it's over because of gsa inspector general brian miller. who was a bipartisan appointee of president george w. bush and president barack obama. and the party's over because of gsa deputy administrator susan brita, an obama appointee who blew the whistle and took this matter to the inspector general. and the party is over because the new acting administrative gsa, mr. daniel tangherlini is a no nonsense leader from the u.s. department of the treasury who aims to clean up this mess. this is not the first episode of misconduct at the gsa. the carter administration uncovered one in 197 and 1979 when a nationwide investigation noose long-standing corruption resulted in prosecutions for bribery, for fraud, and protections for whistleblowers in the agency. then there was more misconduct during the bush administration. the first occurred when the chief of staff to the gsa administrator traveled with jack abramoff to scotland even though mr. abramoff had business before the gsa. in 2011, this chief of staff went to prison. in 2006, the bush appointe

yield to my friend and colleague, let me put into the record an addendum that the inspector general brian miller gave us both sides of the aisle today, but he didn't have the time to get it into his testimony. it goes through the various steps that he believes should be taken at the gsa. the first one is centralizing the program and budget management. the second is centralizing agency information management. the third is what he calls getting back to basics. gsa feeds to refocus on its core mission, procurement and building operations. he said he found that many agency contracting personnel didn't understand fiscal law or the federal travel regulations or were unaware of the existence of agency policies that directly govern their daily work. this is unacceptable, he writes, and i would agree. then he said get out of the matrix as the former gsa administrator testified, gsa employee supervision is not presently linear. it is a matrix because many high level personnel report to two supervisors. each supervisor can deflect supervisory responsibility on to the other, or claim to. and he says the mat

and we also heard from the inspector general himself, who also testified today, brian miller. he referred the las vegas matter to the justice department for possible criminal charges. again, just waiting for dan tangherlini to come into the room. the acting gsa administrator. >>> mr. tangerly, before we start -- were you able to hear the entire early presentation? [ inaudible ] thank you. >>> the committee will now come to order. our second panel is the acting director -- acting administrator of the general service administration, mr. daniel m. tangherlini. mr. tangherlini was kind enough to call me almost immediately after his appointment, and we look forward to your opening statement and in light of the first panel, and your listening to that, your comments on changes you anticipate. with that, the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. >> good afternoon, chairman issa. >> i apologize. got to stick with the script. pursuant to the rules, all members will be sworn. would you please rise? do you solemnly swear or affirm the testimony you're about to give will be the truth,

. >> reporter: inspector general brian miller, whose report triggered this scandal, suggests abuses at gsa are pervasive. >> we turned over every stone, and every time we turned over a stone, we found 50 more, with

i thank our witnesses today, inspector general miller, for while, mr. olson, mr. george, i think all of you for being here and i look forward to the testimony with great anticipation. we need to make certain that people are protected and that is our obligation to and responsibility to do it and i think they're working to the we can do a lot better than what we're doing. this is not a committee here to blame you and you blame us. this is a committee to come up with some solutions. thank you so much, mr. chairman. >> thank the gentleman and would echo your final comment there as well that we're about working with you and all to solve problems, not to play gotcha and all the more we appreciate our witnesses being here with us today. we will keep the record open for seven days for any additional statements or extraneous materials to are submitted for the record but we're now glad to move to our witnesses and we are honored to have four very dedicated public servants who day in and day out seek to serve the american people will great distinction and honor and who bring

this panel includes testimony from the agency's inspector general brian miller. this is two hours. >> you're the new guy? >> yes, sir. >> i see no reason that you will not tell us the truth, therefore we will forego the swearing-in. i ask unanimous consent that our witness's full statement will be included in the record without objection, so ordered. since your written testimony has been made part of the record, limit your oral testimony to five minutes. mr. miller, since we've already received your statement, unless you have anything further you'd like to add at this time, we will ask mr. tinkerlini to begin. >> good morning. members of the subcommittee, i'm the acting administrator of the u.s. general services administration. i appreciate the opportunity to come before the committee today. first and foremost i want to state that the waste and abuse outlined in the inspector general's report is an outrage, completely anti-thet call to the goals of the administration. the report details violations of travel rules, acquisition rules, and good conduct. just as impo

