the law also strengthens gao's ability to take legal action if an agency refuses to provide gao with information necessary to perform its functions. this law is a great example of what our committee can do when we work together to promote accountability in the federal government. the federal government spends more than $3 trillion annually on behalf of the american people. we must ensure those tax dollars are spent well. thank you so much for being here. i'll look forward to questions. >> it is the tradition of this committee to swear in witnesses. so if you'll rise and raise your right hand. please be seated. >>> our first witness is mr. eugene dodaro. he has more than 40 years of experience with gao include willing as acting comptroller general, chief operating officer, and head of the accounting management division. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. good afternoon to you. i'm very pleased to be here today to discuss the latest addition to gao's high risk program. i'm pleased to report that many of the areas of the 32 areas on the list in 2015 have shown improvement and are in

today's hearing is really on the gao's high risk series, their list, something prepared by gao since the early '90s. the facts speak for themselves. in the last ten years, they report about 2$240 million over that 10 year period by enacting their recommendations by making government more effective, $24 billion per year. igs play a key role in that as well. senator grassley and i sent a letter and requested the ig's last congress give us a list of all their recommendations that are outstanding. they have been implementedn the result was 15,222 net potential sa savings, $87 billion. even in the federal government, that's real money. it's really folks like you that can make a huge difference. today's hearing, what we decided to do is -- we listened to mr. dodaro testify beautifully without notes and he can speak an awful lot. rather than have him completely on the hot speed, we decided to invite mr. mitchell and mr. john roth, department of homeland security, to testify in terms of their department and the activity on the high risk list and invited mr. john thomson, director of the cens

we share a similar with gao. it's important we have a strong relationship with gao to ensure that we avoid duplication of effort as much as possible. to that end, one of the first things i did when i started was to meet with comptroller and some senior staff. our offices have had a number of discussions and communications since that time to promote coordination and effective oversight of va. gao added managing risks and improving va health care to its biannual high risk list in 2015 and it remains on the high risk list that was just issued for 2017. the gao focused its concerns in five broad areas. ambiguous policies and inconsistent processes, inadequate capability, information challenges, inadequate training for staff. while our work is determined by what we believe is the most effective oversight of va, a number of our reports address concerns in these same five areas. as the committee requested, i will highlight a sampling of oig work in each areas that resulted in gao placing va health care on the high risk

the law also strengthens gao's ability to take legal action if an agency refuses to provide gao with information necessary to perform its functions. this law is a great example of what our committee can do when we work together to promote accountability in the federal government. the federal government is a complex system of agencies that spends more than $3 trillion annual by on behalf of the american people. we are members of a public trust to ensure the tax dollars are used well. thank you so much for being here today. thank you, mr. chairman, for having the committee. i look forward to questions. >> if you will all rise and raise your right hand. do you swear the testimony you will give before this committee will be the truth, whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god? please be seated. >> our first witness is mr. eugene da dario. mr. da dario has been comptroller in the accountability office since 2010. plor than 40 years experience at the agency including comptroller chief officers and head of the management division. comptroller dodaro. >> thank you. ranking member

the gao focused its concerns in five broad areas. ambiguous policies and inconsistent process, inadequate oversight and accountability, information technology challenges, inadequate training for va staff, and unclear resource needs and allocation priorities. while our work is determined by what we believe is the most effective oversight of va, a number of our reports addressed concerns in these same five areas. as the committee requested i will highlight sampling of oig work that resulted in gao placing va health care on its high-risk list. it should be noted that many of the oig reports could fit in more than one area. we have issued a number of reports in the past few years that include va's ambiguous policies and inconsistent process. our review of the health eligibility center determined that va had not effectively managed its business process to insure consistent creation and maintenance of essential health care eligibility data. we made 13 recommendations in that report, including one focused on controls to insure that future e

thank you for testifying on behalf of gao today. we are pleased to have mr. jonathan segal to hear about his experiences under the aoc. thank you for being here to testify. i look forward to your discussion today. congress needs to find way it make sure americans have access to affordable health insurance and can choose among a variety of plans. with that i would now yield to our ranking member for his opening statement, then right to our witnesses in our hearing. gentlemen, from illinois is recognized. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you to our witnesses for joining us today. millions of people now have high quality affordable health care as a result of the affordable care act. one of my constituents wrote this to me and i quote, we are so grateful for the changes brought about by the aca in our situation. they have truly been life-changing for us. for the first time our family has access to dental coverage. this means we actually good to the dentist. before this, was a rare thing and only when in pain. for the first time our preventative care is covered.

