russell has over 17 years of experience at gao and was previously assistant director in gao's contracting and national security acquisitions team. without objection, the witnesses' the full statements will be inserted in the record. now i ask each witness to summarize their statements for five minutes beginning with miss cogswell. welcome, ma'am. >> good morning, distinguished members of this committee. on behalf of tsa's employees i want to express our appreciation for the continued support of congress, the productive relationship we have with this subcommittee and as well as the government accountability office as well as the authorities provided by the act of 2018. implementing the modernization act is a priority for tsa. i am grateful for the invitation to testify about our heefforts. since its creation following the september 11th attack, our ongoing commitment to ensuring transportation security has enabled public and commerce to continue traveling securely and freely. 18 years later the reality is the transportation systems remain highly valued targets for terrorists and their meth

as gao found, quote, some failed unit employee said in certain circumstances they consider receiving threats a normal part of their job. officials describe being threatened while off-duty such as being harassed in local stores or being monitored at their home which officials say in some cases they did not report because it was a common occurrence. if we can turn to the screen we'll see a handful of statements public officials have made in recent years. what senator harry reid may call patriots i call terrorists on the 2014 armed bundy militia standoff in bunkerville, nevada. the blm has become a bureaucratic agency of basically terrorism. so at what point do we band together as elected officials and say enough is enough of the blm and that was from state representative michelle fiore of nevada. the federal government, the blm, the forest s the fbi, the dea and any of those guys, they're not elected. those other entities, they answer to me. beaver county, utah sheriff, cameron noe knoll. you, the people of nevada, not washington bureaucrat, should be in charge of your own land. i will

>> i could hardly believe it. >> mike takano chairs the house veterans committee and requested this gao study. they don't follow their own procedures and they're supposed to be keeping account. >> your reaction to that? >> well, it was one of anger and disbelief. >> i think there's definitely room for improvement. >> david jennings serves as field office director in california. the gao merely found lack of documents and electronic data and could not point to any specific case where a veteran who was deported should not have been. >> nowhere in the report did we say we removed anyone we shouldn't or anything like that. >> how can you assure that i.c.e. can consistently handle cases going forward? >> is it acceptable they didn't know their own policy? >> no, but it's understandable as things have changed over enrique salas. >>en ricky salas' case is sad and tragic and it should make every american angry. salas was critically injured in a car accident and was taken to a general hospital in tijuana. stephanie desperately tried to get her father back to the united states and better medical c

but this gao report said in many cases i.c.e. did not follow its lectronically. even track you may remember the scene in tijuana, mexico, two and a half years ago. >> i miss you. >> reporter: when stephanie reunited with her father enrique salas who had grown up in l.a. wanting to service his country. >> from the time i was ten that is the only thing i dreamt about being, a marine. >> reporter: a week after graduating high school he joined in the marines and serving in the persian gulf war where he earned several commendations. >> putting on the uniform was the greatest thing in the world. >> reporter: he soon began to trugle with drugs and was arrested twice for drug possession serving six months in jail. during a visit to mexico, i.c.e. refused to allow him to re-enter the u.s. because of his drug possession convictions. >> do you still consider yourself an american? >> yes. very much so. >> even though you sit right here. >> yes, sir. it doesn't make any difference. my loyalty is to the united states. >> reporter: we learns of 300 other veterans deported under

>> the gao has 100 days to respond to it. they could also file a lawsuit. will that be successful?r there could be a possibility like know me mentioned that they will -- naomi mentioned that they will -- generally corporate customers have one cloud that they rely on. they are increasingly moving away from just the one. there are people in congress who would prefer to see more than one here as well. taylor: naomi, to be fair, the government accountability office, i believe, came out and said this deal and the approval process withdrawal the appropriate controls. if amazon more to challenge, they are confident they raised the bar high enough. but what else are they saying about what the challenge could look like and if all the controls were met echo -- met? naomi: the gao previously ruled on a protest from oracle and oracle alleged there were conflicts of interest that give amazon the edge. the gao has not said anything about any claims amazon might make in regard to the fairness of the jedi cloud contract. within the dod, there has been an inspector general looking into the contract

