▶ 0:01:58e e
▶ 0:02:34the committee on house administration will come to order I note that a quorum is present without objection the chair May declare recess at any time also without objection the hearing record will remain open for five legislative days so members May submit any materials they wish to be included therein thank you ranking member mlli members of the committee and our Witnesses for participating in today's hearing today the committee and house administration continues our legislative oversight with members day for the 119th Congress committee on house administration is tasked with
▶ 0:03:04ensuring the legislative branch as a whole is operating efficiently and effectively as a committee with broad oversight of many legislative entities we're often uh we often bring forward legislation that impacts our workpl and our colleagues here in the Capal from campus safety to committee funding and federal election law every single representative is impacted by the work we do here in this committee it's why it's critical for us to hear from our colleagues at the beginning of each Congress to see how we can work together to bring forward legislation that truly better serves
▶ 0:03:34the American people in addition to our legislative oversight duties the committee also assists member offices through fulfilling Member Service requests programming for staff and members and more uh for example during the 118th Congress we completed uh 660 Member Service requests for Republicans 750 newsletters on house operations and a total programming attendance uh of over 3,000 we held a member day hearing at the beginning of the 118th Congress as well well in that hearing we heard many great recommendations uh from our colleagues we even were able
▶ 0:04:04to implement recommendations we received through pieces of legislation that passed this committee uh for example we heard from our colleague uh congresswoman Claudia Tenny of New York about election te election Integrity efforts to prevent non-citizen voting I look forward to hearing from our colleagues today about a variety of issues this committee will consider in the coming months I thank our colleagues for coming before the committee to testify today I look forward to to having a positive discussion about how we can work together to improve our institution
▶ 0:04:34uh with that I'll yield to the ranking member Mr Melly for 5 minutes for opening remarks uh thank you uh Mr chair for uh calling this meeting and ensuring our compliance with the rules of the house and I want to welcome all of our colleagues and Friends uh to the committee on house administration our portfolio as you've articulated of authorities here is pretty diverse we have considerable legislative and oversight responsibilities from the handing from the funding and administration of federal
▶ 0:05:05elections to the stewardship of our cultural institutions such as the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress and we are ultimately a customer service Enterprise so whether it's the security of our buildings U the food in our cafeterias the paint on our walls or how we communicate with constituents we oversee all of it um a responsibility I know we all take very seriously uh and I would as you did a nod to the committee's subcommittee on modernization Innovation um
▶ 0:05:35and that panel's predecessors in this in the Congress um many ideas on improving uh the function and form of what we do is come out of that subcommittee I appreciate all their work and um you know we are ultimately the oversight entity of the house uh and the place could not function the thousands of employees who by the way often go unacknowledged and we should thank them for the extraordinary service they do particularly at a time when Federal Workforce is being subjected to some indiscriminate
▶ 0:06:05um uh you know Decisions by the administration so I want them to know their efforts don't go unnoticed or unappreciated uh I look forward to hearing from our colleagues about what's important to them and their constituents and how they think we can approve our service to the house um and I'm sure there will be no shortage of members appearing today simply to Lavish us with praise and acclaim for what we are doing right so I'm eagerly welcoming them those comments as well but uh thanks for your kind words thanks for holding the hearing and with that I look forward to hearing from our
▶ 0:06:35colleagues and I yield back gentlemen yields back without objection all other members opening statements will be made part of the hearing record if they're submitted to the committee clerk by 5:00 pm today uh today we have two panels each witness will give a three minute opening statement uh then the majority and minority will each have a total of five minutes uh pide to question the witnesses uh we now welcome our first panel of witnesses uh and I'll recognize you Mr Frost from Florida for three minutes thank you
▶ 0:07:05so much Mr chair and Mr ranking member and thank you for the opportunity to testify today on two very important matters um I hope the committee will prioritize this Congress first I will be reintroducing the voting overseas treated equally for service members act or the votes act I'm grateful to the members of this committee for their unanimous support of the votes act when it was marked up last Congress this country owes a lot to those who volunteer to serve and for as long long as our nation has fought Wars and deployed service members abroad we've recognized the right of those in uniform to participate