it's over because of gsa inspector general brian miller. a bipartisan appointee of president george w. bush and president barack obama. and the party's over because of gsa deputy administrator susan brita, an obama appointee who blew the whistle and took this matter to the inspector general. and the party is over because the new acting administrative gsa, mr. daniel tangherlini is a no nonsense leader from the u.s. department of the treasury who aims to clean up this mess. this is not the first episode of misconduct at the gsa. the carter administration uncovered one in 197 and 1979 when a nationwide investigation noose long-standing corruption resulted in prosecutions for bribery, for fraud, and protections for whistleblowers in the agency. then there was more misconduct during the bush administration. the first occurred when the chief of staff to the gsa administrator traveled with jack abramoff to scotland even though mr. abramoff had business before the gsa. in 2011, this chief of staff went to prison. in 2006, the bush appointed gsa ad

will be done in the future to ensure that this does not happen again and for the inspector general, mr. miller, has the ig looked at other agencies that you're aware of for a similar type of abuse that might have occurred or is occurring? >> we are currently looking at all the conferences in region 9, and we're looking at conferences in general. >> just region 9? >> we're focusing on region 9 right now, but we are generally looking at congress fenferences receiving a number of hot lines about other regions throughout the country. >> administrator tangalin has agreed to do a complete accounting of the -- management and overall service delivery of the agency. >> is the acting director also looking at making sure that the federal government's reimbursed? >> yes, sir, he's already taken action in that regard, three letters were sent out and additional letters will be forthcoming, yes. >> and mr. miller, what do you expect or what should congress do to make sure that this does happen again, not only with gsa but other agencies when it comes to these kind of conferences. >> i think that supporting i

. >> reporter: inspector general brian miller, whose report triggered this scandal, suggests abuses at gsa are pervasive. >> we turned over every stone, and every time we turned over a stone, we found 50 more, with all sorts of things crawling out from under -- >> that you never -- >> reporter: today, calls for gsa to clean house. >> i can't understand why taxpayers are still paying the salary of jeffrey neeley, who apparently approved this $800,000 bender, while my constituents are struggling to make ends meet. >> reporter: gsa's new boss says he's already cancelled 35 conferences, and urged workers to report misuse of taxpayer dollars. but investigators want to know why, after top gsa officials were alerted to the las vegas boondoggle, they allowed neeley to keep traveling at taxpayer's expense. lisa myers, nbc news, washington. >>> now to the prostitution scandal involving agents and officers of the united states secret service and members of the u.s. military. tonight there are growing calls for answers in washington, as the white house is defending the secret service director. we'

inspector general brian miller says his hotline has triggered new investigations that go way beyond the $820,000 vegas trip and says he does not know what investigators will find. miller told lawmakers some may face criminal prosecution. >>> the mother who works as a nurse is accused of killing another mother and stealing her newborn child. texas police say verna mcclain admit to shooting kayla golden as golden left a doctor's office tuesday with her three- day-old son. mcclain who has two other children, allegedly told her fiance she had given birth to her child when in reality she had had a miscarriage and was desperate to have a baby. >>> brittany kilgore's husband is deployed to afghanistan and he is not a suspect in her death. police arrested a woman of suspicious of murder but aren't saying how she and the victim are connected. >>> now developments in the shooting death of trayvon martin. the florida judge providing over the case has recused herself because of a potential conflict of interest. the judge's husband works with an orlando attorney who was first approached by george zi

immediately engage gsa's inspector general as indicated in the joint letter that the inspector general brian miller and i sent to all staff, we expect an people who sees waste, fraud or an beautibuse to repor. we can't to build an partnership with the ig while insuring their flpd to ensure nothing like this will happen again. there will be no tolerance for employees who violate or disregard these rules. i believe this is critical not only because we owe it to the american taxpayers but also because we owe it to the many gsa employees who work hard, follow the rules, and deserve to be proud of the agency for which they work. we will have also taken steps to improve internal controls and oversight to ensure this never happens again. already, i have canceled all western regions conferences. i've also canceled 35 previously planned conferences saving nearly a million dollars in taxpayers expense. i've suspended the hats off stores and demanded reimbursement from mr. peck, mr. robert shepherd and mr. neely for private inroom parties. i've canceled most travel through the end of the fiscal year agency wi

