mr. david norquist comptroller as our witness today. the topic is the audit of the department of defense, which by law begins this fiscal year. and i would just say it's not by accident that the committee will start our year on this topic. requiring that the department conduct an audit has been a bipartisan priority of this committee for some time. the chief financial office of 1990 required all federal departments conducted annual financial audit and partly out of frustration with a lack of progress toward that end that the department of defense. the 2010 required the financial statements of the department be ready for audit by september 30, 2017. this committee's panel on defense financial management and reform put close scrutiny on the department's efforts and issued a number of recommendations that have been enabled us to arrive at this point. the 2014 required a full audit be conducted of the department's fy 18 financial statements. the results of which are to be delivered next year. you want to commend the chairman for his experti

mr. david norquist, undersecretary of defense and comptroller as our witness today. the topic is the audit of the department of defense which by law begins this fiscal year. i would say it's not by accident the committee would start our year on this topic. requiring the department conduct an audit has been a bipartisan requirement of this committee for some time. from 1990 it required all federal departments conduct a financial audit and partly with frustration of the lack of that in 2010 they required the audits be ready by 2017. they put close scrutiny on the department's efforts and issued a number of recommendations to allow us to arrive at this point. the 2014 required an audit be required of the department's fy 18 financial statements the results of list are to be delivered next year. i want to commend chairman conaway for his expertise and persistence on this issue as well as mr. courtney also a member of the audit panel several years ago. they will both be glad to know we have had additional members join this committee in recent years who can also contribute