▶ 0:07:35in the Democracy that they defend this is personal to me I come from a family that's been in the United States Air Force since it was the United States Army Air Corp absentee voting for service members goes at least as far back to the Civil War and that Legacy continues under uocava the uniformed and overseas citizens absentee Voting Act and the move act which guaranteed ballot access to active duty service members abroad the move act however was passed over 15 years ago and today it's not just active duty service
▶ 0:08:05members who might be deployed overseas and that guarantee of ballot access might not extend to some of the 760,000 reserved and National Guard members who might be deployed overseas for critical operation training exercises and National emergencies the votes act corrects this by ensuring that all service members serving overseas regardless of their Duty status get their ballot time to vote in federal elections it's a straightforward bipartisan uh solution endorsed by the American Legion
▶ 0:08:36the enlisted Association of the National Guard of the United States and the National Guard Association of the United States I ask that the committee mark up this bill and report it favorably I will be introducing it soon second I'd love the committee to address an issue that would immediately make it easier for members especially those who come from disaster prone districts to better serve our constituents Congress should allow District offices to use their website and online platform to direct constituents to community organizations resources
▶ 0:09:06and services when a hurricane hits Central Florida or a tornado tears through the central Wisconsin our constituents come to our offices and our websites looking for help and while we can help constituents filing claims with FEMA um we all know local and Community recovery resources make the biggest difference and we'd love to be able to point our constituents to those local resources folks come to us for help and they deserve better um than being sent away because their issue isn't necessarily a federal one this committee could make that happen
▶ 0:09:36not all districts have the same Community groups or resources and each member would have their own discretion to decide how they would engage but at least they would have the ability to do so if needed this is something that the select committee on the modernization of Congress investigated and offered as a recommendation to Congress just like the committee passed a resolution to authorizing co-sponsored constituent Service events My Hope is that way my hope is that we can make this change um I'm ready to help and thank you so much for your time and important work I yield back Jim yields
▶ 0:10:06back I recognize myself for five minutes for questions uh appreciate your testimony Mr Frost uh we've had some great conversations in particular as it uh relates uh to making sure uh that our service members are able to vote overseas uh Miss Lee on this committee the chair of the subcommittee on elections uh in particular has a significant interest in making sure U that we're looking at additional updates to yava uh in this Congress and so as that debate continues uh we look forward to working with you we appreciate your interest and we're happy to work with you
▶ 0:10:37uh was we passed your bill out of this committee uh last year and I think there's an opportunity as we look at U aava maybe a little bit more holistically uh to make sure that we're making updates uh in that space that are needed uh as it relates to uh your your other point providing local resources uh this is something that we've been discussing on this committee and appreciate you're hearing uh your support of making that change um I think you're absolutely correct when natural disasters emergencies occur in a member's District often our constituents uh folks
▶ 0:11:07in our home state reach out uh really not knowing where to turn uh and often as federal policy makers uh we think through the distinction between federal law federal resources state law state resources local uh and local resources where uh if your roof just got blown off uh in my state by a tornado maybe in your state uh by a hurricane um you don't really give a hoot uh which government entity uh you should turn to you're just looking for help uh and so providing that flexibility uh to federal Offices uh is something that we're exploring
▶ 0:11:38uh and appreciate your interest in feedback and we'll continue to look at that opportunity um this year um I yield back and I'll recognize the ranking member for five minutes thank you uh Mr chair thank you Mr Frost uh you and I have had many many conversations about the uh bill that relates to service members I could not agree with you more and look forward to working with the chair and in my colleagues here uh and M Lee who's uh one of your co-sponsors and the vice chair here of the committee to get that done um I I as well I
▶ 0:12:08think the issue that relates to natural disasters makes a great deal of sense I think the challenge in part is figuring what the trigger is whether there's a declaration of some kind but I think we could work on that and then the question of which resources do do you direct them too and how do you make sure that uh you know you've you you've got a current list of places is where you can do it it's a little bit uh of a challenge but I certainly think it's well worth doing and I appreciate uh both of your being here today and and and and