gao dismissed criticism over the excess amount. he said it's understandable that implementing the resolution would take time. >>> china has suggested that the world's largest and second largest economies cooperate to avoid a trade war. gene otani has details on that and other business headlines. >> china's commerce minister has called on the united states to sit down and discuss potential trade disputes. gao hucheng referred to punitive tariffs that the u.s. plans to impose on some chinese imports. >> translator: china and the u.s. should maintain proper negotiation and communication channels and solve conflicts and differences through dialogue and cooperation. >> the u.s. administration claims that some chinese products, such as road paving material and a heat-resistant fabric are being dumped in the u.s. and harming american businesses. gao said that chinese firms have invested nearly $50 billion in the u.s. and created almost 100,000 jobs. >>> japan is getting ready to kick off premium friday. the initiative encourages people to

in september of last year, jl issued a ruling -- gao issued a ruling. what did gao determined? call -- mr. dicken: they did issue a legal opinion looking at the payment under the program. the affordable care act indicated that both raymond elected for to be provided to the general treasury and reinsurance payments to the pairs. the collections were less than the amounts. they paid all that to the insurers. those payments should have also been -- come -- rep. walker: can you share of the reasons were -- share what the reasons were? why was it disregarded? mr. dicken: i would defer to -- hhs attorneys that would be up to speak to the legal reasoning, but in general because the collections were less than the amount that were authorized. that was the priority that hhs made. walker: do -- rep. you know how much is still owed to the u.s. treasury? dicken: i don't have that at my figure tips. rep. walker: is it in the billions? mr. dicken: the requirement was for several billions. theents can be made because deductions for 2016 would be made in 2017. some of that is still being reconc

although gao and v.a. inspector general selected instances with these robust controlled, i believe the system is working as designed to make it difficult for v.a. staff to divert drugs and most importantly to give us the tools to be able to detect diversion rapidly and take action when it does occur. vha implemented robust controlled substance internal controls in the early 1980s. in many cases, these meshes exceed those required by the controlled substances act and align with mayor clinic's best practices. data show that v.a.'s reported controlled substances loss rate is .008% or 8 per 100,000. and it is v.a.'s very own internal controls that lead to the vast majority of diversion cases being identified. the use of illegal drugs by v.a. employees is inconsistent with the special trust placed in those who care for veterans. the inspector general recently reviewed allegations at the atlanta v.a. medical center of a backlog of unbackground investigations and found that mandatory drug tests of must hires did

>> i would think that gao recent work and that there is an issue. >> dr. clancy. the deputy undersecretary for health excellence what does that mean?on the s recehas these drugs? >> for integrity is about compliance. >> what person now the s veterans of frustration is responsible for this problem ?n convic >> be undersecretary of health. >> right now that is someone in enacting position the undersecretary was recentlyy confirmed. >> q report to that person? when somebody is caught stealing drugs and making them available what action was taken quick.ne >> it depends on the us circumstances. >> you call the cops? >> yes. what sort of actions recently have taken place that is responsible for the abuse? >> affair number of people they brought to the attention of law-enforcemente p. that are serving time and we would be happy to get you will list for the record. >> integrated services networks. do a be >> all over the country including alaska and hawaii.w so it is the span of reach the system is organized into these networks what does the integrated service networks do

unfortunately, when the program lists were put online, gao reviewed the information and discovered that the inventory in their word was quote not a useful tool for decision making. what were they afraid of?an even if the government can answerha that question, we can find strong evidence of numbers on the rise and mr. mulvaney will be able to play a crucial role in team india checked federal government. i also look forward to working with the urgent need to reform the broken budget process, which has contributed to the budgetary stalemate and read current continuing resolutions to which congress routinely resorted in order to postpone decisions about bending and dad, which delays agencies from being able to plan. there is an urgent need for import reforms to the process such as implementing biennial budgeting so they can plan two years at a time in the overhaul of outdated budget accounting can't do that about therk usefulness. my goal is to have congress work with the new administration to produce comprehensive and lasting budget process reform that can put our nation on a better fiscal