as gao found, quote, some feel unit employees they consider receiving threats a normal part of their job. officials describe being threatened while off duty, such as being harassed in local stores or being monitored at their homes, which officials said in some cases they did not report because it was a common occurrence. if we could turn to the screen, we'll see a handful of statements public officials have made in recent years. when senator harry read may call domestic terrorists, i call patriots. former senator dean heller in nevada on the standoff in bunkerville, nevada. and a bureaucrat of basically terrorism of the at what point do we band together and say enough is enough from blm. that's from the state representative michelle fiori of nevada. the federal government, the blm, forest service, d.e.a., any of those guys are the not elected. the those other entities answers to me, the beaver county, utah shaveeriffs, camer noel. i will fight day and night to return nevada's lands to its rightful owners, its citizens and that was from senator ted cruz. this rhetoric often turns to v

vets who are not citizens like consideration before being deported, but this gao report says in manyes, i.c.e. did not follow its own rules nor even track those veterans. you may remember the scene in tijuana, mexico, 2 1/2 years ago when stephanie reunited with her father, enrique salas, who had grown up in l.a., wanting to serve his country. >> from the time i was 10, that's the only thing i dreamt about being was a marine. >> reporter: at age 17, a week after graduating high school, salas joined the marines, serving in the persian gulf war. >> putting on that uniform was the greatest thing in the world. >> reporter: after earning an honorable discharge from the marines, salas soon began to struggle with drugs and was arrested twice for drug possession, serving six months in jail. during a visit to mexico, i.c.e. refused to allow him to re-enter the u.s. because of his drug possession convictions. do you still consider yourself an american? >> very much so. >> even though you sit right here? >> it doesn't democracy any differen -- doesn't make any difference. >> we learned of 300 o

but this gao report says in many case, i.c.e. nor even track veterans electronically. you may remember the scene in tijuana, mexico two and a half years ago. >> i miss you. >> reporter: when stephanie ribara reunited with her father, enrique salas, who had grown up in l.a., wanting to serve his country. >> from the time i was 10, that's the only thing i dreamt of is being a marine. >> reporter: at age 17, a week after graduating high school, salas joined the marines, serving in the persian gulf war, where he earned several commendations. >> putting on that uniform is the greatest thing in the world. >> reporter: after earning an honorable discharge from the marines, salas soon began to struggle with drugs and was arrested twice for possession, serving six months in jail. during a visit to mexico, i.c.e. refused to allow him to reenter the u.s. because of his drug possession convictions. do you still consider yourself an american? >> yes, very much so. >> reporter: even though you, s. it doesn't make any difference, you know. my l

there are a few ways this could play out if amazon protests, they can do through the gao.votes in favor of the way the competition played out already, they can take it to the court system and basically file a lawsuit, which by the way is similar situation we saw play out with oracle before we got this award but in general, different analysts have different numbers out there on how much u.s. government cloud contracts could represent in the coming years. numbers as high as $100 billion. it seems regardless this will be amazon versus microsoft for many future deals. >> 100%. the question is is it a clean thing, if trump is there trying to put his thumb on the scale, that's a problem it will be the most expensive jeff bezos paid for "the washington post," it has repercussions. the question is what do they do in the situation, do they try to compete, stay quiet, and what precedent does it set for the president to say things like this, to say screw you, if this is true, if the reporting is true, sounds like he started to do it with the post office, he does it with "the washingt

mccauley of the gao who testified before this committee last year. we've all seen the media reports about so-called sober homes in florida, pennsylvania, massachusetts and a few other states that exploited recovering addicts with private insurance benefits. we look forward to hearing from her on that subject of their work there. i also extend a warm welcome to gary cantrell who heads the inspector general's investigative team. his investigators worked on a recent high profile case involving treatment scams in ohio. that investigation in partnership with fb, and i law enforcement generally -- fbi and law enforcement generally led to indictment of six people this year. all sex pleaded guilty to medicaid -- all six pleaded guilty to medicaid fraud. some havesi called for developmt of more uniform, measurable addiction treatment standards by which the public could evaluate the effectiveness of substance abuse treatment programs. our last witness, gary mendell, has gone a step forward not only identifying eight core standards he believes are key to any su

