the gao recently conducted a report looking at u.s. capitol security following the january 6 attack. ms. goodwin, what was the scope of your report? guest: good morning and thank you for having me. for this report, we wanted to get a better sense and a better understanding for how the capitol police officers themselves, what their experiences were on that day. we had four questions we were interested in. with the first question we wanted to know, what were the preparations like? how did the capitol police prepare? how did they prepare their officers for crowd control techniques or any sort of demonstration? we wanted to see what that was like before january 6, because depending on the training for any demonstration, that is what we would have seen on that day. the second question we were interested in looks at the uses of force that happened on january 6. what types of force the police officers engaged in on that day. the third question, we were really interested in getting the perspective of the capitol police officers. we wanted to k

for the chance to talk about gao's work on fema priorities . it's important to recognize the pressures and challenges that fema has on it. here's the agency has (response, responded to year after year of record-setting hurricanes and wildfires and also been asked to help with other national issues such as bordersecurity . at gao even though we audit and evaluate fema we respect the hard-working staff and mission. there's not a more dedicated group of federal employees and i found fema leadership to the receptive to self-evaluationi see for the challenges fema will have to tackle in the years ahead . first as was mentioned opening statements in his workforce, managing its own people. the fema workforce is worn down by disasters that never seem to end anymore and the agency staffing, training and hiring processes were designed for a mission that has changed. we found fema's long faced challenges in deploying staff with the diright qualifications and skills to meet disaster needs. we've also found fema struggles to train, coach and develop its dis

gao. ms. erica borman director of the vermont emergency management and also testifying on behalf of the national emergency management association. and ms. carolyn harshman who is the president of the international association of emergency managers. we thank you for being here today. we look forward to your testimony. without objection, our witness statements will be included in the record. since your written word will now be part of the record, we would kindly request that you limit your testimony to five minutes. so, we'll begin with you, mr. curry. please proceed. >> thank you, chairwoman titus. chair member defazio to be here for gao work on fema priorities. first, it's important to recognize the pressures and challenges that fema has on it. in recent years, the agency has led the pandemic response responded to year after year of record-setting hurricanes and wildfires and also been asked to help with other national issues such as border security. at gao, even though we audit and evaluate f

gao, ms. erika, director of the vermont emergency management and testifying on behalf of the national emergency association ms. carolyn, the president of international association. thank you for being here today and look forward to your testimony t. without objection from our witnesses for statement will be included in the record. since the written work will be part of the record, we kindly request you limit your testimony for five minutes. we will begin with you, mr. curry. >> ranking member webster, thank you for the chance to be here today to talk about the work on fema priorities. it is important tos recognize pressures and challenges fema has on it. agency has had pandemic response, year after year of record-setting hurricanes and wildfires and asked to help with other national issues such as border security. even though audit and evaluate fema, we have respect w for the hard-working staff. there's not unmarked dedicated work of federal employees and i found enough leadership to be commit

. >> the gao found the u.s. capitol police planning for january 6th, 2021, did not reflect the potential for extreme violence and did not include contingencies for support from other agencies. of course the republican members of this committee have been driving home this point for over a year now. why was a capital security apparatus so unprepared? party the answer to the questions also addressed by the gao which explains the capitol police board oversees the capitol police. as we know, the capitol police board is made up of political appointees answerable to congressional leadership including speaker pelosi. no matter how many times she tries to duck our responsibility in the press. gao's report tells us while the capitol police make security recommendations, it does not have the authority to implement them without court approval. and the board has no process in place to do review and approve such recommendations. gao concludes without a comprehensive document process to assess and mitigate risks there is no as

in 2009, gao published a report titled select cases of definite abuse are public and private schools. the report on hundreds of cases of definite abuse and had legislation been passed following that report, i might not be sitting here before you today. my son might have avoided lifelong. when i say to you what happened to my son change my life, it's no exaggerating. three years ago i therapist and have devoted thousands of hours researching the issue promoting positive change and i've talked to thousands of parentsto and families impacted. i do this for my son and the children and families impacted. thank you for hearing my story and i look forward to answering questions. >> thank you for sharing this personal story about your family. our prayers to you, sir. >> thank you. >> this graven, you have ten minutes. >> good afternoon members of the committee. i'm the national director of policy advocacy and community engagement. in my testimony i like to share information about corporal punishment, what it takes for supportive schools for all students in federal action to eliminate corporal

