gao?e being exerted upon members to vote one way or the other. but, again, the representative must vote based on the needs of the district as long as the vote does not go against who core moral beliefs and i believe that we have to defend our core moral believes, irrelevant of the political cause. >> so that gets me to this. so you're voting no to this, you're voting no when it was a yes last time, right? >> my vote is no because the senate bill has less strict -- a less restrictive language on abortion than the house bill. the house bill has a much stronger language prohibiting the federal funding of abortion. >> last time i believe your comments were that you represented a district in new orleans, i think most of them are democrats or maybe minorities as well. you said what was in this current bill that you believe helped your constituents, so is it one issue for you that's make or break, this one abortion issue, is that the most important thing to your district now? >> i have made this

we talk a lot about what fraud and abuse of like to get the reaction of gao on the issue of waste.numbing a number of two races out there for seniors broker if somebody has to take a look retort plan 42 is the best. if somebody has to take another drug may be planned 21 is the best for them and there can be a real difference in cost savings depending on which plan has negotiated the best price for which drug is covered in each of the mind numbing the number of choices. do we have any date systems systems -- data systems whether or not seniors have made the best choice based on what their prescription needs are? what may preface the question and i look forward to your answers, it is not that i am interested in what seniors are taking but if they have not made the best choice coming guess who pays for it? we are paying for a progress there and completely the wrong plan and they could save 50% by switching the plan, 45% of the money up too 45% comes directly at of the united states treasury. what chance have been made to identified -- identify by data points that massive amount of was

i would like to, for a minute, get the reaction of gao and the ig on the issue of waste.oices out there for seniors. if someone has to take lipitor, maybe plan 42 is the best for them. if they have to take avinox maybe plan 21 is the best for them. there will be a real difference in cost savings. do we have any data systems in place, and if we don't, shouldn't we, that track whether or not the see years have made the best choice based on what their prescriptions are? let me preface this question, and i look forward to your answers. it is not that i am interested in what seniors are taking, but if they have not made the best choice, guess who is paying for it? we are. so if they are in completely the wrong plan and they could save 50% by switching the plan, 45 percent of that money, up to 45 percent of that money they could save is coming directly out of the united states treasury. what attempts have been made to identify by datapoint that kind of massive amount of waste that has to be in this system that is enriching the profits of this pharmaceutical companies? >> senato

the gao so they can analyze what's going on.that's one of the things that ought to happen but the recommendation i would make first we really need to done of brief visit judicial modification to help people losing their homes and secondly take away the voluntary aspect of hamp make it mandatory but lenders have to participate in the house and the principle right down and interest write-down. striped or fanni

i also like to thank our gao and army witnesses for being here today. and, of course, general brogan, you are not stranger to this committee. and we're delighted to have you back. thank you for being here, and also general outcome i believe this is your first time testifying. in front of this committee. welcome. this is an important subject. the testimony you're about to provide will assist us in determining how best to proceed with providing the necessary congressional oversight of these programs. together, or to thank all of you to our country in thank you for being here and thank you, mr. chairman. the. >> thank you. the now -- chernow recognizes the honorable congressman. >> thank you very much for your service to your country. thank you for being here today. look forward to your testimony. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, mr. bartlett. the chair now recognizes the new chair of the subcommittee, the honorable adam smith. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i apologize for running a little bit behind schedule. welcome to you all. if there's no objectio

since 1978, congress has specifically, specifically exempted monetary policy decisions from these gao audits with good reason. if we politicize monetary policy by removing that exemption, individual members of congress would have the ability to challenge monetary policies decisions, and will. as i noted earlier, such an attempt to politicize monetary policy, i believe, is wrongheaded. it would result in less effective monetary policy for the american people. another frequently mentioned proposal on consideration, politicize the governor of the 12 reserve banks as i mentioned earlier. making pictures of the board of directors or the reserve bank presidents political appointees. on the federal open market committee by reserve bank presidents. such changes would weaken their regional and decentralized rector of the federal reserve and lead to a more centralized and political institution with less effective policy. or regional reserve bank presidents or chairs to become political appointees, they might become more attuned to the political process in washington that selected them, rather t

