ms. barr: yes, i am. ms. duckworth: i know you had only been on job a few months before when it was issued but i wanted to ask you a bit more about it, report focused on the office of information programs and services, that office is within the burro of administration i understand, and you serve as the assistant secretary for that burro, is that correct? ms. barr: that is correct. ms. duckworth: i would like to through issues raised in the report. it said, i just want to quote the report, it says persistent neglect of fund mental leadership responsibilities and management practices had profound consequences, the oig team's observations, discusses with staff and responses to oig's questionnaires indicated an office with problematic morale, perceptions of favoritism, micro management practices and confused lines of authority. this really concerns me. i understand that you had only been on the job just six months so this investigation probably took place before you got there but how did you respond to those find

ms. barr: i can't speak to that authoritatively. my understanding is that the secretary said that she did it as a matter of convenience. mr. gowdy: and you know what -- ms. barr: i don't know that personally. mr. gowdy: that's my understanding, too, in part because that's what she said. i guess my next question would be, if it was solely for convenience, why did you not return the records back to the state department? ms. barr: i have no explanation, sir. mr. gowdy: does she have explanation of why she retained care custody and control of those personal records two years after she separated? ms. barr: i am not aware of that, sir. mr. gowdy: do you know what prompted the former secretary to return those public records to the public domain? ms. barr: we sent a letter to secretary clinton as well as to secretaries rice powell and albright and asked them if they had any records that they might have -- that might have been generated on nondepartment systems that should be part of our official recor

ms. barr i must say i am reeling from the stunning revolution that you have no e-mails from two former secretaries of state who covered the entirety of the bush administration, and i want to make sure i understood your answers to mr. comings very clearly. you are the top foia official at the department of state, is that correct? >> yes, sir. >> if i understand your sworn testimony, you're saying that as of right now, the state department has the not been able to identify any e-mails from secretary powell or secretary rice is the that correct? >> what i was saying is that the state department did not have any e-mails that were responsive to the request. >> do you have other e-mails? >> i know that we have other e-mails for secretary rice. i'm not sure what we have in our collection for secretary powell my statements were based on what i understood to be a summery of how we had requested a number of former secretaries to come back -- >> ms. barr, my time is limited. my time is limited. i'm going

ms. barr? >> i have no knowledge. >> well, well, reason i'm asking is because you said you're doing that the exact same way as any public official. and my point is because of this arrangement that former secretary clinton had. you're not in a position to do the same. a position to do the same you would with any public official because vice president biden and obama don't have the their personal attorneys going through the e-mails to decide what to return and not. i assume in your position as an non-political unbiassed position. am i correct? >> yes, sir. >> i believe the department of state has an inspector general, am i right? >> i asked them to look into system of issues. we are cooperating with them. >> do you know who nominated the current inspector general? >> i don't have that information at my fingertips but i can get back to you. >> you don't have to. it was president obama. do you know who controlled the senate when he was confirmed? do you know what the vote was? it was unanimous. >>

ms. barr and you're now recognized for five minutes. >> good morning, thank you for the invitation to appear before you today. my name is joyce barr and i serve as the assistant secretary for administration as well as chief foia officer for the state department. i'm a career foreign service officer with over 35 years of experience serving around the world. thank you for your interest in and advocacy for improving transparency to the public. we share that goal at the department and work every day to achieve it. in addition to providing a range of support services around the world, the bureau of administration is also responsible for responding to requests under foia as well as managing and maintaining official department records. the state department is committed to openness. it is critical to ensuring the public trust and to promoting public collaboration with the u.s. government. however, meeting our commitment to openness is very challenging. we have a large backlog of over 16,000 foia reque

ms. barr, did you watch any of the testimony yesterday? ms. barr: i heard some of it, but wanted to focus on preparing today. >> i got updated throughout the day on the testimony. >> i watched part of the area. >> i watched most of it. after coming -- mr. cummings: when you heard the testimony of seems like a world of difference. and let me tell you what i think is part of the problem. i do think it personal issue is part of the problem. a personnel issue is part of the problem. tells you when you got people than you got more demand, you are going to have projects. serious. i also think there is a lot of things that you all are doing right, doing a great job. there are some cases that maybe our little more complicated more controversial, and so the process has slowed down a bit. it's a in, perhaps a lot. -- in some instances, perhaps a lot. just listening to everything that was said between yesterday and today, that is where i come down on this. in some kind of way we got to get past where we

ms. barr was confirmed as the assistant secretary for administration in december of 2011. as assistant secretary she's responsible for the day-to-day administration of a variety of functions ranging from logistics, records management, privatety programs, the rk woing can tall fund and presidential travel. we appreciate you being here. ms. melanie ann pustay is the director of the office of information policy at the department of justice since 2007, has worked with foia for at least the last 12 years. the office of information policy sometimes we ferd to as oip is responsible for developing guidance for executive branch agencies on the freedom of information act. oip is charged with ensuring that the foia guidance a implemented across the government. before coming director she served eight years as the deputy director oip. ms. karen neuman serves as the chief foia officer within the department of homeland security. in her hole was chief privacy officer, ms. neuman is responsible for evaluating

ms. barr was confirmed as the assistant secretary for administration in december of 2011. as assistant secretary she's responsible for the day-to-day administration of a variety of functions ranging from logistics, records management, privatety programs, the rk woing can tall fund and presidential travel. we appreciate you being here. ms. melanie ann pustay is the director of the office of information policy at the department of justice since 2007, has worked with foia for at least the last 12 years. the office of information policy sometimes we ferd to as oip is responsible for developing guidance for executive branch agencies on the freedom of information act. oip is charged with ensuring that the foia guidance a implemented across the government. before coming director she served eight years as the deputy director oip. ms. karen neuman serves as the chief foia officer within the department of homeland security. in her hole was chief privacy officer, ms. neuman is responsible for evaluating

and with that we will now start with ms. barr and you're now recognized for five minutes. >> thank you, chairman, ranking member cummings and members of the committee. good morning. thank you for the invitation to appear before you today. my name is joyce barr. and i serve as thecy sis tant secretary ff administration as well as chief foia officer for the state department. i am a career foreign service officer with over 35 years of experience serving around the world. thank you for your interest in and advocacy for improving transparency to the public. we shared that goal at the department and work every day to achieve it. in addition to providing a range of support services around the world, the bureau of administration is also responsible for responding to requests under foia as well as managing and maintaining official department records. the state department is committed to openness. it is critical to ensuring the public trust and to promoting public collaboration with the u.s. government. however, meeting our commitment to o

ms. mccollum: i would like to yield 2 1/2 minutes to my good friend, my colleague on this issue, mr. barr. mr. barr: i thank the gentlewoman -- the chair: the gentleman from kentucky is recognized. barr br thank you, mr. speaker. i -- mr. barr: thank you, mr. speaker. i want to thank the gentlewoman from minnesota for her leadership on this issue and partnership in supporting this important and critical mission of our military to make sure that the united states war fighter in combat has the most advanced lightweight body armor available to protect that soldier in the field against the enemy and we must act now to make sure that the u.s. army does what is the intent of the congress, as the gentlewoman pointed out, despite the fact that congress has been clear on this matter, despite the fact that report language for both the f.y. 2015 and f.y. 2016 defense appropriation measures recognize the importance of lightweight body armor protecting soldiers in combat, that we encouraged the secretary of the army to ensure that the body armor industrial base was able to continue the development and