for years, senators from hawaii and ohio requested that the gao look into the issue of u.s. representation within international organizations. the last such report was in 2010. today, i come along with the ranking member malliotakis, representative reg remix, michael mccaul, request the gao to resume these assessments. these requests include barriers to recruitment, hiring and retention, the state department's efforts to improve u.s. representation, and of the u.s. efforts to fund junior officers at the united nations across the range of u.s. agencies that participate. the united states efforts on this has at times been strong, and at other times week. i'm encouraged by the biden administration's efforts to contest elections and international levels, but the only way to be succeed, is to be consistent. a gao report is an important counterpart to the state department's own reporting on their efforts and will ensure this effort will continue to be on congress's agenda in the coming years so we can work with the administration to advance our values and priorities through these

the gao recently conducted a report looking at u.s.itol security following the january 6 attack. ms. goodwin, what was the scope of your report? guest: good morning and thank you for having me. for this report, we wanted to get a better sense and a better understanding for how the capitol police officers themselves, what their experiences were on that day. we had four questions we were interested in. with the first question we wanted to know, what were the preparations like? how did the capitol police prepare? how did they prepare their officers for crowd control techniques or any sort of demonstration? we wanted to see what that was like before january 6, because depending on the training for any demonstration, that is what we would have seen on that day. the second question we were interested in looks at the uses of force that happened on january 6. what types of force the police officers engaged in on that day. the third question, we were really interested in getting the perspective of the capitol police officers. we wanted to know

a report i commissioned under the gao was released last week that found that over several years, thetate department and dod failed to meet statutory reporting requirements to congress on the impact of u.s. assistance on the military balance between armenia and azerbaijan. this is deeply concerning as azerbaijan's actions in the nagorno carbonic region have led to the deaths of more than 6000, exacted a steep toll on armenians, uprooting thousands from their homes. are you familiar with the report's findings, secretary lewis, and do you commit to review state's compliance with the 907 waiver requirements for providing assistance to azerbaijan? >> i am familiar and i commit to do that and i'm aware that the gao report raise concerns about providing additional information relating to those waivers. it is a priority for meat to look into that and ensure we provide the information required. >> it is a priority for me to conduct the oversight. i should not have had to commission a report to get what we all know, that there's been a failure to justify this assistance. senator? >> thank you.

thank gao, thank you for 'oining us. thank ou for gao, thank you for 'oining us. access route into it. the international atomic energy agency says it's been assured by the russians that ukrainian staff at the power plant are continuing their normal operations. let's speak to hamish de bretton gordon, a chemical weapons specialist and former british army colonel. how worried are you by what we are hearing from the iea that they are obviously having some concerns about these nuclear power plants? weill. obviously having some concerns about these nuclear power plants?— these nuclear power plants? well, i am very concerned. _ these nuclear power plants? well, i am very concerned. we _ these nuclear power plants? well, i am very concerned. we saw - these nuclear power plants? well, i am very concerned. we saw what i am very concerned. we saw what happened to the reactor at chernobyl backin happened to the reactor at chernobyl back in 86 when it blew up, caught fire and the contamination reached as far as the uk. we saw what happened in fukushima when the reactor melted

is the gao studying the potential for cyberattacks during a natural disaster?to that because it is one step away from something to be in a very devastating position in the middle of a natural disaster and if the terrorist groups take advantage of the system by the things you can share with us? >> thank you serve. i'm not aware of any study or evaluation we have done with cyberattack specifically during a national disaster. we have across all the agencies that are involved in a disaster but i will take that back in touch are cybersecurity experts and i i will get back to with our plans for that and if we do that in the future. >> i suspected something we should be concerned about and if we can collaborate to make sure that we have the best practices in place to be prepared i would appreciate it. thank you very much. >> one.. we have thousands of constituents and then the real disaster victims and then just to talk about with her distracting puerto rico. >> ranking member and sharing those expertise and i know more that there are numerous stakeholders and then i