inspector general brian miller told senators today.r said he is getting new reports of wrongdoing from workers following the uproar over the gsa spending scandal in las vegas. >>> and dick clark, he showed boomer teens how to dance on his after school program american bandstand, and helped ring in at love new years in times square. he passed away this morning. he was 82. larry, back to you. >> kayla, i watched a lot of american bandstand. i really did. in fact right around the corner from this studio. we will miss him. kayla tausche, thank you very much. >>> next up on "kudlow," the president walk away from governing to run a campaign? economic bombs set to go off everywhere. question, is rome burning? and is president obama fiddling while rome burns? i'm larry kudlow. we'll explore it next up. [ horn honks ] hey, it's sandra -- from accounting. peter. i can see that you're busy... but you were gonna help us crunch the numbers for accounts receivable today. i mean i know that this is important. well, both are important. let's be clear.

to organize a conference expect to testify again today of inspector general bryan miller its kickbacks as well a lot of evidence he was caught on tape so that continues today it's good news all around. >>> pretty good news today and an uneven going to be bad '80 showing a brown the bay area were some injuries so far this weekend to soak your head at the door this morning hot temperatures in the 40's and 30's in the afternoon ladies and 60¢ and they'll find '60s and '70s shined up some of the valley could today as compared to yesterday with the green line of the north of the bay area's will stay dry enough and the 57 days and were looking again and of those '70s the brentwood 16 degrees and 69 in the napa valley maliki is 16 degrees low clouds and fog lingered on the coastline in daly city of about 68 in santa rosa the next couple of days have pressures to build and temperatures start to warm up very nicely by thursday pushing a degrees mid-80s in the balance about mid-70s and said that they and even not to the coastline. beautiful weather coming our way. no rain in sight right now i'm

miller, the notion of hats off will have no meaning to the general public, no meaning to me. as i understand it's supposed to award employees for meritorious work. would you please describe the hats off program. >> the hats off program was one of many programs at gsa, each program had a different name, in region 9 it was known as hats off. >> was it only in region 9? >> no. it was in other regions except for region 2. all of the other regions had a similar program. the idea was if an employee performed well, they would get a certain number of points. >> who would give the points, mr. mill center. >> they could be given by a co-worker, they could be given by a supervisor. >> mr. miller, just a second. they could be given by a co-worker? >> correct. so one co-worker could give points to another co-worker, and the other co-worker -- >> based on what? is hats off for the purpose of awarding something at the end after a number of points? >> yes. >> have been reached. >> you collect the points, you can trade the points in for a prize. under gsa regulation, the prizes could not exce

general. i plugged the work that brian miller has been honest. it has taken a lot of time. the release of the igt's report on april 3, i sent a letter to and also requestedig testify aloniller testify along with the actingg administrators i want to thank you, madam the chairman, for doing that. in a way, this is not going tok be any immediate here. we have the two good guys here. we are not goinsag to be accusig anyone. we are just wanting to find guot where we can go from there.. and i think it was articulated well by the chairman. ofer course, mr. dan tangherlin, you are in a position where you're going to have to do some very uncomfortable things. about you and i think they've got the right guy doing them. the report describes a number of disturbing findings from the investigation, some of the highlights were the gsa spending on the conference planning was excess i be, wasteful and in some cases impermissible. travel expenses for the conference total ling over $100,000, just not believable. catering costs $30,000. the gsa failed to follow contracting regular laces in.of

miller is the inspector general of the general services administration. miss martha n. johnson is the former administrator of the general services administration. mr. jeff neely is the regional commissioner of public building services in the pacific rim region at the general services administration. mr. michael j. robertson is chief of staff at the general services administration and mr. david e. foley is the deputy commissioner of public building service at the general services administration. pursuant to our rules all witnesses are required to take the oath, would you please rise, raise your right hand to take the oath. do you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony you're about to give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. let the record reflect that all witnesses answered in the affirmative. in order to allow time for discussion testimony will be limited to five minutes. some of you have written statements some do not. in other case -- your written statement will be platsed in the record in their entirety. you may read your written statem

