. >> the active i.g. for the department of interior conducted the investigation into the deepwater horizon spill. is that correct? >> i believe that's correct. >> i asked my staff to pull together om stats on this. i have a big slide that we could look at that might show what i'm talking about. for example, the department of homeland security currently has an active i.g. named charles edwards, and, in fact, he testified before us yesterday. before he assumed his post, recovered funds were $3.7 million in fines, savings and administrative cost savings were $6.5 million. after he assumed his post, these amounts increased to $19.9 million and $20.5 million respectfully. my point is not that he's doing something substantially different than his predecessor, although that may be true. my point is that the i.g. offices are made up of thousands and thousands of dedicated workers who devote their professional careers to this. would you agree that there are these individuals who are are, indeed, professionals? >>

the i.g. role and how to carry out the mission, because there are some inherent questions about potential conflicts of interest dealing with audit independence and investigative independence. those issues need to really be thought through very carefully, recusals may need to be thought about. there have been other situations in the past where when there's a vacancy that arises the appointing authority, be it the agency head or the white house or whoever it is on occasion has reached out and asked for a detailee from another i.g. office to come in and serve as the acting i.g. while a permanent i.g. is being recruited. and again, i think that's an option that could be explored depending on the situation. it's, you know, something is that we'd be happy to dialogue on. >> we appreciate that. we recognize the gentlelady from new york, somebody who very well knows these issues. >> thank you very much. i want to certainly welcome everyone on the panel but particularly mr. miller and congratulate you

today, four i.g. poepss have been vacant more than 1,000 days, five i.g. vacancies are cabinet departments. one of our points will in fact be to deal with such situations as usaid vacancy at a time in which afghanistan and iraq are not yet settled questions and the variability of that entity to deliver its historic support rather than direct funding to indigenous nationals without aig or usaid direct oversight concerns us and would concern us more if we cannot have an inspector general there. so, in closing, i think it's extremely important not to allow today's hearing in any way to reflect on the current executive branch individuals including president obama and vice president biden. in fact, we need to look beyond that. we need look to the question of do we need to change the law for future presidents that would ensure prompt filling of vacancies in the absence of presidential action. could significanty have the right to temporarily fill those f. there is a dismissal and i must admit i was tardy because i was dealing with a potential false dismissal of a

the i.g.s offices, and i wasn't inferring that there was any complaint with that. what i was saying, and i think the gentlelady alluded to it, was that the president has a responsibility when he becomes president to make the appointments that need to be made, especially when they have to be confirmed by the senate. to leave a position as important as the i.g. for this state department open for 3 1/2 years is not a sign that that's a responsible move by the administration. the president, you can excuse him for six mos, you can excuse him for a year or maybe even 18 months under certain circumstances. but 3 1/2 years almost to the end of his first term, assuming he has a second term, is just too long. and so i would just say one more time that whatever president, whatever party needs to be very attentive to making the selections of the various appointments as quickly as possible after his administration takes office. >> i think the gentleman. we'll now dils miss our first panel and reset for our

the idea you could have no i.g. and then for whatever reason the deputy leaving and so you end up with, in the case of some agencies, they simply grab some career person who's not even with a history in the i.g. and they throw them in as acting and that's where you sit until there's action. do you believe that congress should at least evaluate whether or not to have a role in preventing vacancies for anyone on the panel? >> my own perspective is that the process seems to work pretty well most of the time. if you look at the overall number of cases and how long they take, i think they take too long. the process should take time because you are vetting candidates. i think in cases like the state department, hearings like this are incredibly important because it puts pressure on those officials. but i do think examples like the state department are the exception rather than the rule, so i'm not sure that would be quite necessary to do. >> mr. miller? >> mr. chairman, you may want to study any constitutional impediments

this is the place where omb can step in and assist an i.g. in being as successful as possible in understanding what that resource calibration needs to be. i will add as a final point, from where i sit, i -- i think that the inspector general community is as healthy and as strong as i've of seen it in my 15-year career. at the office of management and budget. and i have not detected in any way, shape or form any diminution of those roles or responsibilities or impact when there's an acting ig in place. >> thank you. my time has expired. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you. let me -- oh. my colleague, would you have any questions? >> i do. thank you, mr. chairman. and i'd ask for the full statement be entered into the record at this point. >> without objection. i thank the chair. welcome, mr. werfel. how long have you been in government, mr. werfel? >> 15 years. >> 15 years. do you -- do you think we've made public service more and more attractive by the day? >> it's a challenging time to be a federal employee. i think -- i have two reactions