we talk a lot about what fraud and abuse of like to get the reaction of gao on the issue of waste.ing a number of two races out there for seniors broker if somebody has to take a look retort plan 42 is the best. if somebody has to take another drug may be planned 21 is the best for them and there can be a real difference in cost savings depending on which plan has negotiated the best price for which drug is covered in each of the mind numbing the number of choices. do we have any date systems systems -- data systems whether or not seniors have made the best choice based on what their prescription needs are? what may preface the question and i look forward to your answers, it is not that i am interested in what seniors are taking but if they have not made the best choice coming guess who pays for it? we are paying for a progress there and completely the wrong plan and they could save 50% by switching the plan, 45% of the money up too 45% comes directly at of the united states treasury. what chance have been made to identified -- identify by data points that massive amount of waste i

it wasn't own gao's appliances that were fake.r partners and they were fake, too. other recent investigations also questioned the reliability of the ratings. one refrigerator bearing the energy star designation was found to use twice as much energy as claimed. another report concluded the government cannot be certain energy star products are the more energy efficient and cost effective choice. >> the most important thing they need to do is to require independent testing of all products. >> reporter: officials running the program operated jointly by the department of energy and the environmental protection agency, now say they are developing a system for independent testing of all products. they insist that most products meet or exceed standards, but promise more rigorous screening of products and manufacturers. energy star officials also insist that this program has been an overwhelming success and saved consumers billions of dollars on energy. and natalie, i should point out that some of the 40,000 products certified by energy st

a new gao report today finds the government and its main contractor, boeing, did a bad job of testing for the test. the house homeland security agency takes up the bill. >>> the haitian children taken by american missionaries are back with their parents this morning. the families were reunited in a joyous reunion. the children had been living in an orphanage as each case was sorted out. each family was given about $260, some blankets and food. the head of the missionary group remains jailed in haiti. >>> back here at home, there's a new report about who we are living with and how. it says 6.6 million households, with three generations live together. that's up 30% since 2009. and a record 49 million households or one in six americans, lives in a household that includes two adult generations. they say it's a sign of the economy. particularly what's been known as boomerang kids who have been moving back in with mom and dad. >>> swollen rivers have finally started receding in northern new jersey. but hundreds of homes are still under water. and thousands of people remain without electrici

. >> reporter: the gao's prublts were fake, but the implications are real. lg and ken more with caught selling products with the label that did not actually meet the standard. >> i spent $2500 on an appliance, thinking it was going to help reduce my costs and reduce my global warming footprints and it doesn't even come close. >> reporter: the government says it will now testing products before awarding the coveted energy star seal. elisabeth leamy, abc news, washington. >>> and you can learn much more about the real deal of saving money and energy in your home by going to abcnews.com. >>> we do have a death to report tonight. a groundbreaking figure here at abc. chet simmons helped create one of tv's legendary shows, "wide world of sports." >> spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. >> simmons' influence grew through the years. he served as president of espn in 1979. chet simmons were 81. >>> and when we come back here on "world news," the soldier from the greatest generation armed with a

number, i don't think anybody over 4 years of age believe the number that was put out by the gao.ar number doesn't ring true with anybody in america because we've never known a federal program to come in under budget or at budget. so this is a false number. so when we hear congress people use that as a treen change from no to yes. we know there's other things coming on in the back ground, but i hope those that are no remain no, and it would abe victoryi victoryive. depending on what charge you're looking@at, we keep talking about the number 216 to pass or to fail, but you're saying you might be as many as five up. you think you're somewhere around 220 nos on this bill. we could be at 220 noes, yes. we could be. i think some of the people who have said how they're going to vote over the last 48 hours may want be there. i think we're hearing from our con stitch wens on an hourly basis. some of the congress people have been refusing to take calls from their constituent, and i think that's been a mistake. i think we're beginning to hear and see that this is a very, very serious bill a