▶ 0:12:38both suggestions which I think are uh things we ought to take up so thanks for your time thanks for being here jenman y's back uh recognize the representative from Oregon m m representative Selena for five for three minutes thank you chairman style and ranking member melli I'm grateful to have the opportunity to speak to the committee today on the universal right to vote by maale act and I apolog olizee I'm not able to stay for questions but I am happy to report back any questions the committee may have the universal vote uh right to vote by mail act will ensure that every
▶ 0:13:08eligible voter in America is able to cast a safe secure and accessible ballot by mail in our federal elections that includes folks who can't make it to the polls due to as we've been talking about natural disasters age illness disability or simply because they work two or three jobs and have limited schedules my state of Oregon has been a vote by mail State for for nearly 30 years we have consistently high levels of voter turnout research has shown that voters from both sides of the aisle vote by mail at similar rates so this
▶ 0:13:38bill would not favor one party over the other it would benefit all Americans this includes our brave and hardworking First Responders who do an indispensable job their jobs are dangerous and they're difficult beyond the taxing physical work they also require intensive work hours that extend beyond a normal work day the amount of work they do cuts into week weekends public holidays and yes even election day given these circumstances it's essential that First Responders and all voters in similar situations are provided
▶ 0:14:08the ability to participate in our democracy in addition to allowing eligible voters every eligible voter to easily and efficiently participate in our elections vote by mail saves a significant amount of money officials in my state have reported that vote by mail decrease costs by at least onethird which for our state is around $3 million a year on top of those savings vote by mail benefits the economy by improving productivity and decreasing lost wages because Americans can go vote from their kitchen table
▶ 0:14:39instead of waiting in lines that snake around the block a report from 2012 found that the amount of time Americans spent waiting in line to vote cost over $540 million in loss productivity and wages the benefits of my bill don't end there it also includes a requirement that states must provide voters with an opportunity to cure their ballots this is critical because voters casting their ballots may make errors due to a lack of access to an election official to assist them when they are filling out their ballot
▶ 0:15:09Universal vote by right to vote by mail act would extend the access that oregonians have had for decades to every American it would establish a national right to vote by mail which would only strengthen our democracy by allowing more Americans to make their voices heard that's why the universal right to vote by mail Act is also an integral part of the freedom to vote act I encourage this committee to give this full and fair consideration to the universal right to vote by mail act and to oppose any efforts that may arise to restrict access to
▶ 0:15:39the ballot including any efforts to restrict the ability of Americans to vote by mail again I thank you so much for your time and for this hearing i y back gentleman Yi's back thank you very much we'll go straight to U Mr Panetta and then we'll come back and do questions at the the end of the panel uh we'll recognize Mr Panetta for three minutes great thank you chairman steel and ranking member murel um I appreciate the concerns of my colleagues and Echo their sentiments um my request is much more selfish I'll be honest with you um selfish to the people
▶ 0:16:09of my district in the 19th congressional district on the Central Coast of California um we need more money is what it comes down to in regards to being able to effectively serve our constituents I say that uh thanks to this independent redistricting commission that used my district uh previously used my district as Hamburger Helper to create the district to the east of mine and therefore completely spread out my district over a wide variety of communities
▶ 0:16:39of Interest causing me to open up four district offices in the 19th congressional district which has been a financial strain uh on my office and uh on the members representational allowance and that's why I respectfully request your consideration for changes to better support members who represent larger Geographic districts with a high cost of living and high property values the changes that I'm asking for will enable members like me to
▶ 0:17:10adequately serve the distinct communities of interest and recruit and retain qualified staff now my district California's 19th congressional district which I provided each of the members a map of just so you can get a little bit of the flavor of it uh spans 2,817 square miles and covers four counties each with distinct Federal needs and I think that's the Highlight right there that we got to focus on the communities in my district are separated by geography that necessitates offices in