for example, officials told gao, that fraud was extensive in southeastern florida, a task force found that operators were lowering individuals using deceptive marketing techniques, such as promising of free airfare and rent. recruiters then broker these individuals to providers who builds their and sirens for hundreds and thousands of dollars for unnecessary drug testing, home operators were then paid 300 or more per week for every patient they referred. at the time of our arm hurt some arrests had been made, and mass since two since they found that some owned recovery homes and referred patients to, labs other labs are paying kickbacks to home for a patient referral for testing that was not medically necessary and between 2007 and 15 they settled with an iron labs in 4 million dollars of restitution, and the time of our report ohio was investigating fraud at the recovery center, this monday reported that six people planning guilty on for building medicaid more than 40 million dollars in drug and alcohol recovery services that were not provided or not medically necessary. to increase

vets who are not citizens like salas should get special consideration before being deported but this gaoeport says in many cases i.c.e. did not follow its own rules nor track veterans electronically. you may remember the scene in tijuana, mexico, two and a half years ago. >> i miss you. >> reporter: when stephanie robara reunited with her father, who had grown up in l.a., wanting to serve his country. >> the only thing i trempt about being a marine. >> reporter: at age 17, he joined the marines, serving in the persian gulf war. >> putting on the uniform is the greatest thing in the world. >> reporter: salas began to struggle with drugs and was arrested device for drug possession, serving six months in jail. during a visit to mexico, i.c.e. refused to allow him to re-enter the u.s. because of his drug possession convictions. do you still consider yourself an american? >> yes, very much so. >> reporter: even though you sit right here. >> yes. doesn't make any difference here. my loyalty is the united states. >> reporter: we learned of more than 300 other service veterans like enrique depor

i think the gao report is pretty clear i think we have an obligation to do something about it, madam chair. i yield back. >> thank you mr. grijalva, i will recognize myself for five minutes. professor walker, you spent time with the bungee militia at malheur national wildlife refuge in 2016. did the views they shared with you sound anything like what you have heard elsewhere? in your, opinion was the militia expressing commonly held sentiments about how the american people want their public lands managed. >> commonly held opinions within a hearty county or generally? >> anywhere that you have been. >> short answer is no, this was a very small community of anti government activists that belong to that particular group that is centered on the bundy family, is really a very small group of individuals, but what i am concerned about is that they get a sense of legitimacy to wider spread anti government groups, what happened here at the malheur national wildlife refuge was that the bundles came to the wildlife refuge, and they began from a particular ideological perspective having to do wi

there have been proposals to have gao do a periodic audit of earthquake earmarks. that's on the transparency side. also limiting the purpose of earmarks and the recipient of earmarks so no earmarks for private companies no pass through earmarks no earmarks named after members of congress, sometimes sort of limiting the total spending level for earmark. no more than 1% of discretionary spending or a limit on dollar amount for any earmark. >> previously before the moratorium directed spending can go to a private entity, not just a governmental entity? >> that's right. >> and i would imagine most -- i mean we're both appropriators and we've never been in that environment where it kissed. i know mr. woodall -- mr. cleaver might be the oh only person on the congress that's been in congress prior to the moratorium. thank you. >> mr. pocan. >> thank you mr. chairman. let me continue on that i was at a meeting one time as a freshman and sat down with a bunch of folks and we got talking about congressionally directed spending now i guess instead of earmarks and i raised the

our work on recovery homes ass part of gao's broader work. recent reports have explored federal oversight of opioid prescribing medicare, we also have ongoing work identifying barriers that they may face with important medication to treat opioid misuse. it's a result of mandates with the support act which was signed into law one year ago today. we highlight this and other work in her latest high risk report which is identified drug misuse as issue requiring very close attention. enqueue chairman grassley, ranking member widened and members of the committee for holdingry this important hearin. this concludes my remarks, i'm happy for any questions you may have. >> good morning chairman grassley and ranking member widened and other distinguished members of the committee. i'm gary, the inspector general for investigation. i am here before you to discuss the efforts to combat the pure crisis. our ongoing work is taking a multifaceted approach. looking at a variety of issues on the prescribed treatment mentions of thei crisis. oig is addressing th

quote, the process clearedre ew by the gao and court of federal claims at the outset the competition included four all offers were treated fairly and evaluated consistently with the solicitation's stated citation criteria. as big as jedi is expected to be, it' oneiece of modernization efforts and the pentagon sayit does anticipate additional cloud contracting opportunities. for "nightly businessneepmt," morgan brennan at the new york stock exchange. burning.california >> reporter: i'm jane wells in healdsburg, california. the governor has declared a state of emergegey. the state's companies are trying flames.he e step a we'll have that story coming up. dest ctive fires are sweepin through the state and the winds are high. power has been shut off for thousands of people and the utility pg&e said that its pow skbrer lines may he started o wildfires over the weekend in the san francisco bay area. pg&e shares fel sharply again today as the iinkaide fire the north casts doubt over the bankrupt utility's future. jane wells reports from wine country in healdsburg, california. >> reporter: f