>> i think we need to strengthen the gao. i don't think the department of justice is the place to look. i think gao is the agency that has shown an ability to engage in oversight. you know, they have secret shoppers even. what if the gao secret shopper was on the plane next to you. >> so, we have run out of time i am sorry to say buchlt you can continue to ask your questions or talk to the authors and our commenter as we go to lunch. as always, the lunch will be held on the second level here at the george m yager conference center which is up the spiral staircase at the front of the cato institute. restrooms are on the second floor on the way to lunch. look for the yellow wall. and i would like to thank our authors and commentators for coming in today. thank you very much. [applause] >>book tapes hundreds of author programs throughout the country all year long ft. on monday we are at crammer books and afterwards in washington, d.c. where new york magazine editor david france reports on hiv and aids prevention efforts in his b

wu jiao ling and gao shin. all enjoy a good hot pot. almost everybody around here does.>> anthony: so, this is eric's first time for sichuan hot pot. >> gao: really? >> anthony: i think you're really going to enjoy this. >> eric: yeah. >> anthony: so this is particularly good, right? >> xiao: it is known for being spicy. so -- [ laughs ] >> seven: not a good news. [ laughs ] >> eric: i feel it in my eyes already. yeah. >> anthony: the way it works is you order a whole bunch of ingredients -- meat, vegetables, noodles, fish, whatever you like, a lot of different ingredients, and you feed them into the pot. >> seven: we should just throw them first. >> anthony: yeah. i mean, 'cause that's gonna take a long time. let's throw that tripe in. >> seven: that's called, like, thousand-layer stomach. >> anthony: it's all going in there, man. the inner ring is a more neutral broth. the outer ring, though, is the good stuff. the hard stuff. >> xiao: this is now boiling. >> anthony: oh, that's good, man. that's good. >> xiao: that was eric's first bite of hot pot. >> anthony: awesome

especially to both the gao and to the hhs/oig. my understanding is for 14 years running, medicaid has been on your high risk list. what is behind that? is that because cms does not collect the right data to begin with? >> i think there is a couple of things behind it. one is the nature of the partnership itself that by the time the federal government is reviewing expenditures, the expenditures have occurred so that prevention ability is always challenging. the second piece really is about data, you simply cannot run a program this large when you can't tell where the money is going and where it has been. and we need better data. >> and so have you made recommendations to cms to collect better data and have they ignored those recommendations or what is the issue there? >> we have a report coming out in a few days that might answer that question a little more fully. but i think -- >> feel free to go ahead and share it today. >> the ig has been focus ed on this area for quite some time. we have followed evolution of the national data

>> so with the review of our stress test gao also did a review and noted earlier today to finalize a rule that takes over 20 smaller institutions to exempt them from the qualitative portion of our program. to include the regulatory burden to change our rules of the regulatory burden in responsive way. >> also earlier before the governor departs so why is the fed moving away. >> igo know what the time being will be but i think we would want to have the ability to finalize such changes with the stress test going into effect. with the appointment of the vice chair. >> i have 20 seconds left. last year the gao had stressed testing already affected growth do you agree that the fed should act cautiously the regarding changes greg. >> with the gao recommendations. >> my time is expired. >> votes are currently pending on the floor we will have of brief recess then reconvene and members are encouraged to come back promptly. >> last year i asked about the custody bank and the supplementary ratio. the former governor made similar statements stating that as part of of regulations there are ways

the gao also reported on the access to health plans offered through the exchanges. the states which they were reliable data found most consumers were bronze, silver or gold tier planes available through the exchanges and 24 and 2015. since the issue to the report, the decline in the number of issuers participating in the federal facilitate. according to hhs for all consumers continue to have multiple plan options of 21% of the options by the single issue or. in arizona in 2015, the lowest-cost plan for a consumer was $147 million per month that the cost was $237 per month. the range of premiums also varied considerably by state while the lowest-cost was $147 per month. in contrast, the plans available range from 217 to $285 per month, a difference of just 32%. more recent analysis by hhs and premiumfound premiums for exchae plans increased more than 2017 van in earlier years an average of 25% from 2016 to 2017 for the second lowest cost in the states that use a federal facility exchange. in computers and an average premiums for the plans increase 2% from 2014 to 201

i think the last estimate from gao was about $25 billion. many states use these provider taxes, they use enhanced payment rates for state-owned facilities, intergovernmental transfers to draw down and raise their effective federal match. >> while they may be legal there are some real ethical questions. >> absolutely. >> i want to move on to something else. heard somebody earlier say that obamacare wasn't collapsing and that was some myth. we've got all kinds of numbers. 25% average increase nearly a third of u.s. counties have only one insurer. trillion dollars in new tax, 4.8 7 million americans are had to change their health care plan because they got kicked off of the plan they liked, all kinds of problems out there. but you know what i find instructive is anecdotal. happened to me yesterday twice. after a church group of us generally go to lunch i try to stay out of politics at lunch and a discussion broke out at the other end of the tabl i was not involved in where they with talking about what do we do as we go forward? and one fellow s