the gao, as you know, made four priority recommendations to the dhs. all of them, unfortunately, remain open. mr. currie, if you could spend time telling this committee the ways you believe the federal government failed in implementing the biodefense strategy from 2018. >> thank you, sir. i think the good news is we got a strategy and a steering committee was developed to kind -- to try to have that kind of coordination. i think what we haven't seen yet is the execution on some of the tough decision-making and coordination across departments. dr. george talked about this when they were recommended that the vice president be responsible for this function. i think one key here is there has to be an entity or a way to look across the biodefense enterprise and make resource and programmatic decisions. and that just hasn't happened. omb would have to play a big role in that, looking across to look at budgets, look at resource, but it's very difficult to prioritize programs. for example, to say, let's invest in biowatch and not hhs's public infrastructure be

a report that i commissioned under the gao was released last week that found that over several years, the state department and dod failed to meet statutory reporting requirements to congress on the impact of u.s. assistance and on the military balance between armenia. this is deeply concerning, as his actions in the are onhave lead to the deaths of 6,000 people extracted a steep tole on armeniaens uprooting them from their homes. are you familiar with the reports findings? do you commit to review state's compliance with the waiver requirements for providing assistance? >> yes, i am familiar and i commit to do that. and ooismi'm aware it raised concerns about information related to those waivers and it's a priority for me to look into that and ensure we provide the information required. >> it's a priority for me to conduct the oversight. i don't want to see this anymore. i shouldn't have had to commission a report to get what we all know that there has been a failure to justify this. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i am going to belabor the point. i don't usually feel comfortable in speaki

found dod does not systemically track training inclouding civil military relations and as a result gao cannot fully report on this in 2019 so my question is pretty simple. you would degree it's not a good idea for the united states to be providing training to people who then turn around and use that training to engage in military coups. right? >> senator, i very much share your concern about the examples that you raised. and indeed, our training emphasizes the need for the appropriate role of of the military in society. and when these sorts of events do occur, we consult with our colleagues at the state department to pause. >> what have you done since 2019 specifically to both provide greater restaurant reporting that indicates it's a priority and do you dispute the 2011 finding it's not a priority in many of your programs? >> senator, thank you for raising this issue. we have indeed focused in particular on lessons learned so that when these events happen, we can step back and try to figure out why do they occur, what do we need to do. what we have also seen with our training is you h

>> senator, i take the impounding control act as serious as anybody in this room and that's why gao has found this administration has acted properly within the confines of that law and we're operating prudently. it may not be where everyone thinks it should be, but we have environmental reasian to be done and gaps to be filled and returned billions to the department of defense where it belongs and we're doing what we not only believe is responsible, but gao has validated that. >> do you intend to spend the $1.4 billion. >> we're spending it. >> on a border barrier? >> utilized efforts. you can only spend it on certain things, we can't even spend it on technology. >> that's what we authorized for. >> so we're spending it on what authorized, and gao has validated that. >> senator whitehouse. >> thank you, chairman. good afternoon director young, ms. coloretti, thank you for being here, i want to ask you about health care costs and if i have a moment a little about climate costs. health care costs, the budget committee staff are going to give you a copy of this which i viewed before and yo

china and pacific island countries is doomed to fail from one cross live to a panel of guests. victor gao, vice president of the center for china and globalization golf to code director of the washington based institute for the analysis of global security. and i was under bruno, an independent political analyst in toronto. gentlemen, thank you for being with us. first mr. go, let's go to you. are australia and new zealand justified in their concerns about a potential chinese military base base or basically should there be worried about their borders? absolutely not just divide. why? because the solomon islands, together with about 2000 eyes. because if it's in countries are some re nations and they have their i to determine that economic and political relations as well as how they want to position themselves in the world. australia is not the most of solomon islands and or any of australia to. ready hold himself out to present the people are. solomon's is completely unacceptable. and i think the key is that china, solomon relations as well as china. pacific relations in general are very m

jon: this is, uh, luo bo gao.mei: i think this, being breakfast, we definitely have to pace ourselves 'cause it's literally all carbs. jon: yeah. mei: after the fan tuan, you're gonna hit a wall. jon: i'm not gonna--there's no way. i'm crushing this. mmm! i haven't had one in so long. it's, like, sweet and salty and then there's crispy, and then there's egg. mei: i love the--the doughnut in there. jon: yeah. the you tiao, yeah. mei: i mean, usually, like, we would eat, uh, you tiao with... with congee in the morning. i'm really excited that you introduced me to this place because, growing up in dearborn, like, we never got anything like this. jon: you know how, like, you hear podcasts about, like, asian chefs, like, "oh, like, i got made fun of eating kimchee" or whatever as a kid? mei: yeah. jon: i think i took for granted that i never--like, i didn't get traumatized like that. mei: you didn't? jon: no. mei: wow. the first time i brought, like, seaweed soup in a trmos... jon: uh-huh. mei: to lunch, someone saw, l