the gao report recently said that the 96 largest weapons systems that we have are responsible for $296st overruns. that kind of defense waste only makes america weaker, not stronger in the long run. third, we continue to work to pass a health insurance reform l@@@,@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ according to the congressional budget office, the health care reform bill that passed the house and senate last year would be fully paid for in the first decade and reduce the deficit by approximately $1 trillion in the second decade. we have brought back to pay as you go look. president clinton used this to turn a deep deficits into a $5.60 trillion by-year surplus. that policy was deducted and reaffirmed in a bipartisan way in 1997. it was then, as all of you know in the early decade of this century waved and in 2003 and not authorized. a decision by president bush and republican congress to do away with paygo through his back into the bread. bread for a wet weather comes to cutting taxes or increasing medicare benefits, paygo value because it removes from the table the easy and usually unspoken so

we conducted that testing with gao oversight and also other oversight. and we complete the testing we realized we had been working, our testing protocol has been one of over match. we take our product and we test them through a round that is heavier, harder and faster than any ground found in about the. and we realized what we're doing is taking the capability and getting a great capability but we don't have a sophistical confidence that we have in the best body armor. we know it's the best because what we hear from our soldiers and 30 over match testing. so we're transitioning our testing. we're testing from over match to a system of confidence basin. i we are pleased report that we conducted one face of the testing will have taken real place where soldiers downrange wearing them, took them off and gave them other ones. when we took him off the backs, and we shot at those, and we have outstanding performance with those plates. we are taking another set of plates doing the same thing. these are brand-new coming of our production like. so what we are doin

we had representative gao on. this issue is one i can't compromise on.> president obama, let's assume he wins, democrats get the health care bill. huge win for obama. huge win for nancy pelosi. not a terrible loss for john boehner. they have a campaign issue. bart stupak, stood by his conscience, lost legislatively. >> john boehner and nancy pelosi, if you can call this. >> why are you doing this to me? both of their aides are going to call me yelling at me. >> let's talk about the president. we saw the president filling out his brackets. last year in better political times he was a winner. and this year everyone is saying oh, my gosh. it could turn out to be a big political upset like all of the games down to the wire and upsets. people are predicting this could be an upset. >> just like he has taken ownership of his picks, health care for president obama is his initiative. he can't push it off on republicans. we saw the white house talk throughout the past year the banking crisis, the housing crisis wasn't his. health care is his. this is huge for him.

we conducted that testing with gao oversight in d.o.t.rsight and when we completed that testing we realized we have been working, our testing protocol has been one of overmatch. we take our products and we test them to around faster than any round in the battlefield and we realize what we are doing is taking the ability but we don't have the statistical confidence that we have the best body armor. we know it is the best because of what we hear from our soldiers and from the testing. we are transitioning from overmatch to a statistical confidence basis. i am pleased to report we have conducted one face of that testing where we have taken place from our soldiers downrange wearing them, to the mouth and took them off their backs and brought them back and shot at those plates with real threat rounds at a high statistical confidence interval and we had outstanding performance with those plates. we are taking another set of plates, doing the same thing. these are going to be brand-new coming off our production line so what we are doing is i tel

eighth 2004 gao report reevaluated the direct loan cash flow and found the program borrowed $137 billion from the treasury during fy1995 to 2003. of this amount, $92 billion was outstanding as of september 20, 2003. in fy2003 with appropriations of $2.7 billion received, the total cash outlays of the direct loan program still exceeded the total inflows by $10.7 billion. h.r. 4072 includes a reconciliation provisions to alter federal student loan programs by eliminating the ffel program and shipping all student loans to a government-run and taxpayer financed system under the direct loan program. this provision known as the student aid and fiscal responsibility act, safra, kills jobs and greatly expands federal government controlled of the educational loan market by eliminating the ffel program. democrats will limit choices for parents and students seeking educational loans and decrease the quality of services historically provided by private lenders. moreover the provision i believe has no place in this bill. i feel the same way my constituents do. we shouldn't be putting two bills togeth

