hypotheses or experiments fail and then learn how to extract the knowledge from things that didn't work as well as things that worked. that is another thing that came out of a lot of conversations i had with young people. that is why were building on her efforts to bring hands-on computer science learning for example to all students. as i said before in the new economy, computer science is not optional, the basic skill so were issuing new guidance to

school districts to how they can better support computer science education, oracle will invest in getting hundred 25000 more students in the computer science classes. give oracle a big round of applause for that, we appreciate that. [applause]. we have done more than 500 schools that are committing to expand access to commute computer science. this is a sample of things we have been putting together over the last several years to try to expand opportunity for the kind of brilliant work that is being done by the students. we are seen entire states take action, for example last month rhode island got on a path to bring computer science to every school within two years. we are going to build on this progress, we want to make sure everyone of our students, no matter where they're from, what income their parents bring in, regardless of

their backgrounds, we want want to make sure they have access to hands-on science, technology, and math that will set them up for success and keep our nation competitive in the 20 century. that includes working to the biases that exist in the sciences. a lot of them aren't conscious but the fact is that we have got to get more of our young women and minorities into science and technology, engineering math and science. i have been pleased to see the number of young women who are more more involved in our science fairs over the course of the last several years. as i said to a group i had a chance to meet with outside, we are not going to succeed if we have half the team on the bench. especially when it's the smarter half of the team. , our diversity is a strength that we have to leverage all our talent in order to make

ourselves as creative and solve as many problems as we can. one of the things i find find so inspiring about these young thinkers and makers is that they look at all these problems is something we can solve. there's a confidence when you are pursuing science. they don't consider age of barrier, they don't think we'll that is just the way things are, they're not afraid to try things and ask the tough questions. above all, what what we see today is the obligation to use their gifts to do something not just for themselves but for other people as well. olivia said after she was working on this ebola diagnostic tool, my generation has been raised with an awareness that we are part of a global community, it's everybody's responsibility to take a proactive a proactive approach and think of solutions.

she is right. i want want you to call up congress and tell them. [laughter] tell them you're thinking on that. that was just a joke. [laughter] , maybe not but it is all up to us to work together with our youngest talent leading the way. a century ago elbert einstein predicted predicted the existence of gravitational waste. this year, a team of scientist finally proved him right. this was very cool by the way. those of you had a chance to read about this, the way they measured it was the building got a little longer. the building from which they were measuring this gravitational wave grew like, a little bit. [laughter] that it kind of shrank back. which is really weird and really

interesting that is the thing about science, you don't always cross the finish line yourself, you may have a hypothesis, a theory and then. people build off of it. it's like you you are running the race and passing the baton. everything that we are working with today is based on some young person like you ten years ago, 50 years ago, 100 or 300 years ago who asked themselves the same question. while even einstein did not see all the fruits of his labor, because he went as far as his curiosity and hard work would take him, generations of scientists continue to build on his progress. that is what we are going to need from all of you. we are counting on all of you to help build a brighter future every you to use your talents to help your communities in your country and the world's. we will be with you every step

of the way. i will be keenly following your progress so that when you invent some cancer cure or find some new source of cheap, clean energy, i, i will take some of the credit. [laughter] i will say if it had not been for the white house science or, who knows what might have happened. even though it won't really be my credit to take, i'm just teasing. thank you very much everybody. i'm i'm proud of you. good job. [applause]. you kids don't have to be quite from here on out.

[laughter] [inaudible conversation] [inaudible conversation] [inaudible conversation] [inaudible conversation] [inaudible conversation] [inaudible conversation] [inaudible conversation],

[inaudible conversation] [inaudible conversation] [inaudible conversation] [inaudible conversation] >> hello everybody, how are you.

what's your name? i'm hannah. i'm from florida. >> is wonderful to see you. so you should know this is one of my favorite things. i love my science fairs and seeing all the exhibits. so what great are you doing? >> i'm in ninth grade. >> so your freshman. >> so we have here? i see? at zero and then a big display. >> so i created several different -- of an ocean prototype in an attempt to provide stable access to electricity to my penpals who live in ethiopia. >> when did you start penpal in? >> i was in fourth grade when we first started exchanging letters and i started my research in seventh grade. >> so the idea was where there is not consistent electricity

and you thought will maybe this is something i can figure out. >> exactly. >> so what did you figure out? >> so three different prototypes, the process showed here it's handheld. i found that it generated some electricity. then then i realized it was not practical for a group situation because she needs a primary source of power and holding a source of electricity isn't practical. so i'm working with my former middle school site teacher to design a product type. >> there you go. >> then i went on to its a thomas are stationary so you would patch a rope to this 3m product and then hold it or tied to a tree and that it would generate electricity for you. >> so described to me did

science which electricity is generated. water is flowing through here. >> know these are sealed off. >> so this is just keeping it afloat and this is just a classic waterwheel. >> attached to an ac generator. so the electrons are and clouds and changing orientation several times per second. so i i needed to convert it to d.c. or direct current and order to do that i have that black box and that has transistors inside which converts it into a straight line. >> so have we tested this? >> yes in this demonstration is like string energy. >> so you can do that and you can see it light up and exchange of power. >> so the strength simulates the