the i.g. found that most veterans contacted were pleased with the quality of v.a. care and services they received but some have indicated that certain processes for obtaining prosthetic limbs should be simplified. in one report the personal comments related to amputation care provided v.a. with good feedback and help to identify hurdles and buyer buyer for routine maintenance and repair. we urge v.a. to establish a permanent correspondence. this collectively delivers specialized expertise across the v.a. system. this program is functioning very well and we urge the v.a. to evaluate these veterans over time to better understand their complex and evolving health care needs and when necessary to readjust v.a. services accordingly. the i.g. conducted an audit of acquisition processes and purchasing prosthetic limbs and concluded it overpaid vendors and that v.a. is not getting the best value for these purchased items. we agree with the i.g.'s recommendations and it appears that procurement reform

one of the president's first actions on the i.g. front was to remove i.g. gerald waltman from his post at the corporation for national and community service. we on this side of the aisle objected to it and continue to feel that this was inappropriate. however, that is not the issue for today. the issue for today is, in fact, how do we find something regardless of who's in the white house that satisfies first, the american people's right to know and right to be protected from waste. second, strengthens the relationship between this committee and our counterparts in the senate in being able to count on the inspector generals as our conduit into the executive branch. we can all have discussions about this administration and we have had plenty and will have more. but i think when we look at exposing taxpayer loss and waste, we cannot look at any one administration. we have often on a bipartisan basis lauded the success of tracking the stimulus fund spending. doesn't mean we agree to the stimulus bill itself, but it means that in

on april 26, i instructed our assistant i.g. and the acting i.g. regarding the incident. the next day, our assistant and the deputy assistant met with officials from the secret service office of professional responsibility, which is conducting the internal investigation, and we briefed them on the objectives. the assistant has assembled a nine-person review team, led by a veteran inspector and with three criminal investigators. on may 2, they met with officials and began part one of our three-part review. in part one, we are evaluating the adequacy of the secret service response to the incident in cartagena and the adequacy of the conclusions of the internal investigation and the sufficiency of the corrective actions already implemented or planned. we are in the process of interviewing secret service personnel responsible for coordinating the agency's response to the incident and conducting its investigation as well as personnel within the office of the director, those in charge of field operations, and in the office responsible for security clearances. we will review all

given what the i.g. uncovered at the gsa.rs of the house oversight committee from both sides of the aisle want to know why there are so many unfilled i.g. positions. >> the president you can excuse or six months or a year, but 3 1/2 years almost to the end of his first term, assuming he has a second term, is just too long. >> reporter: there are 10i.g. openings at the federal level. four have been vacant for 1,000 days. five are dealing with cabinet-level agencies. >> roughly the number of vacancies in the i.g. offices are comparable to the number of vacancies in 2004 as president bush was gearing up for his reelection. i think that perhaps that suggests something about how onerous and difficult the senate process has become. >> reporter: eight of those vacancies having to filled by a nomination made by the president and confirmed by the senate. the democratically controlled senate has yet to vote on even two. megyn: . the man president obama called after he announced his personal support for same-sex marriage. pastor hunter

i.g. issues? >> the lot of our work is underground -- geologic issues? >> yes, a lot of our work is underground. the utilities are old, so the drawings are not always accurate in describing what is actually there. >> the end of the day, we can say with full confidence that we're very existing -- exacting fiscal stewards of our project? >> yes, we can. >> we also get a quarterly report to you that shows each project and what happens with change orders or projected change orders in terms of cost and time. >> the agency that i govern operates with a 60's and operating cost cap. so we're very sensitive -- with a 6% operating cost cap. so we are very sensitive to ensure that 94% of the money we raise goes to research. >> we have probably 10 oversight bodies that might turn our work. we're highly scrutinized and kept accountable for all our expenses. that definitely keeps us on our toes. >> thank you. >> another is, pipeline and number five, east bay segment, we reached a resolution on outstanding change orders. we reached the final completion of all physical

