womack. rep. womack: thank you. thank you to our witness. just a couple of questions related to federal spending on elections. the cares act -- if my numbers are correct, the cares act had $400 million allocated to states for the 2020 election cycle related to covid. the speaker's heroes act, which was not enacted but passed in the house twice, would have provided an additional $3.6 billion for this purpose. based on initial data reported by the states, it is my understanding that states only used about $270 million, or 68% of the $400 million provided in the cares package, so it begs this question, mr. chairman. was the 400 million provided in cares more than what the states needed? if, in fact, only 68% of what was provided was actually used. mr. hovland: thank you, ranking member womack. you are right on those numbers. $270 million that we had, that was preliminary based on a report that the cares act required. we will have a more complete picture on february 28. when you look at that number again, the low number, the low bar will be abou

womack. rep. womack: thank you. thank you to our witness. just a couple of questions related to federal spending on elections. the cares act -- if my numbers are correct, the cares act had $400 million allocated to states for the 2020 election cycle related to covid. the speaker's heroes act, which was not enacted but passed in the house twice, would have provided an additional $3.6 billion for this purpose. based on initial data reported by the states, it is my understanding that states only used about $270 million, or 68% of the $400 million provided in the cares package, so it begs this question, mr. chairman. was the 400 million provided in cares more than what the states needed? if, in fact, only 68% of what was provided was actually used. mr. hovland: thank you, ranking member womack. you are right on those numbers. $270 million that we had, that was preliminary based on a report that the cares act required. we will have a more complete picture on february 28. when you look at that number again, the low number, the low bar will be abou

womack. rep. womack: thank you. thank you to our witness. just a couple of questions related to federal spending on elections. the cares act -- if my numbers are correct, the cares act had $400 million allocated to states for the 2020 election cycle related to covid. the speaker's heroes act, which was not enacted but passed in the house twice, would have provided an additional $3.6 billion for this purpose. based on initial data reported by the states, it is my understanding that states only used about $270 million, or 68% of the $400 million provided in the cares package, so it begs this question, mr. chairman. was the 400 million provided in cares more than what the states needed? if, in fact, only 68% of what was provided was actually used. mr. hovland: thank you, ranking member womack. you are right on those numbers. $270 million that we had, that was preliminary based on a report that the cares act required. we will have a more complete picture on february 28. when you look at that number again, the low number, the low bar will be abou

womack. womack: thank you. i understand my colleague chris stewart may have a hard time that he's got to get out and if that is the case, i would be willing to defer any questions i have for the commissioner if press wants to chime in and get his questions out of the way because i think he has a flight to catch. chris are you on there. you and take a moment here to ask a couple of questions. i'm not hearing chris. maybe his ra logon. >> if he comes on and defer, will abide in bowl do whatever works for you. womack: i wanted to make sure he had an opportunity to share get involved in the q&a. thank you again commissioner for being here. i've always been concerned and fed up with this under the headline of mission break. when federal agencies get beyond their core functions, and it always blows me little bit. nothing becomes an expensive issue for the agency. typically the va because when they built hospitals, they are not end of the business building hospitals are developing it infrastructures. they have it prob

womack, do you have a follow-up question? >> i do. >> we are doing a hybrid second round where we don't have as much time, but i do want to focus with that opportunity. >> i do, mister chairman. thank you. i do appreciate the information you are giving us today. this was a question about issues of misuse of funding. how are you organized, set up, because this comes back to our oversight piece, how are we able to discern the misuse of funds, if and when it happens, and then what's actions are taken, what promising ig report would have the ability to recover the misuse of funds? if you can talk generally about that particular subject. >> i am happy to. one piece that's important and there is that we spend about 1 million dollars a year on our inspector general. for an agency our size, that's a huge portion of our budget. even when the budget was down to 1 million dollars, 1 million was going to the inspector general. that's because the inspector general -- they contract out a lot of them to audit this money. usually it's about

>> womack to our daily program called getting answers. asking experts your questions every day at 3:00 to get answers in realtime. today we talk with san francisco police chief bill scott about the recent rash in violent crime, leaving residents feeling fear and anger. we'll talk about the san mateo mass vaccination center that opened today and other efforts to ramp up vaccinations. >>> but let's begin with covid. joining us is dr. monica ghandy. great to see you again. >> good to see you. >> stood, some good news i think. governor newsom mentioned in his briefing new cases down to 10,000 a day compared to 50,000 a month ago. test positivity down to 5% compared to 14% a month ago. how do you sprpt these and other numbers? do you see it as good new sns any bad news there? >> no, i think this is great news. you know, we test a lot in california. and really the test positivity rate like you indicate is how many tests that are positive per your testing rate. and everything is going in the right direction. holidays are over. some of the restri