it was an inconclusive report -- >> inconclusive but you have the inspector general here -- mr. miller, did you inform mrs. johnson about the -- this potential fraud, waste and abuse, and did you tell her to get a handle on mr. kenneally's travel? on the entire regional conference's travel? >> okay. we went through the power point very clearly -- >> did you tell her to get a handle on it? we went through a lot of this already. i want to know whether you told her to get a handle on it or not. >> i told the regional administrator in august to get a handle on mr. kenneally's travel. when i talked to administrator johnson, i told her directly that i thought mr. kenneally needed to be candid with our special agents because in the interview, he said some things that we thought were less than candid. and i thought that was not appropriate for a senior executive service official. >> miss johnson, you say you took immediate action. you took immediate action a few days ago. this is a pretty scary report. >> i agree. >> yes. certainly you want to see the overall findings. but to see that they spe

regions conference, i requested that the gsa's office of inspector general conduct a review of these allegations. i'm grate tofl mr. miller and his office for the work they did in uncovering and reporting these abuses. i believe the inspector general's report warranted immediate corrective action within gsa, and i advocated for such action. i'm committed to working with acting administrator mr. tangherlini to restore faith in the agency. not only to members of this committee but also to colleagues in other government agencies and more importantly to the american taxpayer. i look forward to answering any questions you may have. >> good morning, chairman denham, chairman mica, ranking member norton, and members of the subcommittee. my name is alison doone, and i am the chief financial officer of the general services administration. i appreciate the opportunity to come before the committee today. i have served as the gsa cfo since december 27th, 2010. before arriving at gsa i served at the internal revenue service for five years as the cfo and deputy cfo, where i oversaw the financial management and accounting operations for

the inspector general, brian miller has a referral under way and a number of the areas include misuseards and allegations of bribery. this related to the contractors that they had a relationship with and used them on a no-bid basis, and no bid is an important word in government because the gsa is the agency most responsible to make sure that we do have competitive bids and you simply don't give your wife's cousin a big contract without it being a low bid and that's exactly what we believe happened in this case, but at gsa we believe it is more widespread and the tip of the iceberg, if you will. >> that sounds like bribery, if you will, that would be a crime. >> we believe the charges could include bribery and there could be a referral coming shortly. >> define very shortly. in a matter of days if it hasn't already happened. the actual indictment is one that we don't directly participate in, and the inspector general does refer criminal charges at the conclusion of the investigation. we believe he's made the case for a number -- >> is that why he testified before congress? >> the quest

general assembly for a possible special session. o'malley will meet with house speaker michael bush and senate president mike miller. the general assembly needs to finish work on the fiscal 2013 budget after key parts of the budget package failed during the recent legislative session. o'malley said he will not call a special session unless there is a consensus on a budget plan. senate president mike miller suggested a budget compromise that reworks the proposed tax increase for marylanders. now some say a gambling bill held everything up. miller says the legislator probably need a day or two to reconvene and finish work. o'malley expects the meeting to be limited to public safety, education and the triple a bond rating and finishing the budga tax increase package with the budget, the legislature ended up with a fiscal year 2013 doomsday budget with more than 500 million dollars in cuts. the meeting between the governor and legislative leaders is expected to happen at 8 this morning in annapolis. sherrie johnson, abc2 news.>> and we will let you know the outcome of the meeting. head to abc2news.com. we are late break

general assembly for a spes session. he will mike with michael bush and senate president mike miller. the general assembly needs to finishing one on the 2013 budget after key parts of the package failed during the legislative session. o'malley said he won't call for a special session unless there's a conas soon asous on a budget plan. mike miller suggested a budget compromise but actually -- but reworked the tax increase for marylanders. some say a gambling bill held everything up. miller says the legislature probably needs a day or two to reconvene and finish the work. o'malley expects today's meeting to be limited to public safety, education and the state's aaa bond rating and finishing the budget work. without passing a tax increase package with the budget, the legislature ended up with a fiscal year 2013 doomsday budget with more than 500 million dollars in cuts. the meeting between the governor and legislative leaders is he speced to happen at 8 -- expected to happen at 8 this morning in annapolis. sherrie johnson. >>> keep an eye out on the latest with abc 2 news.com. late breaki