>> i would concur with gao on that. i think i would add that we're in some ways past the point where it's somewhat salvageable. i think in the early years after the great recession, if it was just the prefunding issue and that had gotten fixed, postal service may have had some breathing room. right now over half of the problem goes beyond prefunding and we're starting to see, as i said, the impact of assets that are getting to the end of not only their depreciated life but are fully depreciated. and innovating the core you need capital to do that when you're borrowing authority is maxed out you have 30 days of cash on hand, not only would i concur with the gao assessment but we're in the danger zone. >> what is general perception of what would happen to postal rates? >> under current law, as we speak, the majority of the products are capped at cpi and for extraordinary circumstances we're in the midst of that review now trying to balance the nine objectives. i would note in regards to your question, objective number fiv

i have a few questions, if i could direct them to the director of the gao, miss vance-cooks, if that's okay, just for a few plnts. imminutes. looks like from your resume, if it doesn't work out here, we could use you in the industry industry. it is quite impressive. i have a few questions regarding the printing office. we hear a lot about openness and transparency on both sides really as far as that being our goal, certainly striving to do so. is there anything concrete or something that you would hope to do this coming year that would promote those transparency goals? anything in the works would you be okay to speak to those? >> sure. thank you for the question. in fact, there are several things we are doing right now that i would like to highlight. the first has to do with digitization of content, especially historical content. this is critical for openness and transparency. as we sit here today i am proud to report we are collaborating with the library of congress, friend right here, to digitize the bound congressional record all the way back to 1873. we're also working and collabor

gao even has secret shoppers, i noticed a gao secret shopper was on the plane next to you.>> so we have run out of time, i'm sorry to say but you can continue to ask your questions or talk to the authors and our commentator as we go to watch. as always, the launch will be held on the second level at the george m yeager conference center which is up the spiral staircase at the front of the cato institute. restrooms are on the second floor on your way to lunch area look for the yellow wall and i would like to thank our authors and our commentator today for coming in at a very goodtime, thank you very much . >> here's a look at some books that are being published this week. former federal reserve analyst danielle demartino warns that the federal reserve and congress are leading america into another financial crisis in setup. journalist brian alexander reports on how lancaster ohio went from what forbes magazine calls the if any of the all-american town in 1947 to a city acing many issues today. in glasshouse.

the gao and ig identified the staff need more personnel and training to identify the inspections. they identified the need for more personal to address the backlog in atlanta. without adequate support staff in place, va medical facilities will continue to struggle to comply with the procedures and programs that they must follow to ensure our veterans receive safe care. finally, i look forward to learning about progress at the va with regard to the opioid safety initiative we passed within the comprehensive addiction recovery program to bring down the rate of opioid pr prescriptions for all of our veterans. we must do everything we can to help veterans suffering from chronic pain and veterans struggling from substance abuse and addiction. the opioid epidemic is destroying the lives of veterans and their families in new hampshire and all across the country. we need to work together to find innovative solutions to end this epidemic. the heroin does not chose ours. we can work together and we are proud champions of the comprehensive recovery addiction act we passed last year. thank yo

gao with your vantage point from beijing, appreciate it. >> for more analysis let's bring in jim walsh, senior research associate at mit joining us from cambridge, massachusetts, via skype. your reaction to what happened here? >> well, part of this is sort of set piece theater. we're going to having the japanese prime minister and the south korean temporary president and president trump all come out and say this is unacceptable and this is terrible. and you know, we'll pursue tougher measures. and they'll theral probably be a u.n. resolution at some point. but if we step back from all of that which is, you know, set theater as i say, what strikes me about it is, the north koreans test, they test a missile. it's not a test of an icbm, an intercontinental ballistic missile like they threatened to do. this strikes me and based on what i know about friends having conversations with north koreans as pushing a little bit but not too much and sort of waiting to see what president trump will do. so i think we have a bit of tactical play here by the north koreans. >> so you described this asset