womack. >> hey, thanks, mike. look, i understand that my colleague chris stewart from utah may have a hard time that he's got to get out. if that's the case, i would be willing to defer any questions i have for the commissioner. if chris wants to chime in and get his questions out of the way because i think he's got a flight to catch. chris, are you on there? you want to take a moment here to ask a couple of questions. i'm not hearing chris. maybe he is already logged off -- >> well, if he wants to come on -- you want to defer in the middle of yours, we'll abide. whatever works for you. >> i just saw he logged on and i wanted to make sure he had an opportunity to get involved in the q&a. >> sure. >> thanks again, commissioner for being here. i've always been concerned, and i've kind of put this under the ed head line of mission croak. when federal agencies get beyond their core functions, and it always bothers me a little bit, and i think it becomes an expensive issue for the issue. i've picked on the va because w

womack: thank you, madam speaker. i think a little honesty is in order tonight. it's no secret that this so-called american rescue plan act has little to do with the hardships placed on americans by covid. when 90% of a spending plan, rammed through on a sham of a budget resolution, gets spent years down the road, with much of it having little to do with the coronavirus, we should at least be honest with our constituents. it's apparently christmas again . here's an example. what does the multiemployer pension issue have to do with the pandemic? remember the failed joint select committee that was supposed to solve that problem back in 2018? that was long before covid. but here we are, about to spend $85 billion-plus on this bailout. that's double the amount of money we give to the national institutes of health. look, before we ask future generations to float us another $2 trillion to pay off these liberal promises, let's at least have the integrity to admit that this really isn't about covid. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired.

womack: my final question would be in education, we have accreditation standards and accreditation facilities set up to be able to monitor and judge just how effective these education institutions are. is there an accreditation standard and an accreditation , platform by which our states are judged as to how they carry out their missions on elections? mr. hovland: with our decentralized elections, there is certainly no federal standard, we have a decentralized system. the eac is largely not regulatory. you see things that are created like the elections performance indexed, housed out of the m.i.t. elections lab that was created by a general trust. there are a number of different ways you can look at it. i think a little different then a ranking standard, but to your question earlier, on resourcing and how we get there, one of the great things about the election assistance commission is when congress created the help america vote act was the federal clearinghouse responsibility. there is so much more we can do with that. one of the big things i would like to see us expand into more of is train

billion it spent last year we got this significant debt over generations arkansas congressman steve womacklled and funded we've got to be careful not to allow more and more of the federal tax dollars to go for is normally play for the if the more local level reporting in washington, i'm basil john. time now 7.53. we'll be right back. i'm morgan, and there's more to me than hiv. more love,... more adventure,... more community. but with my hiv treatment,... there's not more medicines in my pill. i talked to my doctor... and switched to... fewer medicines with dovato. prescription dovato is for some adults who are starting hiv-1 treatment or replacing their current hiv-1 regimen. with... just 2 medicines... in 1 pill,... dovato is as effective as a 3-drug regimen... to help you reach and stay undetectable. research shows people who take hiv treatment as prescribed... and get to and stay undetectable... can no longer transmit hiv through sex. don't take dovato if you're allergic to any of its ingredients... or if you take dofetilide. hepatitis b can become harder to treat while taking dovato.

womack: i would thinknk again tt any times when you look at the federal election fundings. the expirations days don't matter, the structure is what matters. when you look at talk about this more with the security grant. but the way the most of these grants are structured is they go to the state printable the state localities have different experiences very different needs and the election states. the bulk of the expenses with the elections administrations and most states is born at the local level. so that's important. i think that one of the things that i have seen in the house appropriationspr bills, has been mentioned 50 percent in-kind going to locals. it is very important. unfortunately it hasn't made it through the senate side yet . but it recognizes the costs are primarily borne out at the local level. but also announced that collectibility. top-down and bottom-up states in the way that they have structured the election administrations around the country. >> ten plus years that i am certain congress is that invariably, the states and even further down at the local le

womack: thank you, madam speaker. i think a little honesty is in order tonight. it's no secret that this so-called american rescue plan act has little to do with the hardships placed on americans by covid. when 90% of a spending plan, rammed through on a sham of a budget resolution, gets spent years down the road, with much of it having little to do with the coronavirus, we should at least be honest with our constituents. it's apparently christmas again . here's an example. what does the multiemployer pension issue have to do with the pandemic? remember the failed joint select committee that was supposed to solve that problem back in 2018? that was long before covid. but here we are, about to spend $85 billion-plus on this bailout. that's double the amount of money we give to the national institutes of health. look, before we ask future generations to float us another $2 trillion to pay off these liberal promises, let's at least have the integrity to admit that this really isn't about covid. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired.