mr. goldstein. >> thank you, mr. chairman, members of the committee. thank you for the opportune to testify on issues related to federal protection service and protection of federal buildings. as part of the department of homeland security the federal protective service is responsible for protecting federal employees and visitors an approximate 9600 federal facilities, under the control and custody of the administration. recent incidents of federal facilities demonstrate the continued bone ability to attack or other acts of violence. talpa published its mission sts connects the two security assessments and that's approximate 13,500 contract security guards deployed to federal facilities. my testimony discusses challenges we face in first ensuring contract guard are deployed to federal facility and properly trained. and conducting risk assessment at federal facility. it is based on jails were issued from 2008-2013 risk assessment and programs and preliminary results of geos ongoing work to determine the extent to which fps and select federal agencies fa

mr. goldstein. >> he comes from a different culture where some of these kinds of things go on all of the time and i just want to mention that to you. and in this case, the sfmta is overstated the case. the balance checks were made on credit cards of his grandmother, his grandmother's best friend and their friend all of whom are over 80 years old and he held their cards because they were exclusive users and he served them all of time, and he took them to the doctor and to the store and to see their friends and they relied on them because they could not rely on other drivers because nobody would pay the kind of attention to him or could speak russian like he could and otherwise would be as accommodating to them as he would. >> so those balance checks are on the cards of the people that were intimate to his family including his grandmother and. and the sfmta tries to make something pernicious out of making the balance checks but it does not amount to any dead triment to anybody the only one that we know about for sure is the $27 worth of over charges and he admits to that. the other stuff i

mr. goldstein, the last word. >> thank you, mr. chairman. one quick clarification for dr. can coburn's -- dr. coburn's possibility. gao's recommendations, there have been 26 between 2010 and 2013. by our records only four are in process and have only been in process for about three or four weeks when we received them meaning that there are 22 still open, and we can -- we will provide your staff with the exact information. >> thank you. thank you, that's very interesting. thank you for that clarification. >> yes, sir. i would, just three brief points that haven't been brought up too much this morning which i think are very relevant. the first, as mr. amitay has said, i think it is important there be better clarity in terms of contractors' liabilities. we've interviewed dozens and dozens of contract guards over the last decade, all of whom have felt they don't have clarity on what their roles and responsibilities are and when they can use force and when they can't use force. and most have told us over the years that their companies have all but said don't you ever pull out y

mr. goldstein, last word? >> one quick quotation for dr. coburn. gao's recommendations -- there've been 26 and only four are in process and have only been in process for about four weeks, meaning there are 22 still open, and we will provide your staff with the exact information on those. >> they're interesting. andrew for the clarification. >> some points that have not been brought up that are relevant. the first, as mr. amitay has said, it is important that there be better clarity in terms of contractors liabilities. we have interviewed dozens of contract guards over the last decade all of whom have felt they do not have clarity on what responsibilities are and when they can use force and cannot use force. and most have told us over the years that their companies have all but said don't you ever pull out your gun, don't you ever do anything with it. there is a lot of lack of clarity in this area. the second is the role of the federalr at the protective service. it would be great if they were able to, as mr. wright said, to be able to roam around,

mr. goldstein, last word? >> one quick quotation for dr. coburn. gao's recommendations -- there've been 26 and only four are in process and have only been in process for about four weeks, meaning there are 22 still open, and we will provide your staff with the exact information on those. >> they're interesting. andrew for the clarification. >> some points that have not been brought up that are relevant. the first, as mr. amitay has said, it is important that there be better clarity in terms of contractors liabilities. we have interviewed dozens of contract guards over the last decade all of whom have felt they do not have clarity on what responsibilities are and when they can use force and cannot use force. and most have told us over the years that their companies have all but said don't you ever pull out your gun, don't you ever do anything with it. there is a lot of lack of clarity in this area. the second is the role of the federalr at the protective service. it would be great if they were able to, as mr. wright said, to be able to roam around,

