mr. cummings? >> thank you very much. mr. chairman. mr. schoeneman, how many siu members work in the cruise industry? >> i believe right now it's approximately 2,000 and 3,000. i believe about 2,000 to 3,000. i have to check that number for you, mr. cummings. >> would you get that for me? >> sure. not a problem. >> clearly, ms. duffy, we learned something from this, did we not? >> yes, sir, we have. >> and what did we learn from this incident? let me ask you why i'm asking. this is not a setup question. clear to its credit decided that beginning on february 9th that they were going to have this mandatory muster drills. and so that tells me we learned something that caused clia to act so fast. and i'm just wondering what did we learn? and how was that decision made? >> i think what we learned as part of the incident was that the muster policy, while the regulation allowed for that to be conducted within 24 hours, that we would better serve our passengers and safety by conducting the muster prior to departing the port so that people immediat

mr. cummings was then. when you have recidivists, repeat offenders, what do we heed to change about the debarment process that is the default instead of disqualification. disqualification is an insufficient penalty to me for recidivist offenders. >> i believe that the government suspension and debarment process is an effective process. and usda has implemented regulations. as a whole the department could do a better job of implementing that. i think there are concerns as the under-secretary expressed about timeliness and length of time. i think we need to engage in those discussions because my understanding is if you've got somebody convicted of a criminal felony that disqualification while it may be effective vis-a-vis the food stamp program, it's not effective for other government programs. if you've got a criminal conviction, it should be a pretty quick process because the conviction in and of itself is sufficient evidence to proceed. it should not take a long time to do this. maybe a month, two months.

mr. cummings? anything else? well, thank you very much, this was i think helpful and as we proceed, i would like to state a few things while mr. mica request that we have this hearing over the tragedy of the c concorid concorida, that we use this opportunity that the u.s. cruise industries that been very proactive with the coast guard, which we are going look forward to following up on and highlight the reality as ms. brown and mr. cummings amply d but to make sure that we do not have collateral damage with u.s. citizens, with the cruise industry because of our safety record is being so incredible, and that is due to the proactive nature of the coast guard and would sheing -- and working with the industry, we will look forward to the results of the investigation, which as you said, admiral will give us more, but at thpoint -- at this pointi feel comfortable in saying, and not being a lawyer and having tall qualifiers that need to go with this, ever indication is that it was incredibly poor judgment on one individu

mr. cummings' communities and mine as well? >> well, we have a very similar view to the view you express. europe's a very rich couldn't nept, absolutely has the means to solve this on their own. and you're right to point out that because they're monitor union, we had a fiscal union, they don't have the mechanisms we have the in united states not just to discipline the borrowing behavior of our states but we have a set of fiscal transfers which are very powerful in the united states to soften downturns that individual states might face. the imf is an sfugs where members have a right to request assistance and if they're prepared to meet the conditions the imf establishes they have the right to request that assistance. and our judgment has been that it's been in the interests of the united states and fully consistent with the institution and certainly better for us as a country for the imf to play a modest supplemental role alongside the much more dominant financial role of the european authorities going forward. and where they've

mr. cummings. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. the -- i agree with ms. brown, this is indeed a teachable moment. and i too am sorry this happened to you. it was a fifth anniversary? >> fifth. >> wedding anniversary so? >> yes. >> i'm sorry you went through this hell and hopefully nothing like this will happen again. going back to the teachable moment, i know you thought about this, and i want to thank you for your testimony, it was clear. but, when you look back, are there things that you said, you have been on cruises before, i think you said you got the some kind of information about safety and there's going to be testimony later on, you may be already aware of this, that on february 9th, 2012, members instituted a new passenger muster policy requiring mandatory drills for embarking passengers prior to departure from port. this is a new policy that exceeds existing legal requirements but to those people from the cruise industry that may be in the room, what would you -- i mean, what would you like to make sure is in that drill? in other words, when the