the gao is doing the investigation at my request on independent programming.roposed with respect to this merger, however it can affect independent programming and the quantity of it. >> there are two separate issues. nbc has been very aggressive in attempting internally to produce things for themselves, and i think anything that can be done in what is voluntary to compel more independent programming would be terrific. in the cable world, they control a great deal of it in there is very little that is going on that they are not actually that has changed in a way that made it difficult for independent producers to bring things to the marketplace. >> why is that the case? >> why has it changed? >> it has changed historically because the companies have used the leverage of it's going to go on the air or not to insist it be produced through their own entity or insist that it be a co-production in some fashion before it goes on the air. there are numerous examples of that that could be brought forward. again, this is why we've tremendous concerns about the net neutr

we conducted that testing with gao oversight in d.o.t. when we completed that testing we realized we have been working, our testing protocol has been one of overmatch. we take our products and we test them to around faster than any round in the battlefield and we realize what we are doing is taking the ability but we don't have the statistical confidence that we have the best body armor. we know it is the best because of what we hear from our soldiers and from the testing. we are transitioning from overmatch to a statistical confidence basis. i am pleased to report we have conducted one face of that testing where we have taken place from our soldiers downrange wearing them, to the mouth and took them off their backs and brought them back and shot at those plates with real threat rounds at a high statistical confidence interval and we had outstanding performance with those plates. we are taking another set of plates, doing the same thing. these are going to be brand-new coming off our production line so what we are doing is i tell everybod

because we had representative gao on and he said this issue, abortion, this is an issue i can't compromiseobama, let's assume he wins tomorrow, democrats get the health care bill, huge win for obama. huge win for nancy pelosi. not actually a terrible loss for john boehner. they think they have a campaign issue. bart stupak stood by his conscience. he lost legislatively. >> real quick, john boehner and nancy pelosi, what do you think in if you can call this one, the two top seed guys here, what would you call? >> why are you doing this to me? both of their aides are going to be calling yelling at me. >> real quickly you saw the president filling out his brackets. it was very interesting. do we still have that video? now, listen, last year in better political times as you said he was a winner. and this year everyonetion saying oh, my gosh, it could turn out to be a big political upset like all the games have been as i said buzzer beaters and down to the wire and upsets. a lot of people predicting this could be an upset. >> just like he has taken ownership of his picks right there, health car

and secondly, the gao was a very critical of this program. we try to response to the concerns to the fact that there are 200,000 fewer policies being written then there were into doesn't. so the profits have doubled for 200,000 fewer policies. so there has to be some adjustments, there has to be a fair balance between the need for this product and the need for farmers to have it and also the taxpayers to be treated fairly. finally, some of the resource is going to be used to expand access to the product in some parts of the country where it has been very difficult to get crop insurance and all. so it is an effort to try to spread the opportunity and risk management tool in other parts of the country. >> that is a greater explanation. i might submit a couple other things to get more vibration. you make of very strong point, and i appreciate that very much >> thank you. >> thank you. the secretary answered the discovery of mad cow disease nearly a decade ago. great interest in developing a system to trace diseased animals that move and commerce

>> i don't know whether gao has audited those stress tests.we will get back to you on that question. >> okay. i would like to know when you expect the results of the audits, what you anticipate they will say and whether or not there was an under statement of required capital. >> again, i can't speak for other agencies. >> i understand. >> of the u.s. government. >> i understand. i only have a short time left, but why specifically do you think that citigroup needed to be bailed out? what happened? what was the problem? again as i said in my opening statement, it wasn't brank banking, it wasn't credit cards i don't think. it was something else. what was that, and las it been fixed? >> well, i think what we saw was a great deal of risk in the financial system that the time. it became quite evident as the markets began to seize up that these institutions were facing large exposures in a variety of ways. and that their capital could be rapidly deplooet pleated which led to the t.a.r.p. program where congress itself agreed that this was an unprecede

if you look at the jsf program, and looking at my friend from gao, it wasn't going to be on time andas going to keep getting pushed back. we have those 11 carries. we should save the money if we're going to buy the jets. i don't know what we accomplished if we will end up buying them anyway. if it will save money to do multi-year, by all means, let's do it. this is hard. i need somebody to do an estimate on the problems associated with this program. we will have a breach. i need to know whose fault is. this is too big to fail, this program. we're going to push money across the table. we will push back the time line. i need to figure out and all need to figure out, whose fault is it? is the contractors fault? where they're changing things during the process? weather delays that the military is responsible for? is anyone in charge of finding out who's promises? we have withheld one payment. are there other penalties you envision the contractor pays for these mistakes? this isn't no harm, no foul. somebody needs to be held accountable. we all sit around and shrug and no one ever is held