. >> the gao is releasing its biannual report on government fraud, waste and mismanagement. the senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee is hold hearinging on the issue this afternoon. the head of the census bureau will testify as well as inspectors general for the veterans affairs and homeland security departments. our lives coverage starts at 2:45 eastern. >>> oklahoma governor mary fallin delivered her state of the state address at the state capitol in oklahoma city. she provided an update on the state revenue system saying the downturn in the energy industry and loss of sales tax revenue caused a budget shortfall of nearly $870 million. her comments were about half hour. [ applause ] >> ladies and gentlemen, guests, fellow oklahomians, the governor of the great state of oklahoma, governor mary fallin. [ applause ]ans, the governor of the great state of oklahoma, governor mary fallin. [ applause ] >> thank you. lieutenant governor lamb, state elected officials, speaker mccall, president pro tem schultz, members of the court, honorable senators, represen

the gao goes on to suggest that the fed does not engage in management ofk the models it uses. also concludes that the fed has not assessed whether it is inadvertently process local, despite the intent that it be countercyclical. i'm concerned that it might byrease systematic risk correlating the risks of bank behavior and allocation of capital. and the implicit risk weighting, which we have to and for, because they are not explicit. for they different from banks. as you know, it is not required by statute. sicar is not. mentioned there is an increase in capitalization by banks post crisis, which is certainly the case. othere fed already has ways of boosting capital requirements, like the countercyclical capital buffer and the surcharge. caren all of that, isn't c somewhat duplicative, costly and not mandated by statute, would you consider bringing it to an end in the foreseeable future? detailed ellen: it is in a situation and forward-looking of the balance sheet. i think it is a cornerstone of our efforts to improve supervision, especially if they largest banking institutions

the rules of wood this have applied to the gao committee. >>supervisor peskin. >> thank you mme. pres. to supervisor cohen through the president, this can be through any committee originally this was through the j a gao committee and this would be to testify at they are minimum capacity p . >> thank you supervisor cohen. >> thank you supervisor peskin. i just want to say that there are people in the audience that are not aware of this so i'm asking these questions so they can have answers that they have asked. so what i would like to ask now is will this motion passed through the committee? >>supervisor cohen i expect this will be a motion passed through the committee and this would be what we are issuing. >>thank you. what are the penalties that could be applied for not testifying honestly under oath? >>this could have penalties with both through the committee and civil and criminal but that would be hand all the on an individual case going forth. cases like the millennium are very important and very troubling. >>i agree that the case with the millennium is troubling. i think wh

a recent gao study highlighted this. would you support those changes? >> yes, i would. >> mr. kutcher, let me ask you. extraordinary work, and i heard it before i had to go vote your answer to the chairman about having the freedom to go big and take a risk to develop a technology that might be the next cutting edge on how we further help law enforcement and other entities both capture the reclaimed those lives that have been lost to human trafficking and capture those who have been the traffickers themselves, prevent the efforts of trafficking. how is it, i sit in another committee here, the finance committee, which deals with all tax trade and incentives, if there was a way to incentivize that effort by you and others similarly situated, is there a specific way beyond letting you go big? are there tax incentives? are there, and i think about already the systems that you have, and i think about the other countries, maybe one of the requirements we should have is other countries should use the best available technology at the time, something we do not have a requirement, as to

so, of the gao they've all done reviews and there's been a number of outstanding issues that have been on the high risk report. of those documents, how many of those have been identified and are still outstanding? >> therthere are still items outstanding and we prioritize them. >> what is the highest priority vulnerability that still stands? >> it was the most significant that was identified in the report as well as the security officer hiring process. >> you talked about the segment and we saw that in the breaches. they were able to basically move without, with impunity through the network and my question is what have you done to make life harder once they get past the defense's? it's impossible to understand as a customer oriented agency we have to communicate with some of the segmentations identify the major systems and as well as the privilege and non- privileged users the segmented those between each other in the firewalls on the training tools to ensure one candidate to another if there are attempts to get one or another they are stopped and there is a follow-up. >> in my remaini

but as the prepared statements of gao and oig witness today's hearing have outlined, hhs implemented many efforts to address the problems of program integrity. are efforts are long standing and some are just under way, but there are many efforts on focussing on making sure medicaid is spending the money well and having an effect. but i'm especially concerned that policy makers often respond to waste, fraud and abuse with blunt instruments aimed at the wrong targets. any review of the actual medicaid program dollars that were stolen or misspent will reveal the major culprits are unscrupulous providers. pharmaceutic pharmaceutical companies that price gouge and clinics that provide unnecessary services, if they provide services at all. all too frequently the political and edges lative response is to institute cuts or restrictions on ben fishnaries and providers who care for them. there is simply nothing in the recent reviews of program integrity that justify the policy proposals that are on the table and before this committee. reduced capped federal funding does nothing to improve prog