mr. goldstein. we have already talked to this to some extent. i will come back and revisit it very briefly. in the past decade or so, you have overseen 12 independent reports of federal facility security. you have looked at the armed guard programs, you have collaborated with state and local law enforcement and the human capital planning. gao has also conducted what we call them covert testing. you talked about some of that that is going on of federal facilities. in other words, you try to penetrate federal facilities to test how security works. it is like what we do in the nuclear power plant world. again, for the record, how would you assess federal facility security today? over 30,000 feet, how would you assess federal facility security today, realizing we are on a time continuum, where folks focus on this, going back to 1995, oklahoma city -- is it getting better, worse, it is uneven? >> i think it is very uneven, mr. chairman. yes, there have been improvements since oklahoma city and since the twin towers, of course. we have had more focus

mr. goldstein is correct, he would get most of that money back but he would lose, $50,000 approximately of that money. and so, he would get back roughly $200, for the 250 but he would lose 50,000 of that money. >> i was going to say that the only way prior to revocation assuming that we were not moving forward, i mean that he has the right, if there were no issues, he would have the right to sell his medallion for the full amount. >> and currently what is the medallion worth in today's value? >> $250,000. >> it is still worth. >> and the mta sets the price. >> so he can sell it or he can't sell it >> if he were not having any issues. >> meaning, >> and with the board, correct. he would have been able to sell it. if he just had felt like, you know what i don't want this any more i am going to sell it. >> he cannot sell it. >> not after revocation. no. but what will happen is that this is going to be a voluntary for sale after revocation. and that forced sale will allow him to recoup the majority of that money. >> minus. >> can he sell it prior? >> he has already been revoked. >> okay, i got

mr. goldstein particularly on the gao report, and what you have found. it really troubles me when we think about that there is no comprehensive -- i believe you described it as a strategy or oversight model -- and then the fact that we are not sure, the people are receiving. there are a category that are not receiving active-duty shooter training and or screener training. how can we, from the gao perspective, what is your recommendation in terms of from the policy perspective, how we can move this as quickly as possible to address this problem? >> thank you. we have been very concerned with respect active shooter training and training on magnetometer's that fps has not been done a good enough job to ensure its contract guard workforce is able to get that training. one of the problems with the active shooter training, which people do not understand here, it is only a small part of one part of the training they receive any how. they get what how the -- they get a special training of two hours which covers special events of various kinds of might occur in t

mr. lagos, you have nine minutes to present your request. >> thank you, director goldstein and good evening commissioners, my name is julian lagos and once again here on behalf of our community and our trees and as you were here a month ago and you had to hear what we had regarding the preservation of these three trees and we have discovered that there has been other information that has come forth since that hearing and it is in regards to the conflicts of interest that have been discovered by myself and the number of residents and park merced regarding the city's conflict of interest with the city. and we have discovered that there are two contracts that the city has with this company, and which we believe poses a conflict of interest. and these two contracts were awarded this year, by the city at the recommendation on my add by the urban forestry council for which miss short who is going to speak tonight in her difference, sits on. one contract, is given to arbor well for $435,000, back in february. and again, in september, this year, a $210,000 contract was awarded to arbor well and non

national senior citizens law center as a partner at powell goldstein and associate director of president carter white house domestic policy staff. mr. lazarus has written articles that appeared in journals as well as publications such as the atlantic, the "washington post" and the new republic. our final witness is michael cannon of the health policy studies. he has been recognized as an influential expert on the affordable care act. mr. cannon has appeared on abc, cbs, cnn and fox news and has written articles that have been featured in numerous newspapers including "the wall street journal," usa today and the "los angeles times." he is also the coeditor of a book on replacing the portable care act and the co-author of a book on healthcare reform. i would like to thank all of the witnesses today. each of the written statements will be entered into the record in its entirety and i ask that each witness summarized his or her summary in five minutes or less to stay within the timeframe there is a timing light on your table. when the light switches from green to yellow, you will have one minute to conclude your testimony. when the lig