mr. cummings? >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. first of all, let me associate myself with the words of ms. brown with regard to the tremendous work that the coast guard does every day. i call them the thin blue line at sea. and, also, i prex press my concern and prayers and condolences for the losss that we've suffered here recently. those families that are going through some difficult times. as the coast guard faces continuing budget challenges, perhaps the single most impo ensure the safety of the cruise industry in the united states and, indeed, the safety of our entire maritime transportation system, it's to ensure that the hard one gains in the coast guard marine safety program are not lost. and that this critical program continues to receive the resources it needs to be able to engage fully-qualified personnel to carry out thorough inspections and investigations. i want to thank ms. ndusy and v for helping us as we address on any of these issues, in the 2010 admiral, as you know, title v of the coast guard act established ce

mr. cummings. as we talk about the spot program for a minute, if a video spot agent were able to see something that they considered to be suspicious behavior, what's the follow up there? what can they do? do they engage the person in conversation? what's the procedure when a spot agent detects something. is there something they can do and, if so, can you tell me what that is? >> so in our spot program our officers are trained to observe behavior and engage in casual conversations with individuals. if the circumstance warrants, they can engage local law enforcement for further follow up. >> so if they detected something suspicious, can they stop them from boarding the plane? >> if you're asking can they physically detain an individual, spot officers are not trained, nor do we want them to physically detain an individual. >> i set a spot officer off for some reason. i can just walk on and get on my plane. they can't stop me. >> i apologize. i misunderstand your question. a spot officer if they have r

mr. cummings, for a second round. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. the chairman had mentioned earlier i'm very disciplined with regard to this foreclosure issue, and i am because so many of my neighbors and people across this country are suffering tremendously. i think it was you, secretary geithner, who mentioned the $7 trillion in wealth that has been lost. that's why i -- i realize it's going to be kind

mr. cummings? >> thank you very much. i want to just go back to the matter that we, that the chairman brought up on monday at the hearing. and just get your opinion on this. we had major banks there, and we asked the question about how, you know, interest rates are lower. say somebody has a mortgage at 6%. and they are, i'd say, underwater. we were ask -- he was asking the banks what is, what's the negative side, and you can correct me if i'm wrong, mr. chairman, of trying to make sure that those people are able to take advantage of lower interest rates? i minean, do you all see that a one of the -- we talked about a number of remedies. did you understand my question? i just wanted your opinion on that. seems like a lot of people would fall into that category. >> you're exactly right, and that's why it's so important that you give people the opportunity to refinance to take advantage of lower rates. one of the most important things that we have done and what, that the head of the fha has done over the last six months to d

mr. cummings. >> first of all, let me associate myself with the words of ms. brown with regard to the tremendous work the coast guard does every day. i express my concern and paris and condolences for the losses we have suffered here recently, and those families that are going through some difficult times. the coast guard faces continuing budget challenges. perhaps the single most important thing we can do to ensure the safety of the cruise industry in the united states and the safety of our entire maritime transportation system is to ensure that the hard-won gains in the coast guard marine safety program are not lost and that is critical program continues to receive the resources it needs to be able to engage fully qualified personnel to carry out a thorough inspections and investigations. i want to thank the cruise industry and victims for helping us as we address many of these issues in the 2010 reauthorization. title 5 established certain standards for the prevention and response of work forces. codifier requires that there be a chief of prevention who is

mr. cummings. >> thank you mr. chairman.ords of ms. brown with regard to the tremendous work in the coast guard every day. i call them the thin blue line at the sea, and also i express my concern and prayers and condolences from the losses we suffer here recently and those families that are going through some difficult times. as the coast guard faces continuing budget challenges, perhaps some of the most important things we can do to ensure the safety of the industry and the united states and indeed the safety of our entire maritime transportation system is to ensure that hard-won gains in the coast guard marine safety program are not lost, and that this critical program continues to receive the resources that it needs to be able to engage fully qualified personnel to carry out thorough inspections and investigations, and i want to thank ms. matsui and so many of the cruise industry is in the victim's for helping us as we address many of these issues in the 2010 reauthorization. at merrill, as you know, the coast guard organ