any losses but here's an incredible thing about the scandal it is that you would have thought after a i.g. was caught selling securities that they counterfeit it that they would maybe outlaw that practice selling was it called credit default swaps naked no collateral oh wait j.p. morgan just got caught doing the exact same thing jamie duggan just got caught doing the exact same thing showing naked credit default swaps are picking up the figure on collateralized committed fraud just like a i g how through london the epicenter of fraud were the queen on that other frickin barge what is it talk about that well london is the center of a streaker is that so all these and they can credit default swaps originate here. so how about selling forward that i mean to be worth more than the collateral when they could quote the fall well let's talk about christine legarde are tax free i.m.f. salaries inflated the international monetary fund has long been considered a good place to work salaries are high and benefits are plentiful ask christine legarde who's getting a pay package worth about five hundred

this stuff and i don't believe in enhanced interrogation i don't believe it works i agree with the cia i.g. that no major event was ever prevented by this with that said i think having someone in custody pulling information out of them is far more important and really instructive than killing them i mean the ultimate deprival the depravity of your civil rights is proof i would say it was here is that so. there's no equivalency you always hear again here and there you go so but but but that's the issue here really are we taking the moral high ground which i you know i'm a conservative i think we ought to be taking the moral high ground here because we can't win larger than capture because we could we should do the defect. things can be said because you know they're easy because they are hard and this is where we have to be taking the higher ground i'm appalled the left is not trying to hold its own values up and against its own president and paul that you know brennan to his nomination to the post is controversial because of his involvement enhanced interrogation he put his foot in his mout

. >> currently there are ten open i.g. slots at the federal level. four position has been vay can't for more than 1,000 days. at the state department, no permanent inspector general since january of 2008. 1,576 days. members on both sides of the aisle expressed corn certain over a house hearing while president obama hasn't made more progress getting the slot filled. >> you can excuse him for six months or a year or 18 months but three yeah years almost to the end of his first term is just too long. >> democrats say the situation isn't unique to the current administration. >> the number of vacancies right now are corn rabble to vacancies in 2004 as president bush was gearing up for his re-election. i think perhaps it suggests something about how onerous and difficult the process has become. >> of the ten open slots eight must be set by the president that needs senate confirmation. the president sent two nominations to senate and neither got to a vote. two senators sent a letter asking why. we are asking information, plaining the reason for the delay i

one huge question remain it's why did it take 11 months for that i.g. report to be publishd? if you think the gsa is alone in waste philadelphia ending of your money, you are dead wrong this. culture of waste, fraud and at times, crime, is pandemic, it's i.c.e., bscc, noaa and more. after a grilling, appalling debails on how your money was spent. what's the white house response? a half million dollar conference cap and be careful stewards of taxpayer funds. that's the answer? we are digging deeper to uncover how things got so out of control. welcome to our "on the record" special -- government gone wild. over the hour, you will hear from scott brown who says that it's a national oceanic and atmospheric administration -- noaa, the group that wanted to hire a magician for an event, is doing many more frivolous things than that and it's the tip of the iceberg. >> there is a complete lack of accountability. >> greta: hear from senator tom coburn, congressman john mica and the many other examples of fraud, scams and schemes that will leave you fuming. they're draining your wallet

and the i.g. gave a report in december that the f.b.i. was still trying to determine the cost of the additional hardware and had delayed its planned deployment until may. it's may now. where are we on this much awaited and extremely expensive system? >> unfortunately i am very aware of that history. can i tell you that it has been one of the most difficult challenges. a couple of things that -- parts along the way that are important. first of all when we first received -- first -- received the first phase, received from the contract the second phase, second phase did not work. we rescoped as you said the contract, much of it in house, and saved a heck of a lot of money and the development applications that we were using. in september of last year we had the test and we had anticipated as a result of the test that we would put it in place, but what we found is we had to replace the architecture, the infrastructure in order to support it. we have done that now. we are in the final testing phases. and my expectation is this summer we will tr