movement of water. and we can see that the lights lit up. >> exactly. in the future i'm going to replace the lights with battery so truth can have charged battery to study by at night, or generate fresh water. >> excellent. have you i spent a science book? >> know in seventh grade my parents try me off at his summer engineering camp and at first i do want to be there. >> you are in into it at all. >> i was the only girl the program. i got there and i don't want to be there but after a few days of building robots i was really interested in science and it led to this. >> it turns out you have a gift. one of the lessons we can learn from this in addition to our basic energy science is sometimes that your parents out there talking about. >> yes, sir. >> i been trying to a slimmest my children for quite some time. so even if you don't initially think we have a good idea we are

right. we are so proud of you. let's look over their swing get a good picture. >> congratulations. were going to have a lot of work to do in trying to come up with clean energy sources. >> i'm from kentucky, louisville. >> so what we have here? actually what you're you in school. >> i'm sr. in high school. >> and what we got? >> hi mr. president. i thought of the project to my freshman year where we are in the top 2% of forced air in the country. it's a note that our community was facing environmental problem and then i started researching. so i collected the pollutants through cigarette smoke and factories which is very prevalent my state of kentucky. i focused on how it affected her

kidneys. one of the kidneys may role is to filter out toxins from the body. in my research i saw that it was a modified the expression of the protein called an f2 differently within the cell versus outside the cell which is causing the development of kidney fibrosis and inflammation. so what identify the problem i devised a novel two-part treatment approach in which we can correct these effects. so so using small molecules or gene therapy i would increase within the cell and it blocks the fibrosis. and then i would use anti- body and bind to the protein outside of this cell blocking the function. so the the therapeutic option is important review options. one, it will stop the fibrosis before it progresses to renal disease. that's important as we only have two main treatments or management options for that right now, there's dialysis, which is very painful and

long-term and there's also kidney transplantation. right now people who are waiting for an organ are waiting for a kidney. although they cost the government efforts to $30 billion every year. that's one avenue another is the chemical i've been studying metabolizes from -- so it's a platinum-based drug and used to treat cancers like small cell lung cancer, increased testicular cancer from 10% to over 85% now. what they found is it builds up in the kidneys and those are experiencing kidney damage while receiving the drug. so the second avenue i'm exploring exploring is using a combined therapy. given interval does while utilizing a two-pronged approach, protective factor rather kidney so that they can work on killing the cancer in

patients are dying from kidney failure instead of their cancer. >> 's i have a few questions. one, has we confirm that the incidence of the that the elements are occurring at a higher rate where there's pollution? >> yes, definitely. >> so that's not just -- so we know for fact that there is some link. >> definitely. that's after 911 most people focused on the effects it was having on lungs. but now ten years later their studies done on first responders showing they are suffering from end-stage renal disease. >> interesting. >> so the second question is,

have you had the opportunity to present your therapyideas so that they actually could be pursued and researcher. >> yes i'm actually here because of the foundation. i entered the national competition and that gave me the primary platform for which i could talk about my research and i have been to the national fair and met scientists through that. it's a definitely great to get more ideas for my research. >> 's are we going to have a situation where you can connect up with some research labs and start testing out these propositions? >> hopefully, i'm open. >> did you have a chance to meet our new fda director? >> briefly and then he was taken away. >> all evan circle back. >> definitely, definitely, thank you. >> who knows, you may have come up with something that could end up being really significant. have you i spend spent interested in science?

>> scientists. i love science ever since i was a kid. i didn't really know what i liked, i was curious about everything. my dad does computer stuff, my mom is a researcher so i've been exposed to science and a young age. it was really, really my teachers, had great teachers, my science teacher at school is phenomenal. >> give a shout out to them, your student here is shining and she is given you props. >> my site teachers have done a lot and encourage me and if i didn't have that support structure and shown they can make something out of science it's very important. >> you want to do research are you interested in medical school? >> both. i'm interested it in a lot of things. definitely medicine but i don't want to close the door and researcher now. >> my only concern is that you may have trouble getting into college. [laughter] has anybody shown that they're willing to accept you. >> i'm hoping, waiting that they

can't reject me now. >> maybe if you need a recommendation, i will help you okay, let's get a good picture. >> what's your name? >> wendy. >> stefan. >> andrew. >> ray from? >> new york city. >> which boroughs that in? >> manhattan. >> what you're you in school? >> i'm a junior. >> i'm alumni a freshman in college. >> , june. >> as students of new york city we all experienced -- upon

investigating the problem we found that's caused by the chelation of trash. use a prototype of a semi automatic vacuum cleaner. >> i heard about this. this is to take the trash. >> there you go. go ahead, get me to steal your thunder. >> it's all good. so you can put this on of flatbed and vacuum up all the trash. >> have you tested this yet? >> not yet. we have only have only been able to do simulation test like this to simulate. >> sore we think about going for the ping-pong balls? , do you feel confident? >> yeah. >> let's do it. >> will ask you to turn it on. >> are you sure, i don't want to