for the inspector general, mr. miller, has the ig looked at other agencies that you are aware of for a similar type of abuse that might have occurred? or is occurring? >> we are currently looking at all of the conferences in region 9. inre looking at conferences general. >> just region 9? >> well, we are focusing on region 9 right now. we are generally looking at conferences. we are receiving a number of hot lines, as you can imagine, about other conferences throughout the country. >> the acting administrator has committed to do a complete top to bottom review of the agency, centralization versus decentralization. overall service delivery of the agency. >> is the acting director also looking at making sure the federal government is reimbursed? >> yes, sir. he has already taken action in that regard. three letters were sent out. >> mr. miller, what should congress do to make sure this does not happen again, not only with the gsa, but with other agencies? so, when you look at these types of conferences? >> i think supportin

i think our witnesses today, inspect or general miller, mr. white, olson for your appearance here today. i think all of you for being here. and i look forward to your testimony with great anticipation. we need to make certain that the people i protect it and the application responsibilities to do it and they can work together and we can do a lot better than what they're doing. this is not a committee that is to blame you and blame us. this is a committee to come at the solution. thank you so much, mr. chairman. .. ms. nina olson national taxpayer advocate and the honorable russell george inspector general for tax administration and james white director of strategic issues at the united states government accountability office and the thank each of you for being here. we have had a chance to review your testimony and appreciate your submitted that ahead of time. it allows me to go through it. i'm famous for my blue marker and making notes for things i want to get to in the time we will have but we appreciate having had in vance -- advance. try t

first of all, your congressman is here and attorney general tom miller, and state treasurer mike fitzgeraldd your mayor, matt hecht, the president of the university of iowa, sally mason. so i have come to the university of iowa to talk a little bit about you, and some of the issues you guys are dealing with every single day. i believe that college isn't just the best investment that you can make in your future, it is the best investment you can make in your country's future. i am proud of all of you for making that investment because it has never been more important. in today's economy there is no greater predictor of individual success than a good education. that's at the top. right now the unemployment rate for americans with a college degree or more is about half the national average. their incomes are twice as high as those who don't have a high school diploma. a higher education is the single, clearest path to the middle class. i know that those of you who are about to graduate are wondering what's in store for your future because not even four years ago just as the global economy was

s inspector general brian miller was asked at a senate hearing yesterday if his initial report was just the tip of the iceberg. >> every time we turn over a stone, we find 50 more, we find other instances. even today, we found out that the wife of the regional commissioner had a parking space throughout the entire year of 2012 at the federal building. we just find one thing after another and difficult for me, even now, to quantify it. >> reporter: ed o'keefe has been covering the story for "the washington post." he says the las vegas conference brought to light a problem with the g.s.a.'s culture. >> the agency has a lot of interaction with corporate america, whether it's i.t. vendors, defense contractors, food vendors, office supply companies, technology firms of all sorts because they do most of the purchasing for the federal government, so i think because they interact so often with big business they feel like they should act like a business, not only in how they spend their money and manage the agency, but also in how they party and how they interact with potential customers and wit

inspector general, brian miller, said the trouble goes deeper than that conference. he told the hearing, "every time we turned over a stone, we found 50 more, with all kinds of things crawling out." the head of the secret service won support today for his handling of a scandal involving prostitution. a spokesman said president obama has confidence in director mark sullivan. at least one republican senator made a similar statement. sullivan is investigating allegations that 11 agents and some military personnel got involved with prostitutes in colombia, ahead of the president's arrival there last week. president obama is asking congress to let federal regulators crack down on speculators who manipulate the oil market. he said today he wants to strengthen supervision of markets and increase penalties for illegal activity. it was his latest response to the soaring price of gasoline. >> we can't afford a situation where speculators artificially manipulate markets by buying up oil, creating the per seps of a shortage, and driving prices higher only to flip the oil for a q

i think our witnesses today, inspector general miller, mr. white, ms.lson, for your appearance here today. mr. george, i think all of you for being here. and i look forward to the testimony with great anticipation. we need to make certain that people are protected and obligation lies on us to do it. by working together, we can do a lot better than what we're doing. this is not a committee to blame you and you blame us, this is a committee to find solutions. thank you so much, mr. chairman. >> i would echo your final comment there as well. we are about working with you and all to solve problems, not played the blame game. we appreciate the witnesses being here today. we will keep the record open for it to monday's board extra material and statements to be cemented. we are honored to have very good dedicated services and service function servants who benefit the subcommittee today. we thank you for being here. we are honored to have mr. steven miller, deputy commissioner at the irs, ms. nina olson, national taxpayer advocate, the honorable george russell,