now this gao report says i.c.e. did not give some veterans the appropriate level of review, but it's too late for enrique salase. he died after being in a car wreck in tijuana, mexico. >> after all these years and after it's too late for my dad, like that these things are coming up. i don't want it to be too late for other families that are going through the same thing. >> there is now a movement by some in congress to change to h from one "an inst to our website, just go to nbcbayarea.com/investigations. >> if you have a story for our investigative unit, look right here on your screen, youho to c 888-996-tips or nbcbayarea.com/investigations. >>> 4:51. coming up on "today in the bay," governor newsom is reupping when it comes to keeping national guard troops at the mexico border. up next, new details on the number of troops and how long they will be stationed there. >>> twitter experiencing a global outage. thousands of users in california, japan and the uk have been unable to access their accounts. according to th

according to the government accountability office or gao, i.c.e.id not consistently follow its own policies involving veterans. in some cases, agents were unaware the policies existed and some veterans removed may not have received the level of review and approval that is appropriate for cases involving veterans. >> they don't follow their own procedures. they're supposed to be keeping account and finding out who is a veteran, who wore the uniform for our country before they deport them. they don't follow their own internal policies. >> we discovered that that has had a severe impact on many u.s. veterans, leading to hardship, family separations, health problems and in at least one case, the death of a u.s. veteran. we follow one veteran as he struggles to reunite with his family for more than two years. find out what happens to him and what the congress may be doing about this, tonight at 11:00 on "nbc bay area news." >> if you have a tip for our inativig unit, want them to look into something, give them a call 888-996-tips or logon to our website

according to the government accountability office or gao, i.c.e. did not consistently follow its own policy involving veterans. in some cases agents were unaware of the policies even existed. and some veterans who were removed may not have received the level of review and approval that is appropriate for cases involving veterans. >> they don't follow their own procedures. they're supposed to be keeping a count and finding out who is a veteran and who wore the uniform for our country before they deport them and they don't follow their own internal policies. >> repter:e discovered that that has had a severe impact on many u.s. veterans. leading to hardship, family separations, health problems and in at least one case the death of a u.s. veteran. we follow one veteran as he struggles to reunite with his family for more than two years. find out what happens to him and what the congress may be doing about this tonight at 11:00 on nbc bay area news. >> if you would like to get ahold of our investigative unit call them at 888-996-tips or log on to our web

the gao and it's about education inspector general reported the company that manages federal student loans wrongly denied tens of thousands of teachers, nurses, firefighters, servicemembers and other dedicated public servants loan forgiveness they earned, this isn't my opinion, this is gao in the department of education inspector general. you have protected those companies while hard-working american families paid the price. i guess i should expect nothing less from an administration that consistently looks like a retreat for wall street executives. under your leadership crooked corporations have no real incentive to follow the law. if they get caught they know they will be hit with nothing but a slight slap on the wrist for ripping off consumers. how in the world do you explain to these hard-working americans why this bureau isn't protecting them? you have done the role asked of you by the presence of the united states, you protected companies, not workers, not consumers and that is an defensible. thank you. >> it is now your opportunity to make your initial statement, the floor is

a few small non-substantive changes were incorporated since we heard it at the gao committee and they've been passed out to you, which are in the final amended version of the legislation you have in front ever you. specifically, these newest amendments add detail to the training requirements in section 4502, subsection e and add the wore objective when discussing the review in 4502 subsection f and 4503. other aspects of the agreement include the following, for the next five months until the ends of march 2020, dph should operate 28 long-term bed expose 27 emergency shelter beds. starting in april, dph will be required to maintain and operate the adult residential facility with no fewer than 41 beds. for five residents of the arf who will be offered clinic calal placement and will have the opportunity to discuss their option with the ombudsman person. dph will create a working group where the residential facility can come together on a regular basis and discuss regular care among other issues and no later than march 31, dph shall submit a report on the analysis and review and actions tak