mr. cummings would have been hired as often if he had one. that strikes me as a low conviction rate. is it because you're negotiating a civil punishment instead of a criminal punishment? does the statute needs to be changed? what needs to be done so we don't swing and miss half the time? >> let me take a look at that data, because i want to make sure that i get to the right percentage, and i will provide that for the record. and when we do that we will also provide you with our insights on the. >> all right. and my final question for you is this. if i wrote the numbers down by, you said there are 900 cases, 600 of which are gives retailers. i think your energies and efforts should be directed towards retailers, what not to the total exclusion of individuals who are providing a market, if you will, for this kind of fraud. so what do your numbers look like on prosecuting individuals who either sell their cards for cash, or otherwise engage in fraudulent activity? >> let me just generally address the approach that we take on law-enforcement. we focus our efforts on the retailers, he goe

mr. cummings. >> first of all, let me associate myself with the words of ms.brown with regard to the tremendous work the coast guard does every day. i express my concern and paris and condolences for the losses we have suffered here recently, and those families that are going through some difficult times. the coast guard faces continuing budget challenges. perhaps the single most important thing we can do to ensure the safety of the cruise industry in the united states and the safety of our entire maritime transportation system is to ensure that the hard-won gains in the coast guard marine safety program are not lost and that is critical program continues to receive the resources it needs to be able to engage fully qualified personnel to carry out a thorough inspections and investigations. i want to thank the cruise industry and victims for helping us as we address many of these issues in the 2010 reauthorization. title 5 established certain standards for the prevention and response of work forces. codifier requires that there be a chief of prevention who is a

mr. chairman, ranking membering cummings, and members of the committee. at the outset, i want to express my appreciation to you, mr. chairman, and to many of the distinguished members of this committee for your support of the federal ig community over the past several years. you have a noteworthy record of bipartisan support for ig contributions, and you've demonstrated time and again through legislation, hearings, and speeches, your interest in our work, and so on behalf of the entire community, i want to thank all of you for your support. today, you've invited me to testify about usda ig's work to protect the integrity of the snap program. to put this in context, the ig office at usda is responsible for providing oversight to all usda programs, which currently number over 300. of course, snap is the largest program in the portfolio with over $70 billion, and it has drawn much of the attention over the past few years. in the last two years alone, we devoted half the resources to addressing snap fraud with measurable results. we currently have over 900 cas

mr. cummings was then. when you have reset it is, repeat offenders, what do we need to change about the department process so that that is the default instead of disqualification? because of disqualification is an insufficient penalty to me for reset it is offenders. >> i believe that the government suspension and debarment process is an effective process. and usda has implemented regulations, and as a whole the department could do a better job of implementing that. i think that there are concerned as the under-secretary has expressed about timeliness and length of time. i think we need to engage in those discussions because my understanding is that he get that somebody convicted a criminal felony, that disqualification, while it may be incentive, vis-À-vis the food stamp program, it's not really as effective for other government programs. and if you got a criminal conviction is should be a pretty quick process. because conviction in and of itself is sufficient evidence to proceed. and so it should not take

mr. cummings. >> as we talk about the spot program, if an agent were able to see something they considered to be a suspicious behavior, what is the follow-up? what can they do? did they engage the person in conversation? what is the procedure? is there something they can do? can you tell me what that is? >> in our spot program, our officers are trained to observe the behavior and engaged in casual conversations with individuals. if the circumstances warrant, they can engage local law enforcement for further follow- up. >> if they detected something suspicious, i can stop them from boarding the plane? >> if they can physical detain an individual, spot officers are not trained, nor do we want them to physically detain an individual. >> i just walked on and get on my plane? they cannot stop me. >> i misunderstood your question. a spot officer, if they have reason to believe that you are suspicious, can engage in local law enforcement officer, who will interview you and either send you on your way it or asking additional questions. >> has a spot officer ever stop somebody from boarding a plane