aggressive in tackling this backlog, which continues to plague our veterans nationwide, and there was an i.greport that just came out a few weeks ago that said the v.a. is failing to rapidly respond to mental health needs. the average wait time for a mental health appointment is 50 days. in san francisco it's over 300 days. >> that's crazy. >> someone suffering from a mental health problem of any sort can't wait that long. otherwise, that becomes a risk to society, does it not? >> i think that's a risk to society, and we're setting ourselves up for failure before these folks even leave the military. you know, we had a hearing yesterday in the senate veterans affairs committee, and we basically discovered that people who started, you know, over a year ago they were identified by their commanding officer as perhaps unfit for duty because of an injury or an illness. when they started their disability evaluation system, a new fangled, you know, system that we created in 2008, if they started that over a year, they would still be languishing in that system. it took them 404 days to get them throu

but in talking to other i.g.', they were telling me there should be an independent investigation by the i.g., not just a ratification or a review of what the director found. >> i do not know. a matter of priority and personnel. before we ask the question, senator collins did, whether he was going to interview any of the 13 agents, because they were clearly a big source of the story. and they were interviewing two of them today. it became a very public commitment. when you think about it, i know that director sullivan has every interest, probably as much as anyone in the world and cleaning this up and moving forward, but ultimately, there is nothing better than an independent investigation by the inspector general in this case, as opposed to a self investigation by the agency, the secret service that has been involved. we are going to stay on it. with the inspector general and his investigation, that is where they are submitted. >> thank you. ethel -- >> you can learn more about the members of the senate homeland s

we will cooperate fully with the i.g. >> just to clarify, we are focused on these matters because of what happened in colombia outside of the united states. i i correct to presume that if you found agents on assignments for bringing back women who were not foreign nationals, women they met somewhere, to their rooms while on assignment to protect someone? >> anything that is going to compromise our mission, we are going to be concerned with. we will investigate. we want our people to live up to the standards of our organization. >> yes, sir. anything that will compromise our mission, we will be concerned with. we are going to investigate that. we want people to live up to the standards of our organization. women under the age of 21, not under the age of 18. i am not sure with the aid was out there. again, i will be more than happy to get the particulars for you. i do know they were gone pretty quick. >> ok. just to make the point, the concern that we have expressed quite explicitly and well, what we're worried about, what you are worried about, is an agent with the responsibility to p

what else would you recommend, director sullivan, and i.g.edwards, in terms of looking forward to ensure that this kind of incident never happens again? >> thank you, senator. again, as far as going forward one of the things we did do, we didn't just look back was. our discipline over the last five and a half years, and when i look at that, it's under 1% of our population is involved in some type of disciplinary action, and that just gives me reason to believe that this isn't part of the culture. and part of this organization for 29 years and never seen anything like this before my life. i just, i just believe, extremely very strongly that this is just not part of our culture. spent how many personnel do you have? >> close to 7000. >> and on this jump team there were 53 individuals, but how many u.s. secret service personnel were on the cartagena tripped? >> we had about 200 people on the trip. at the time of the situation we had about 175 people who were in cartagena spent and how many foreign trips has the secret service been involved with

and the i.g. gave a report in december that the f.b.i. was still trying to determine the cost of the additional hardware and had delayed its planned deployment until may. it's may now. where are we on this much awaited and extremely expensive system? >> unfortunately i am very aware of that history. can i tell you that it has been one of the most difficult challenges. a couple of things that -- parts along the way that are important. first of all when we first received -- first -- received the first phase, received from the contract the second phase, second phase did not work. we rescoped as you said the contract, much of it in house, and saved a heck of a lot of money and the development applications that we were using. in september of last year we had the test and we had anticipated as a result of the test that we would put it in place, but what we found is we had to replace the architecture, the infrastructure in order to support it. we have done that now. we are in the final testing phases. and my expectation is this summer we will tr

i would say as a matter of protecting the treasury of the united states from abuse, the i.g. says we need legislation, you've drafted, i think, legislation that will do the job precisely as it should. don't you think congress should not be waiting around here another year, but it's something the house has already passed? and if we pass, it becomes law in a matter of days perhaps. mr. vitter: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana. mr. vitter: mr. president, if i could respond through the chair, i absolutely agree with the senator from alabama. mr. president, too often folks in washington want to make things overly complicated. some things in this world, some things being debated in the congress are complicated. other things are not. they're just made a whole lot more complicated than they need to be made, and this is one of those. all we're saying is folks who qualify for this benefit under the law should get it. but folks who don't qualify including illegal alien families should not get it. the law is clear on that what we have is an enforcement pro