we're pleased to have the gao with us as well. you're now recognized for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. chairman chaffetz, ranking member cummins and members of the committee. thank you for the opportunity to be here today to discuss the postal services financial challenges. while the postal service is a critical part of the nation's communication and commerce, it's financial situation puts it at risk of not being able to carry out its mission. it's financial condition has been on ga o's high risk list since 2009. my testimony today covers the factors effecting its financial condition and the difficult choices involved in a addressing these challenges. first, the continued deterioration of the postal services financial condition is simply a truth that revenues are not keeping up with expenses, a trend since 2007. this means that over the last decade the postal service has had a net loss of over $60 billion. while much of this lost was, in fact, due to the nonpayment of retire yooe help refrunding payments the postal ser

the gao is releasing its by annual waste, fraud, and mismanagement. it is holding a hear on on the issue this afternoon. the head of the census bureau will testify and homeland security departments. live coverage starts at 2:45. david singer talked about changing tactics during the 2016 election. >> because they didn't go after that mechanism they appeared to have scanned a number of data bases but we have no evidence that they actually manipulated the votes so those 3 million illegal votes came from someplace else. but, because we don't do that, we have no idea in the end how successful or non-successful this was. and you're trying to separate it out in an election where there were other factors the statements made by james comey, the fbi director about hillary clinton's e-mails the fact that hillary clinton didn't prove to be an enormously effective candidate. that's part of what made the russians so successful here. because if you think that before -- they didn't start this operation in 2015 when this all began thinking they were going to get donal

with the help of the committee here we passed in the house just this week a bill that will take the gao study about looking at the uniqueness of the design of every airport into consideration with our safety plants. we have moved forward as a committee. >> anyone else before we conclude? >> mr. chairman, i have to say this will all honesty i think particularly this subcommittee has a great chairman, a great ranking member. >> i agree. >> i know. and i mean it from the bottom of my heart, because you work together, you want to find solutions. it's easy to z-oontly identify problems. the american people are looking for solutions, employees are looking for solutions, government does lots of good things that helps this country operate and helps the private industry operate, so i am excited about this congress and this subcommittee and i will work with you and gao works with the two of you to find solutions to help our economy and keep us all safe. >> i thank you, mr. cox. i appreciate the kind words and i think they're well earned by everyone on the committee. we do try and dispense with pa

the gao in their assessment found that the stress tests have been youthful and have played a -- usefula useful role. they did not recommend that we end them. they made a number of specific recommendations which we agree with and are working on, and we will continue of course to review our practices as we ar to exemptnged cc most of the institutions under $250 billion from the qualitative part of the ccar review. but i do think that stress testing has greatly strengthened our process. >> i appreciate that, i would just point out that in the that does notr necessarily mean the end of stress testing. several banks to their own stress testing. if i can make one quick closing comment and that is, as we all know, we have had a de facto acting by spur -- vice chair of supervision that never went through the confirmation compress -- process, but nevertheless exercise the powers of that position. it is my hope the president will soon be able to nominate individuals to complete the board of governors, including vice chair for supervision who will go through the process and be vetted and confirme

. >> reporter: winnie gao now lives in las vegas. >> the style, the design, people are so nice. >> reporterment of commerce estimates chinese travelers spend $6,000 to $7,000 per person, per trip, ranking the chinese as the highest spending group of international visitors. >> they spend a lot more money on shopping and retail here, and a lot of that is high end luxury shopping. >> reporter: lucky dragon isn't alone trying to cash in on the chinese travel boone. a malaysian company has a plan to develop a world resort las vegas, an enormous hotel and casino complex scheduled to open in 2019. while lucky dragon is designed to attract asian tourists in particular, the hotel figures other visitors to vegas will find some adventure here. >> they don't want the american chinese chinese food and the ability to step out of their comfort zone and have an experience. >> reporter: while much about the venue is authentically asian, one thing is authentically vegas, the casino is happy to take money from anybody. john blackstone, las vegas. you got it. just say show me millions of used cars for sale at