mr. chairman. ranking member cummings and members of the committee. at outset i want to express my appreciation to you, mr. chairman and many of the distinguished members of this committee, for your support of the federal ig community over the past several years. you have a noteworthy record of bipartisan support for ig contributions and you have demonstrated time and again, through legislation, hearings and speeches your interest in our work. and so on behalf of the entire community i want to thank all of you for your support tucht d. to day you have invited me to testify to protect integrity of the s.n.a.p. program. to put this in context. the ig office at usda is responsible for providing oversuiting to all usda programs which currently number over 300. of course, s.n.a.p. is the largest program in our portfolio with over $70 billion, and has drawn much of our attention over the past few years. in the last two years alone, we have devoted almost half of our investigative resources to addressing s.n.a.p. fraud with measurable results. we currently ha

mr. chairman. and ranking member cummings and members of the committee. thanks for giving me a chance to talk to you today about the crisis in europe and its risks for the united states. this has gone on for more than two years, of course. we welcome the attention you're bringing to this important question. europe is a key strategic and economic partner of this country. and we have an enormous stake in the success of europe's efforts to avert a catastrophic financial crisis. our economy is gradually getting stronger but of course, we still face a lot of tough challenges here in the united states. among those course, unemployment still very high. housing market still very weak. we still have the long way to go to repair the daniel caused by our crisis but we also face a challenging and uncertain global economic environment with the risks around iran adding to upward pressure on oil prices and europe facing a long and difficult crisis. europe, the euro area accountses for about 18% of global gdp. it's the major source of financing for many emerging economie

mr. cummings, for working with me on this important bill. there could not be a better time to move a measure like this one through the congress. we are facing an unsustainable budget deficit and must get our fiscal house in order. one of the best ways to achieve much-needed reductions in spending is to create efficiencies and cut waste. this is exactly what this bipartisan measure accomplishes. the federal government is the largest property owner in the world with an inventory over 900,000 buildings and structures and 41 million acres of land. yet, we waste billions of tax dollars each year maintaining properties we no longer need. . they own 76,000 properties identified as underutilized. in fiscal year, 2009, these underutilized buildings cost us $1.7 billion to operate annually. the g.a.o. has continue continuously found many properties are no longer relevant to their agency's missions and that agencies could do a better job of identifying disposing of unneeded property. h.r. 665 as amended will finally give agencies the tools they need to

mr. cummings. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman.e has a housing krietd, does it not? >> parts of europe do. >> so to restore our economy, you would agree that housing has to be addressed, do you believe that? the foreclosure situation that we're going through right now? >> i do think that obviously our economy, as you said, is still suffering from a lot of collateral damage fallout. you see that in housing, not just high unemployment. and our judgment is that we should do everything we can to help repair that damage. that would make the economy stronger over time and that's what we're trying to do. >> now, house republicans released a budget proposal this week that would make the cost of cuts of $5 trillion in medicare, shift the cost of health care to seniors, slash education research and infrastructure funding and chairman bernanke, you and i have talked about this a number of times. you know, you gave a speech back in 2008 in which you said principal reductions that restore some equity for the homeowner may beely more effective m

mr. cummings. >> as we talk about the spot program, if an agent were able to see something they considered to be a suspicious behavior, what is the follow-up? what can they do? did they engage the person in conversation? what is the procedure? is there something they can do? can you tell me what that is? >> in our spot program, our officers are trained to observe the behavior and engaged in casual conversations with individuals. if the circumstances warrant, they can engage local law enforcement for further follow- up. >> if they detected something suspicious, i can stop them from boarding the plane? >> if they can physical detain an individual, spot officers are not trained, nor do we want them to physically detain an individual. >> i just walked on and get on my plane? they cannot stop me. >> i misunderstood your question. a spot officer, if they have reason to believe that you are suspicious, can engage in local law enforcement officer, who will interview you and either send you on your way it or asking additional questions. >> has a spot officer ever stop somebody from boarding a plane