we acknowledge the concerns raised by the gao in its november 2009 testimony for the adequately of training for the use of contractor, oversight and property disposition during the drawdown. we have moved aggressively to remedy by developing a drawdown that ensures proper levels of support, effective oversight and responsible property did i position. working in theater we have established a deliberate process for identifying equipment excess two requirements we can redistribute within the theater used to meet other requirements or provide to other countries. roughly one-third of the equipment and one-half -- >> general, you can read a little slower. i will give you a little more time. >> yes, sir. and one-half of the tactical wheeled vehicles in afghanistan from the surge has happened in iraq. in closing we are supporting u.s. iraq and command and remains thoroughly engaged with all of our stakeholders to ensure an efficient, effective drawdown of forces from iraq. we are fully committed to maintaining the highest standards of public stewardship while supporting the requirements of our nati

gao. they won their prize for an invention of an ameaging conduction circuit. if this sounds familiar it may be because it is the device that makes digital cameras work. the digital cam ray is already used in consumer usage but people may not realize it has been instrumental in scientific endeavors as well. astronomy has been revolutionedized in telescopes to capture details in great details. it has also greatly aided our ability to look inwardly to the tiniest particles. bell labs is' are mound research organization whose name is synonymous with innovation. in addition to c.c.d.'s, work has led to the development of the transis tore, photo voletalic -- photovoltaic cells. seven nobel prizes for physics have been awarded for work done at bell labs. it's too vitally important as we work to try to maintain america's competitiveness in the global economy that we celebrate the scientific achievement and encourage our young people to pursue careers in technical fields. we are equipped in this body to recognize sports accomplishments. it is only fitting that we also

this is from the gao, $13 trillion of last year's estimate. that we already have. it will cost more like $2.3 trillion, if you start the year when the majority of health care bills began. we need to take full responsibility for it entitlement problems that we have because it grew under the republican watch as well. but there is no excuse from using money from social security and medicare to pay for health care reform instead of shoring up the solvency of the programs that we have for future generations. it will still be there after this debate, far after president obama has left office, probably after most of us in this room are in congress, maybe all of us. but the decisions we made to date, like whether or not to pass a trillion dollar entitlement by a razor-thin margin of votes, is something that our children and grandchildren will see. it is time to dispense with using budget gimmicks to get expansive legislation into a 10- year window and college budget- neutral when mitch is not. it is time for congress to roll up its sleeve and tackle a

the gao report recently said that the 96 largest weapons systems that we have are responsible for $296neutral but drives down the insurance cost of the single greatest driver of our deficit. it will be a big step but not the final step for only one. by insuring the fiscal sustainability of our entitlements for decades to come. the health care reform bill that passed the house and senate last year would be fully paid for in the first decade and reduce the deficit by approximately $1 trillion in the second decade. we have brought back to pay as you go law. president clinton used paygo to create a surplus. that policy was adopted in a bipartisan way in 1990 and reaffirmed -- in a bipartisan way in 1997. as all of you know, it was waived and in 2003, it was reauthorize pretty decision by president bush and republican congress to do away with paygo through his back into the bread for a wet weather comes to cutting taxes or increasing medicare benefits, paygo value because it removes from the table the easy and usually unspoken solution that we would rather our children pay for it. i was bro