. >> reporter: students grabbed what they gao and left. >> i had my backpack with my laptop, my books. i was doing some studying. i plan on continue doing that. >> reporter: the gaming competition scheduled for this morning has been canceled. lisa amin gulezian, abc 7 news. >>> many neighbors are asking questions about a campaign billboard. abc 7 news reporter luz pena has more. >> reporter: normally this wall covered in art is a reason for many to stare. but neighbors noticed something different. >> i live in the area, hopefully it doesn't cause controversy. >> reporter: the woman in the billboard has her feet up, smoking and holding up a stack of bills. the quote let's, -- the quote reads, "let's stop slavery." >> i believe that was the intention. >> reporter: do you think that's disrespectful? >> no, tall. >> reporter: ellen lee zhou is running next year. she says people should focus on her message. >> i will declare emergency for people to come in and clear the street, clean the street, arrest the drug dealers, and give them the services they need. >> reporter: zhou says she wants

just three weeks ago today when he said he supports the inquiry but he was gaoing to wait and se where the facts went but today called out in the most forceful manner for impeachment. you heard him there in rockford, new hampshire. a couple things going on. joining where other democrats are, other presidential candidates, elizabeth warren, bernie sanders, others, much more forceful than him. joe biden tied into all of this the last three weeks and's he was calling out the president on a variety of fronts there. and at the same time defending hunter biden his son and defending his family's name and character. he accused president again and again of lying about him and essentially said, we just heard, shooting holes in the constitution. what joe biden is trying to do here, brooke, build the argument for impeachment, but it is significant he dropped any hesitancy towards this. the question is, what effects will it have? of course, democrats in congress are trying to make this argument to the american people to build their case for that. partisan speeches like this do not necessarily help

the gao found ice did not consistently follow its own policies involving veterans.n some cases agencies were unaware the policies even existed. >> i couldn't hardly believe it. >> reporter: that's why hector barajas was asked to testify on capitol hill. >> these are men and women that served in our armed forces, will are putting their lives on the line and we should never deport >> reporter: after our first series of stories aired, then california governor jerry brown pardoned throw of the deported veterans including hector barajas, who returned here to the united states where he served. he was formally sworn in as a u.s. citizen in march of 2018. both he and congressman tell me they believe this issue has enough bipartisan support to make it real change and to make it possible this law could be changed. we will stay on the story and bring to it you as it progresses. >> okay, thank you, stephen. good work. >>> well, cattle, horses, and rodeo big part of the agricultural life in the bay area, especially in alameda county. but now supervisors there voted to ban mutton

it is ripe for gao checks. they are costing the government thousands upon thousands of dollars. they are spending thousands of dollars to figure out that immigrants have foreign parents. >> thank you, i yield back. >> i would like to call on ms. jackson lee from texas. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. thank you to the witnesses that are here. if i might have those who have served in the united states military raise their hands. thank you so very much for your service, my applause to you. are there men and women in here that have served in combat. thank you so very much. i recall being here for 9/11 and i'm not trying to give ancient stories, but i remember as the call came for individuals for the passion and commitment to one's country, mr. chairman, there were numbers and numbers of legal permanent residents who heeded the cry both for the war in afghanistan and the war in ir iraq. interestingly enough, i have no recollection of any i.c.e. involvement on anything. i do remember a series of legislative initiatives to provide for opportunities for soldiers in theater to be n

the gao said he will continue to visit various stations throughout the transit system every wednesdayrom now through the end of the year and starting next month he said he will post a list of the top items and concerns people have brought up to him and some solutions on what bart can do. >>> kaiser mental health workers are preparing for a strike. this morning they gathered for a candlelight vigil to honor patients who did not receive treatment. the workers say that kaiser permanente executives are not taking action to improve access to mental health care. a spokesperson said the union is stalling and they have already agreed to hire 400 mental health care workers and spend $700 million on the mental healthcare facilities. >> the latest proposal outlines a number of enhancements to continuing education for our mental health workers and also addresses staffing and scheduling enhancements. our mental health workers are already among the highest paid in california. >> a couple of months ago kaiser gave us a final offer that did not include an increasing access to mental health care. >> u