financial stability, the gao and they're assessment found that the stress tests have been useful and played a useful role. they did not recommend that we end them. they made a number of specific recommendations which we agree with and are working on. and we will of course continue to review our practices as we recently changed c car to exempt most of the institutions under $250 billion from the qualitative part of the c car review. but i do think that stress testing has greatly strengthennstrengthen strengthened our process. >> in the absence of c car, that doesn't mean the end of stress testing. mr. chairman, if i could make one quick closing comment, that is that as we all know, we have had a de facto acting vice chair of supouupersupervision that ne through the process and exercised the powers of that position. it is my hope that the president will soon be able to nominate individuals to complete the board of governors including a vice chair for supervision who will go through the process, be vetted by the committee, and until such time i hope the fed will refrain from issuing maj

recent gao report notes that the liability has now increased to about $74 billion, which is about triple what it was estimated to be. essentially what you're doing is you're trading an insurance mechanism for more moral hazard and adverse selection. the primary beneficiaries are not going to be those who have borrowed a little bit and really are struggling with small amounts of debt, but turn out to be those who are getting forgiveness for graduate borrowing. i think i'll come back to this. could i have two minutes and then i'll -- two. okay. we'll come back to this. college choice. there's much to do here. but this is a case where we need r&d sponsored by the federal government. it's a real -- again, there are two groups of students who are not very well guided at this point, particularly the older nontraditional students who don't have access to either peers who are going to college or traditional guidance mechanisms. i think there are interesting experiments we can do there. supply side. resources matter enormously. if you see what's going on at public institution resources per studen

borrowing authority is maxed out you have 30 days of cash on hand, not only would i concur with the gao assessment but we're in the danger zone. >> what is general perception of what would happen to postal rates? >> majority of the products are capped at cpi and for extraordinary circumstances we're in the midst of that trying balance the nine objectives. in regards to your question, objective number five speaks of having financial viability in sense of are retained earnings and financial stability one of the nine objective that must be applied goes to heart of this financial issue. >> post master from your perspective we do nothing, what is that picture look like? >> mr. chairman, clearly the financial condition worsen and continued default on payments and the most egregious failure would be enable to meet and serve the american public and enable to deliver the mail. >> what is current cash on hasn't what you give me the number why isn't that used to pay some of the payments that were due, you defaulted on five namt payment it. >> we defaulted to the tune of $5.3 billion. our -- which

we are pleased to have gao with us as well. you are recognized for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. tonk you for the opportunity discuss the postal service's financial challenges. my testimony covers the factors affecting the financial convention and the difficult choices in addressing these challenges. the continued deterioration -- it is simply true that revenues are not keeping up with expenses, a trend since 2007. this means the postal service has had a net loss of $60 billion. the postal service still lost over $10 billion outside of its requirement and other requirements. becausenue gap occurs first-class mail continues to decline and is now down to 1981 levels. expenses continue to grow. to salary increases as well as the large workforce to support the labor-intensive package delivery business. the workforce increased over 20,000 people contrasting with previous years. the rising costs and benefit costs generated over a billion dollars in additional expenses since 2006. since revenues increased fiscal 2016. the postal service has made efforts to undertake other that

also the gao is releasing it's by annual hearing. the head of the census bureau will testify and homeland security, live at 2:45 eastern. the israeli prime minister is arriving at the white house and president trump and his wife the first lady welcoming them at this hour so we will have it for you live. this morning president trump met with retail executives at the white house talking about regulatory and tax code changes, he said retailers are the number one employers and that his tax plan will be unveiled soon. joann fabrics, target and best buy attended the meeting. we will watch for the conference to start.

as you know, the gao issued a report last year with several criticisms and recommendations regarding the stress test process, particularly in regard with transparency. what are the fed plan for implementing those recommendations? chair yellen: we value those and intent to implement them. rep. wagner: does the fed have any plan on doing a more competent the review of how they conduct stress test? chair yellen: we are completing a five-year review that is comprehensive and the changes that relieve the burden for a large number of medium or larger size banking organizations, that is one of the outcomes of that. rep. wagner: thank you. thehe chair now recognizes gentleman from texas, mr. green. youesentative greene: thank . jobhave done an outstanding in my opinion and you tried as best you can to help us maintain your mandate. i would like to mention that president obama has made efforts and many members of congress, david scott just mentioned his efforts to bring down unemployment as it relates to african-americans, more specifically african-american males. congressman jim clyburn has