mr. cummings? >> thank you very much. i want to go back to a matter that the chairman brought up and just get your opinion on this. we had major banks there and when you ask a question about how interest rates are lower, let's say somebody has a mortgage at 6% now, and they are under water. he was asking the banks, what is the negative side? you can correct me if i am wrong, mr. chairman. to make sure that those people have the advantage of lower interest rates. you talked about a number of remedies. did you understand my question? i just want your opinion on that. it seems like a lot of people would fall into that category. >> you are exactly right. that is why it is so important to give people the opportunity to refinance and take advantage of lower rates. one of the most important things we have done over the last six months is to put in place a much better designed program to help people who are significantly underwater take advantage of lower interest rates. we want that to happen on a much larger scale. that program

mr. cummings was then.n you have reset it is, repeat offenders, what do we need to change about the department process so that that is the default instead of disqualification? because of disqualification is an insufficient penalty to me for reset it is offenders. >> i believe that the government suspension and debarment process is an effective process. and usda has implemented regulations, and as a whole the department could do a better job of implementing that. i think that there are concerned as the under-secretary has expressed about timeliness and length of time. i think we need to engage in those discussions because my understanding is that he get that somebody convicted a criminal felony, that disqualification, while it may be incentive, vis-À-vis the food stamp program, it's not really as effective for other government programs. and if you got a criminal conviction is should be a pretty quick process. because conviction in and of itself is sufficient evidence to proceed. and so it should not take a l

mr. coupling, you -- cumming, you may inquire. >> thank you, chairman. we really appreciate it. obviously, a lot of issues are pending. i had a chance to review the -- [inaudible] obviously some of the disturbing trends they see in that report is mainly the inadequacy of funding for the irs in order to do your job adequately, serve the citizens of our country. and in particular they were concerned about because of funding cuts and the inadequacy of resources what that means to the irs' ability to address the noncompliance issue. we've got a tax gap out there that everyone realizes. the concern is it's only going to grow wider. if there's a lack of confidence or belief in the irs when it comes to compliance measures, it's only going to exacerbate the situation, i'm concerned. but do you agree with what the report was stating in regards to enforcement of noncompliance? >> well, look, we had budget cuts, and we try to do the best we can, we talked a while before about service, we haven't really talked about compliance. um, you know, clearly, we're doing less exams this year, and we

mr. rick santorum himself. >>> also, congressman elijah cummings will be here with us. >>> and andrea mitchell will join the conversationjoe." to keep big winter jobs on track, at&t provided a mobile solution that lets everyone from field workers to accounting, initiate, bill, and track work in real time. you can't live under a dome in minnesota, that's why there's guys like me. [ male announcer ] it's a network of possibilities -- helping you do what you do... even better. ♪ and deposits at the same time. for paying your friend back for lunch from your tablet. for 26 paydays triggered with a single tap. for checking your line, then checking your portfolio. for making atms and branches appear out of thin air. simple to use websites, tools, and apps. for making your financial life a little bit easier. simple to use websites, tools, and apps. all right, let's decide what to do about... medicare and social security... security. that's what matters to me... ...me? i've been paying in... all these years... ...years washington's been talking at... us, but they never really listen... ...listen... it's not just some line... ite

mr. hamm, that's a good play. if they're shifting quickly toward oil like anadarko, that's okay. unless you're doing clean energy fuel, clne and westport innovations, owned by cummings, they make natural gas engines that volvo is embracing and they save fortunes for companies. you and i both like the free market. if you can get natural gas down to where it can work as a regular fuel, you're going to be paying a fraction of what you pay for diesel fuel. >> absolutely. everyone will save money on this. what about the big daddy exxon mobile? >> i'm troubled because frankly they paid a fortune for xto. bob simpson, a fantastic manager, helped bring that company public when i was at goldman sachs. not ashamed to say i was at goldman sachs by the way. what i think that exxon thought they would do is put it to utilities and take that share away from coal, which i think is good but also put natural gas fuel pumps in their gas stations. the reason why we can't have rapid adoption of natural gas is there are not enough fueling stations. exxon has to step up and say rather than the interviews they've been giving in local papers, they have to step up and say we're going to embr