an october 2018 gao report found cyber vulnerabilities in nearly all u.s. weapon systems. and our navy has admitted in public, reports that rely upon systems so compromised by our adversaries that they are quote reliability is questionable. we can start by securing the internet of things devices before they are exploited. i have bipartisan bicameral legislation that would require all government purchases of internet connected things, particularly coming out of dod, immediately beating de minimis security stance. back in 2010 i was proud to support language into the annual defense bill that would ban the use of huawei components in government systems. i think we need as i said a national strategy to deal with supply chains. that's why i along with senator mike crapo introduce a bill to establish a national supply chain security center with in odni. companies to to fortify their own systems against cyber attacks and insider threats. second, we've got to get a lot more serious about securing our telecommunication systems,, especially when it comes to 5g. that means rely on tr

now this gao report says i.c.e.eterans the appropriate level of review, but it's too late for enrique salas. he died after being in a car wreck in tijuana, mexico. >> after all these years and after it's too late for my dad, like that these things are coming up. i don't want it to be too late for other families that are going through the same thing. >> there is now a movement by some in congress to change all of this. watch our full story to hear from one congressman who calls all this "an injustice," that's later at 6:00, or you can logon to our website, just go to nbcbayarea.com/investigations. >>> right now at 6:00, on strike. thousands of workers across santa clara county walking off the job. the response overnight from county leaders and how it may impact business today, and the days ahead. >>> cleaning up. eight months after storms led to a landslide in the north bay, find out what took so long to get to the day some feared would never arrive. >>> and play ball. the first home playoff game for the a's in six y

in this review, the gao recommended that tsa and learn a process to ensure technologies continue to meet the protection requirements after the appointment, and the, tsa is clearly reviewing this. i would like to ask a question to mr. russell. can you expand on this a little bit more. were putting in new technologies like cities can nurse and we're not checking on them to see if they're working, is that what you're saying? >> you think about the body scanners, other pieces of equipment. there's an initial certification process, where they complete the procurement process to ensure all the requirements, as expected, and then it gets deployed to airports. what we found is, on a daily basis, most airports half a calibration kid that they run through the equipment that experienced agnostics for that equipment working properly. that check does not include ensuring that the actual detection out and explosive or other prohibitive items is operating at the same level as when it left the factory. so that's what we are getting. >> will that normally be done by people who are just trying to sneak th

have also pointed out that with respect to one of those outleases can just a here using gast gsa told gao using that language was a best practice and intended to modify a close that didn't contain. >> the responses they -- commissioner matthews, mass the gsa modified that provision or added the language to the building lease that would respect participation bit elected officials. >> what we agreed to do is in future outleases to remove that interested parties provision and replate it with language referencing the underlying statute which those provisions were based pop. i. >> so the answer to my question is, no, it has not been revised for the conte building lease. is that correct? >> don't know. i'd be happy to get that answer. >> if you could please provide that answer for the record, that would be helpful. with respect to future leases, as a practicing lawyer before i got here, litigating leases and contracts and disputes, how -- i'm curious how you determined that reference to the underlying statute was superior to an express provision in the contract and explicit provision in the lea

okay, i have an issue with opportunity zones in the 1980s enterprise zones which the gao ultimately concluded had no significant difference wealthy real estate developers made money from enterprise zones but communities were not actually prospering because of it. on that note i want to submit for the record, madam chair, a "new york times" article that reported that donald trump and his family and advisers will benefit tremendously from the opportunity zone. and chairman clayton, so i was taken aback by the statement you supported opportunity zones and see it as an opportunity -- you went onto say a lot of great things about it. wayne county is experiencing rap rap rapid aga rapid gentrification. i am -- the sec announced two weeks ago -- oh, where am i -- i'm sorry. so my question is then why would you say the statement that you said in regards to opportunity zones as an opportunity for economic development? because it is a tax break, right? >> well, part of our -- actually one of it reasons i put the statement was, hey, comply with the law. capital formation is good, but it you look in the

gao with the queens public library for sharing this space with us tonight. we want to thank sylvia martin, president of the city library, thank you so much for helping without me and i also want to thank gomez and malika for their promotional efforts, and i would like to recognize michelle who is a part of the tennis association. [applause] >> we are going to start with opening remarks from the congresswoman who is going to walk us through the legislative package in our chief of staff who is joining us from d.c. area is going to talk about some of the bill and right before we get into that, i want to discuss and recognize everyone's voice that has been here. in order to do that we are going to keep a little bit of time soi we can hear as many voices as possible in a point-to-point my colleague mabel, everyone will have around two minutes to present their questions or comments and mabel will be keeping us on track. and then i also want to recognize one mike, one voice, we all went to listen to the person that is speaking. so create a respectful environment ha