the gao and bipartisan commission have made numerous recommendations that could improve our by the security posture in the united states. i would like to ask my first question to mr. curry than to dr. george. if each of you could give me and the committee your number one recommendation that remains open will better prepare our nation to respond to biological threats and give us that number one recommendation and why it is your number one recommendation. mr. curry, we will start with you, then dr. george. >> two years after the pandemic started the number one recommendation is following up on lessons learned. before covid the problem is we had to gaps identified but we do not have a mechanism of accountability to figure out who was supposed to close them and any follow-up and if we do not do that after covid lessons learned will be an absolute waste. for me that is the number one thing we need to focus on, and whatever actions those might be. new roles and responsibilities identified and clarified as well. that would require the help of congress. >> dr. george. >> you asked about the recomme

. -- can you dismiss what is being that the gao identified to provide more active and effective oversight of the defense intelligence overflight -- ? >> yes. we have decided we need to move aggressively. we are looking at the roles, responsibilities and functions of our organization, ensuring that we understand clearly what those components are. then we are trying to match what our people are actually doing to the roles that they should be doing to ensure that they are doing what we need to do to measure what is occurring within the defense intelligence and security. we need to make sure we have metrics to see if we are adding value in terms of oversight and governance, and lastly, for the people piece of this, ensuring we have the right skill level, right backgrounds and focus on so that we are doing, we are being assisted in this by some independent analysis being done by others, independent analysis coming out of princeton and we hope to have something back to you and this committee and follow -- in full by the fall. >> thanks. related to the questions about the kind of folks that you

and in in the 2018 gao studyn discipline disparities found that corporal punishment disproportionately harms certain students constance of color and student with disabilities even though these tips to not miss at higher rates than their white or nondisabled peers. can you please elaborate further on this disparity and where there are -- they are most pronounced? ms. harper? someone else? >> i'm happy to answer that question. i know you referenced corporal punishment, sans have to talk about that a little bit more. thank you for the question. we know that like other forms of punitive discipline and school policing, corporal punishment is used disproportionate against black students. as i mentioned in my testimony in the 2017-18 school year the rate of black students being hit was twice as i sat and white students. in mississippi what about a quarter of instances of corporal punishment in the u.s. take place we know that black children account for about 63% of the students corporal punishment even though they only made up 49% of the student population and black girls in particular receip

the gao recently conducted a report looking at u.s. capitol security following the january 6th attack. what was the scope of your report? >> good morning and thank you for having me. we wanted to get a a better sense and a better understanding for how the capitol police officers themselves what their expenses were on that day. we had four questions we are interested in. the first question we wanted to know was what worth the preparations like, how did the capitol police prepare their officers for crowd control techniques or any kind of large-scale demonstration. we wanted to see what that was like before january 6th kaz depending upon what the training and what the preparations were for any demonstration that's what we would've seen on that day. the second question we were interested in looks at the uses of force that happened on january 6th. so what the police, what types of forced the police officers engaged in on that day. the third question we're really interested in getting the perspectives of the capitol police officers. we wante

workers come back to work the white house is still providing vaccine mandate permitted probit the cdc, gaohs saying this is a system at risk. cdc uses 19205 eric pandemic a modeling systems. also effectively the cdc has fallen down on the job. "new york times" found it was burying information about hospitalizations, covid cases and death rates. in effect making the pandemic worse than it was seeming worse than it was, your response to that? >> the cdc bloated organization we have given something like $28 billion to over the last two years of the white house was a double their annual budget from 11 billion to $22 billion spread like i want to know how much to have to pay for them to be right? how much you have to pay for them to be completely transparent and give us guidance is normally following the science and correct but is not confusing but that's what they've continued to do under both administrations by the way the cdc was failing prefect the $22 billion we allocate to the cdc on an annual basis and shotgun that across the 300 cities that have at least 100,000 people in them across th