[applause] hamas security secretary jann in the paula todd no and gao's president obama's nominee to head the transportation security administration. robert harding is a retired army major general who formerly served as operations director as defense intelligence agency. this is about five minutes. >> nominate major general bob harding to be the next administrator of the transportation security administration. this is a critical leadership position for the security of our nation. by nominating general harding for this very important job, but the administration is calling on individual with more than 35 years of experience as an army commander, senior military intelligence officer, high level manager of intelligence operations, and successful businessman and ceo in security field. the general believe all of these talents as he takes the house of this vital agency. tsa mandate is a broad one, they're responsible not only for u.s. aviation security but also for sale turning are real, bus, mass transit and tracking systems as well. general will be a tremendous asset in our current effort

the gao report recently said that the 96 largest weapons systems that we have are responsible for $296 billion in cost overruns. that kind of defense waste only makes america weaker, not stronger in the long run. third, we continue to work to pass a health insurance reform bill that is debt -- not only deficit neutral but drives down the insurance cost of the single greatest driver of our deficit. it will be a big step but not the final step for only one. by insuring the fiscal sustainability of our entitlements for decades to come. the health care reform bill that passed the house and senate last year would be fully paid for in the first decade and reduce the deficit by approximately $1 trillion in the second decade. we have brought back to pay as you go law. president clinton used paygo to create a surplus. that policy was adopted in a bipartisan way in 1990 and reaffirmed -- in a bipartisan way in 1997. as all of you know, it was waived and in 2003, it was reauthorize pretty decision by president bush and republican congress to do away with paygo through his back into the bread for

gao has certified we have met all 10 requirements set by this committee.e will also screen 100% of all cargo on domestic flights by august. we will obligate all $100 billion provided under the recovery act, accelerating important baggage screening enhancements. we will further initiate over $1.3 billion in checkpoint an explosive detection systems provided in fiscal year 2010. we will have five at new vipir systems, andtsa operates in up -- tsa operates in a high- threat environment. the christmas day attempt was a stark reminder there are still those who wish to do us harm. the men and women of tsa live with that reality every day. i appreciate the time that you, mr. chairman and ranking member rogers, spent in visiting our facility last week. for years, tsa has recognized the threat of improvised explosive devices and centered our efforts there. we began testing technology to detect metallic and nonmetallic threats hidden on the body. because of the nearly three years of work we put in to this, we have 40 machines in 19 airports. our fy 2011 request doub

gao was doing an investigation of my requests on independent programming.tant area and i would like to understand between you and mr. roberts what is being proposed with respect to this merger can affect independent programming and the quantity of that? its? >> there are two separate issues. what is the broadcast network itself which is nbc which has been very restive and attempting internally to produce things for themselves and i think anything that could be done in what is now voluntary to compel some more independent roe grammy would be terrific. in the cable world, again, they control a great deal and there is very little that is actually going on. they are not actually doing for themselves and that is changed and has been difficult for an independent producer to bring things to the marketplace. >> why is that the case? why has it changed? >> it has change historically because the companies have used the leverage to either insisted be produced for their own intraday or to insist that it each a coproduction in some fashion report goes on the air. there

the one gao study that looked at medicare appeals shows that medicare has more reviles than private insurance companies. if people did not like -- has more denials than private insurance companies. host: what is your practice? guest: hospital medicine. i do critical care. host: how often are you in the hospital? guest: 2 weekends a month. host: i have a tweet. guest: of insurance companies' profits are actually fixed under this bill. how much they need to spend on medical of the net -- benefits relative to the margin is fixed in the bill. only 15% of the money they bring in can go towards overhead and things that are non-medical. an insurance company will try to push everything into the medical cost ledger and the government i'm sure will write a lot of liberals on what can be and cannot be. -- write a lot of rules on what can be and cannot be. host: what is the biggest thing that you would like to see fixed that is not fixed currently to your satisfaction? guest: the cost escalation in this health bill. it is very costly. if you listen to the people in the white house to cost -- to talk abou

tracked as part of the reporting that we are doing even to the federal highway administration or to the gaoone like that so that is being tracked. we always track that frankly on all of our work projects. we track the percentage that we've achieved and that data is out there for the related to the recovery act. i don't have that number in my head but it's available. >> thank you. mr. freeman, have other states provide principal forgiveness tells you have done to your knowledge? >> [inaudible] >> keep your face up. >> yes, all states have used the principal from this it went to the clean water state revolving fund is required for a minimum of 50% to be provided as principal forgiveness. each state has done that a little differently. in our state we have affordability criteria and we used state funds in the past to deal with affordability problems. that's where we directed most of the principal forgiveness' funds. i think that is similar experience with other states. but each state -- that is the strength of the clean water state revolving fund as each state has flexibility to design the crit