i think is right for gao investigation into these background checks and i would add that causing the government thousands upon thousands of dollars. to figure out the immigrants have foreign parents. >> thank you i yield back. >> i would like to call on ms. jackson from texas. >> thank you very much mr. chairman and thank you to the witnesses that i hear. if i might, at those who have served in the united states military is her hands. thank you so very much for your service. my applause to you. men and women here, who have served in combat. thank you so very much. i recall being here for 911, and not trying to give anything to a story but i remember is the call came for individuals for the tradition and commitment to one's country and the chairman, there were numbers and numbers of legal permanent residents who heated the crime both for war in afghanistan and the war in iraq. interestingly enough i have no recollection of any i.c.e. involvement on anything. i do remember a series legislative initiatives to provide for opportunity for soldiers in theater. to be naturalized. naturaliza

he earned his bachelors in aerospace airspace in gao's elected to the national academy of engineering in 2012. it's my pleasure to introduce bob crippen. [applause] >> thank you, thank you, deanned morning. i'm really pleased that they were able to pull together this panel of friends of mine. it's great to be up here, especially by former boss and friend, tom stafford it has he indicated he selected as one of his support crew for the apollo soyuz mission and took us over to russia, to star city and the soviet union. it was still the russia part. [laughing] even out to the launch site, which was how i think where the first foreigners to ever visit that. and then had the pleasure of talking, and the rest of the screw into the command module on is his lunch so we go back a long way, as indicated. it's also a pleasure to be appear with sandra magnus and chris ferguson who flew the last shuttle flight. one of my fondest memories, i just telling sandy was john young and i, my commander, and i got to do a photo op with them because we represented the bookends of the spatial program, if you w

it is ripe for gao checks. they are costing the government thousands upon thousands of . jacks. they are spending thousands of . dollars to figure out that immigrants have foreign parents. >> thank you, i yield back. thew >> i would like to call on ms. jackson lee from texas. might >> thank you very much, mr. chairman.n the thank you to the witnesses thath are here. much if i might have those who have c served in the united states military raise their hands. thank you so very much for your service, my applause to you. are there men and women in here that have served in combat. thank you so very much. i recall being here for 9/11 and i'm not trying to give ancient stories, but i remember as the call came for individuals for or the passion and commitment to one's country, mr. chairman, there were numbers and numbers of legal permanent residents who heeded the cry both for the war in afghanistan and the war in iraq.o interestingly enough, i have no recollection of any i.c.e. involvement on anything. i do remember a series of legislative initiatives to provide for opportunities for

the republicans did it against a hud official and the gao came in and went after their salaries so let's a president who thinks he is above the law and they know he put his own personal interests above our national security and they're upset. and i think this is just trying to react to the people in my district saying do whatever you can. we have to start playing a little tougher. >> so wisconsin is obviously going to be a key state in 2020. a key state. in your town hall meetings with constituents, especially the rural more conservative constituents, did you get any sense that one of the bottom lines they are arriving at is the guy, trump, simply can't do the job. >> impeachment was the number one issue at every town hall and health care and prescription drug prices are up there and but in the rural directs, the farm economy, secretary purdue came to wisconsin last week and said small farms need to go away, go big or go home which is the exact opposite of what message we want to hear in wisconsin. we've lost 1600 family farms just since donald trump became president and the tweeting tar

i think is right for gao investigation into these background checks and i would add that causing thegovernment thousands upon thousands of dollars. to figure out the immigrants have foreign parents. >> thank you i yield back. >> i would like to call on ms. jackson from texas. >> thank you very much mr. chairman and thank you to the witnesses that i hear. if i might, at those who have served in the united states military is her hands. thank you so very much for your service. my applause to you. men and women here, who have served in combat. thank you so very much. i recall being here for 911, and not trying to give anything to a story but i remember is the call came for individuals for the tradition and commitment to one's country and the chairman, there were numbers and numbers of legal permanent residents who heated the crime both for war in afghanistan and the war in iraq. interestingly enough i have no recollection of any i.c.e. involvement on anything. i do remember a series legislative initiatives to provide for opportunity for soldiers in theater. to be naturalized. naturalizat