miller. the general assembly needs to finish work on fiscal 2013 budget after key parts of a budget package failed during the legislative session. o'malley said he will not call for a special session unless there's a consensus on a budget plan. senate president mike miller suggested a budget compromise that reworks the proposed tax increase for marylanders. now some say a gambling bill held everything up. miller says the legislative session probably needs a day or two to reconvene and finish its work. o'malley says he expects today's meeting to be limited to public safety, education, the state's aaa bond rating and finishing the budget work. without a tax increase package with the budget, the legislature ended up with a fiscal year 2013 doomsday budget with more than $500 million in cuts. the meeting between the governor and legislative leaders is expected to happen at 8 this morning in annapolis. sherrie johnson, abc2 news. >>> news time 5:03. today some legislators will discuss the general assembly session at the baltimore city naacp membership meeting giving a report on activities including the

the inspector general himself also testifying, brian miller, he recently referred to the las vegas matter to the justice department for possible criminal charges. you're watching live coverage here on c-span3. >> could we have the clerk remove mr. neely's name. i want to thank you all of you for your patience. i served for 12 years, mr. cummings for longer, this is the first time we've had somebody do this before one of my committees. so, we wanted to make sure we did it exactly according to the rules. with that i'll recognize myself for five minutes. miss johnson, i appreciate your opening statement and the work that you said you did. but i'm very troubled by the bonus that mr. neely received. how can you justify a bonus for somebody that you knew at the time of his bonus from mr. miller, in fact, was at the center of this misconduct? >> congressman, there are two processes. one is the conduct process and one is the performance process. the conduct process by which i could discipline someone was wrapped up in an investigation which i requested from the i.g. it took much longer -- >> i ap

. >> so inspector general miller had the lyrics a little bit off but you get the idea. we also heard from the republican chairman of the committee say that it might be time to break apart the g.s.a. while a democrat said she's bothered by the complete lack of responsibility. >> i am prepared to systemically pull apart g.s.a. to the point where we will make it a question to the american public on whether g.s.a. is needed at all. >> this agency apparently is one so that people in washington that don't have accountability even though the line runs straight up to them. that is very, very troubling. >> and the white house was not left out yesterday because we learned that there weren't actual meetings with the white house about these spending problems until mid march even though they were notified last june. back to you. >> all right, peter, thank you very much. meanwhile, congressman john micah of florida says hey, the white house knew about this before it hit the fan. what's up with that? he was on with greta last night. watch. >> do you in any way, sir, you know, assign b

the inspector general of the general services administration. , brian d. miller. martha johnson is a former administrator of general services administrator. jeff neely is the regional commissioner at the general services administration. mr. michael robertson is chief of staff at the general services administration, and david soleil is the deputy commissioner. -- david foley. witnesses are required to take the oath? the you solemnly swear the testimony you are about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? as the record show that all witnesses have entered in the affirmative. some of you have written statements. some do not. your written statements will be placed on the record in their entirety, so you may either read them for five minutes or make other such comments you think will be helpful. the chair recognizes mr. miller for five minutes the reagan >> thank you, an -- for 5 minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. as the ranking member, members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to testify today. as you know on april 2 i publis

. >> this was the inspector general brian miller who did the investigating.e was no oversight from above. the cfo, the chief financial officer also testified and said she didn't have any idea what the spending was like in that region or others. it was really stunning, the structural problems that led to this unbelievable waste of taxpayer dollars. >> it makes sense we saw some members talking culture and it's time for a culture change. also people lining up all along the sidewalks. they're stopping their cars leaning out the within does. wouldn't you? i think i would. just to get a passing glimpse of the space shuttle discovery. we're back with the man who knows his vehicle inside out. ok! who gets occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas or bloating? get ahead of it! one phillips' colon health probiotic cap a day helps defend against digestive issues with three strains of good bacteria. hit me! [ female announcer ] live the regular life. phillips'. >> i have to give a lot of you credit. you helped capture this story, the fare well flight of the space shuttle d