this congress not have the discipline to make the funding choices to get to a gao's budget without this amendment? >> guest: well, not quite but i will talk about that because there is an idea that deserves some very careful examination as well. but it does require the congress to set priorities and quite clearly they have not said those priorities, they said we'd do more than we really are able to based upon our revenues coming in and we will worry about that next. next year. then next year never pounds. so this is i think it long-term reconstructive tool that the congress should put in place as soon as possible but in terms of a free calibrating where we are there's a proposal by congressman frank wolf of virginia called the state commission that would establish a bipartisan commission that would examine government spending, government taxes, the entitlement programs and how they operate, make recommendations back to the congress and the congress like the commission would be forced to have up or down vote on this entire recommendation. i think to do that long-term would be an abdicati

the gao looked at this and came to that conclusion so congresswoman is wasn't me it was the general accountability office that came to that conclusion. and we are grateful that they did because this was just a polling some cases just employees of the company. so, that is not indicative -- >> i guess my question is and i would like to ask again do you outsource that function? >> i think the members make different decisions -- >> it is a yes or no answer. >> i think it's more than that. scatty for all source or you don't. do you outsource? >> you're in the u.s.? >> no other countries. >> i will go back to the companies and see if we can't give you a better answer. >> was i fairly accurate in terms of the way that you're credit reporting agency operates in terms of the investigation? >> no actually first of all using a deposition as an indication of how the process works just doesn't work because a lawyer is trained to ask certain questions in a certain way to indicate accusatory situation. that is exactly what a deposition is to try to pin you into a corner. so, no, i don't think that report reflect

each of those five were protested to the gao, in december upheld a protest.rtunately, we have dirty begun to pursue separately in anticipation of that protest being upheld and we have since gone out and now we've solicited i think for two of the five projects that were originally supposed to be done in that particular venue. >> is there something in the contract and procedure that the coast guard followed that can be changed for the future to avoid this type of situation? >> mr. chairman, possibly there is. i don't recall all the specifics of the nature of the protested self. maybe at another time we can talk with the staff on that, sir. >> well, also of the $98 million for the acquisition construction and improvements account, $10 million was designated for the high endurance cutter engineering changes. is this work underway on that now? i have no previous to this hearing had no accounting for that work. >> yes, sir. a number of those contracts for those she prepared to laois and begun. i believe four of the seven contracts have begun. some of the work has n

the gao report recently said that the 96 largest weapons systems that we have are responsible for $296y makes america weaker, not stronger in the long run. third, we continue to work to pass a health insurance reform bill that is debt -- not only deficit neutral but drives down the insurance cost of the single greatest driver of our deficit. it will be a big step but not the final step for only one. by insuring the fiscal sustainability of our entitlements for decades to come. the health care reform bill that passed the house and senate last year would be fully paid for in the first decade and reduce the deficit by approximately $1 trillion in the second decade. we have brought back to pay as you go law. president clinton used paygo to create a surplus. that policy was adopted in a bipartisan way in 1990 and reaffirmed -- in a bipartisan way in 1997. as all of you know, it was waived and in 2003, it was reauthorize pretty decision by president bush and republican congress to do away with paygo through his back into the bread for a wet weather comes to cutting taxes or increasing medica

. >> are the -- have the current stress tests been audited by gao?are they in the process of being audited? colm when do you anticipate it will say? in terms of required capital? >> i cannot speak for all u.s. government. >> i understand. >i only have a short time left, why you think that citigroup needed to be bailed out? what happened? what was the problem? it was not credit cards, it was something else. what was that? has it been fixed? >> what we saw was a great deal of risk in the financial system at that time. it became quite evident as the markets began to seize up that these institutions were facing large exposures in a variety of ways in that their capital was rapidly depleted, which led to the program were congress said that this was an unprecedented crisis in the u.s. government would have to step in to provide support. >> my time is up. >> as you know, in our next panel we will be hearing from one of the largest banks in the country. i would like to explore what you're doing, the dynamics around large banks in terms of current market and