as a recent gao report stated, records are the foundation open government supporting the principles of transparency, participation and collaboration unquote. one form of communication technology now poses what i see as an existential threat to record-keeping name the forms of which self-destruct after messages are sent. such messages will be used as officials on matters simply vanish from history as a committee is well aware there's been numerous instances of attention grabbing headlines involving the use of whatsapp, wicker, confided and signaled by white house staff and other federal officials. the popularity of these forms of messaging app effectively mean anyone in the federal government can communicate in ways that amount to an end run around the records laws that otherwise require adequate documentation of government business. our bully federal employees including both the white house and executive branch should be prohibited however still able to use messaging apps that are authorized for use in the white house or each agency provided those are captured in an official record kee

as a recent gao report stated "records are the foundation of open government supporting the principlesf transparency, participation andbo collaboration. one form of communication technology now poses what i see is the existential threat to government record-keeping with forms of ephemeral messaging which self-destruct after messages are sent when used by officials relating to government business simply vanish from history is a committee as well aware there's numerous instances of attention grabbing headlines involving the use of what that and signaled by white house federald other officials the popularity of these forms of messaging apps means anyone in the federal government can communicate in ways that amount to an end run around the records laws that require adequate documentation government business i believe federal we should be prohibited from using that messaging apps to con on —- to conduct government business. but then that those are captured in the official record-keeping system beyond that gap in current i do believe to be at the history of government record-keeping starting

authority but i'm concerned not making the most of this opportunity in key roles and returns processing the gaoeport that in the last fiscal year not only didy the irs have a higher surge goals but they had the attrition rate of 17 percent more than double the a agency average talk about what the agency is doing to improve attrition with the effective next of the direct hiring search? >> for more than two years we've been requesting direct hiring authority because we compete with the private sector who can bring somebody on board between a six or eight month process and when you get into the accounts management those people have a lot of options they have amazon and walmart they announced last night they are hiring 50000 people target is on boarding $50 an hour. we were at $14.57. i can only encourage people so much to come on board for the good ofat the country that those levels between 15 and $20 is whether or not they will have a lunch or dinner and what it will be. but we need to provide whatever. what we're doing is have tuition free embarrassment on this reimbursement child tax credits we

gao report published last month found in last fiscal year only to the irs penalty the entire research goals for returns processing, but these employees attrition rate of 17 percent, more than double the agencies average. and you talk about what the agency is doing to improve retention and attrition rates tomaximize the effectiveness of the direct hiring search ? >> for more than two years we've been requesting direct hiring immediately the private sector can bring something on board next week and for us it's been a 6 to 8 month process aand when you get into the admission process and accounts management most people have a lot of options. amazon, walmart, walmart announced last night hiring 80,000 people. target announces on boarding at $20 per hour. up till the present executive order we were at $14.57. i can only encourage people so much to come on board for the good of the country. those levels the difference between $15 and av$20 is whether or not they're going to have lunch or adinner and when it's going to be so we need assistance . we need to provide what we're doing because we

in 2009, the gao published a report titled select cases of death and abuse in public and private schools, found hundreds of cases of death and abuse related to restrain and seclusion, had federal legislation been passed, i may not have been sitting here today and my son and others may have avoided lifelong trauma. please support, when i say to what happened to my son has changed my life it is no exaggeration, three years ago i started the alliance against restraint and seclusion, i have talked to thousands of parents and families that have been impacted. i do this for my son and the many children and families that are impacted. thank you for hearing my story today and i look forward to answering questions later. >>> thank you very much mr. stephens and thank you for sharing this personal story about your family. our prayers go to you sir. >> thank you. >> let me see. i think i -- next we will hear from mr. raven, please, you have five minutes. >>> good afternoon, ranking member owens, members of the committee, my name is morgan craven director of intercultural development at national dir

sometimes gao will do work that will be deem arizona, mr. grijalva, to suspend the rules and pass h.r. 3113, as amended, on which the yeas and nays are ordered. the clerk will report the title. the clerk: h.r. 3113, a bill to require the secretary of the interior, the secretary of agriculture and the assistant secretary of the army for civil works to dithize and make publicly available geographic information system mapping data relating to public access to federal land and waters for outdoor recreation and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: the question is, will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended. members will record their votes by electronic device. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.] the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from