part of the problem and the confusion comes from the 2004 i.g.he amount of water. the amount of water was precisely spelled out in the opinion we got from justice department. >> to explain and i know i'm doing myself no favors by doing this. nobody talks about this. you talked about b.s. there has been b.s. and misinformation. i know people are drawing horns on me at home. i'm sorry if you don't like the truth that's your problem. in explaining how your goal is not to torture people that have killed 3,000 americans, will you explain now why waterboarding wouldn't work? because it's not about the torture. it's about the element of surprise. so waterboarding would not work today, would it? >> none of those techniques would work today? >> because they know it is coming. >> as a matter of fact, you know the president released this information in 2009 against the advice of a couple of directors of central intelligence because we would be giving the enemy exactly the latitude of how far we could go legally to do some of those things. >> we are not inte

and the i.g. gave a report in december that the f.b.i.was still trying to determine the cost of the additional hardware and had delayed its planned deployment until may. it's may now. where are we on this much awaited and extremely expensive system? >> unfortunately i am very aware of that history. can i tell you that it has been one of the most difficult challenges. a couple of things that -- parts along the way that are important. first of all when we first received -- first -- received the first phase, received from the contract the second phase, second phase did not work. we rescoped as you said the contract, much of it in house, and saved a heck of a lot of money and the development applications that we were using. in september of last year we had the test and we had anticipated as a result of the test that we would put it in place, but what we found is we had to replace the architecture, the infrastructure in order to support it. we have done that now. we are in the final testing phases. and my expectation is this summer we will tra

will i get hung out to dry by an i.g. that is not chaplain friendly? they do not like what i say. there is an old saying that figures do not lie and liars figure. there for, you can do whatever you want with the statement. am i afraid of what can happen? let me share a start with you that happen to me. when i deployed to iraq and i began my moving north in 2003, i was in a camp and we had service members come and participate. at night, there is more food than i ever thought i would see. food came from different volunteer agencies. it was a beautiful meal. i asked the people there, how did you like the service? they said that it was nice and they enjoyed it. we involved everyone. a young female captain turned to me and said, i did not like your service. i said, why not? she said, you were not inclusive. i knew what she meant. she said, you did not involve females in your service. i told her, yes, i did. i turned to the females and ask, were you involved? they said, yes. i hastened to explain to her that i am an orthodox rabbi. i conduct my shop bulls as i conduct my services -- cha

there is an i.g. inspection done that the relationship with the c.i.a. was in full compliance with the law. these random attacks by the associated press and new york city times cannot point out one instance of the law being violated or one provision of the constitution being violated. we should be giving nypd a medal. we sit here after 10 years after 9/11 and the most effective counterterrorism unit in the united states is being attacked and we are citing the constitution when no one complies with this more than the nypd. whether it is director petraeus, director mueller or the president of the united states. now i worked closely with the nypd, mayor bloomberg or the council president, christine quinn, both stand by the nypd because of what they have done. and to think that the most effective organization is being attacked by the associated press, the "new york times" and those who are joined here on the floor of the congress of the united states without one fact to back them up. this is all good police work. we aren't going to sit back like we did on se

the treasury i.g. report states -- quote -- "although the law prohibits aliens residing without authorization in the united states from receiving most federal public benefits, an increasing number of these individuals are filing tax returns claiming the additional child tax credit, a refundable tax credit intended for working families. the payment of federal funds through this tax credit benefit appears to provide an additional incentive for aliens to enter, reside and work in the united states without authorization, which directly contradicts federal law and policy to remove such incentives." close quote. that's the inspector general of the u.s. treasury department. not my language. and, of course, that's exactly correct. that's exactly correct. how could it be otherwise? in the press report from indiana, one of the illegal aliens admitted his address was used this year to file tax returns by four other undocumented workers who don't even live there. those four workers claimed 20 children live inside