▶ 0:17:40each population Center without the four offices that I've opened it would be very expensive and timec consuming for Working Families in each of those four distinct communities to access Congressional services in person in addition to Geographic separations my district make up several distinct communities of interest you got South San Jose which is a bedroom community to the communities of Silicon Valley you got Santa Cruz which has tourism Hospitality some agricultural economies you
▶ 0:18:10got montere County which has a specialty crop agricultural industry and a number of military installations and then you go all the way down the coastline to Northern St Louis abiso County which has cattle wine uh and Coastal uh tourism as well these are these counties and these areas are very very different uh and the people are different and you know what you can't can't really expect them to travel to another area uh another community of interest within the 19th congressional district
▶ 0:18:40each of these constituencies require local staff who understand their unique concerns in addition to access uh to physical offices additionally due to California's redistricting as I talked about I've had to meet most of these constituent for the first time in the in the last Congress which is 55% of the constituency which was new to add additional costs the office rents in my district are among among the highest in the nation while I understand and appreciate that the uh CAO uses submarket rates to account for more expensive
▶ 0:19:11office rate rate rents this calculation fails to account the quantity of offices needed unfortunately maintaining multiple offices is more expensive and results in renting more total square footage than a single district office despite these differences in the cost of living there is no adjustment in the formulated formula dedicated to personnel as well that means that pay for personnel that includes staff in my district where the median salary is $116,000 is the same
▶ 0:19:41as ky's Fifth District where the median salary is $44,000 re if I make thank you re recent reports have also confirmed that the cost of housing in my district is among the highest in the nation look I want to recognize your leadership for championing MRA increases and thank you thank you thank you for the 6.2% increase that the MRA included in 2023 unfortunately for districts like mine it hasn't gone far enough I know I'm over my time I think you get the gist of where
▶ 0:20:11I'm coming from when it comes to my type of District how expensive it is how spread out it is how many different communities of interest that I have therefore I'm asking for a change in the formulation for mras to take into account all of the obstacles and challenges that I have in the 19th congressional district and provide more when it comes to the MRA thank you I yield back gentleman yields back uh the gentoman from Illinois Ms Ramirez is recognized uh for three
▶ 0:20:49minutes thank you thank you for the opportunity to be able to testify today about how the saved act could strip 70 million American women in the United un States from the right to vote let me start by pointing out a fact some of my colleagues seem incapable of accepting non-citizens cannot vote that is the law non-citizens do not vote and it's a fact my colleagues on the other side have decided to use disinformation to whip people into fear driven frenzy to suppress the votes of anyone
▶ 0:21:20who threatens an extremist unconstitutional authoritarian agenda and that includes women as chair still admitted in his testimony and front of the rules committee last Congress under the save act Americans would not be able to register to vote with their driver's license or real IDs IDs do not meet the save access requirement of showing a holder citizenship status because again the fact is that non-citizens can legally access real IDs so the only documentation that is acceptable under the save act that most Americans will be able to use
▶ 0:21:50are passports and birth certificates paired with IDs here's the problem only half of Americans own a passport and an estimated 70 million women in the United States change their name upon marriage meaning their IDs and their birth certificates don't match according to the Pew Research Center 80% of American women adopt their husband's name and it's my understanding that three women who serve in this committee um have also done so so if they don't have a passport and their birth
▶ 0:22:20certificate doesn't match their ID then what happens then according to the text of the save act these 70 million American citizens will be be unable to prove their citizenship and would be barred from registering to vote however the impact is not limited to married women there's also survivors of domestic violence who decided to create new identities for themselves and sometimes for their sons and for their daughters they would be penalized for ensuring their survival folks that's unacceptable I've heard from Republicans
▶ 0:22:51over and over again that they want to protect women so let me ask you how is this bill protecting women's rights to vote the save Act is not an election security bill it is carefully constructed legislation targeting American women targeting Americans black brown veterans indigenous and working class and it's a bill to disenfranchise millions of Americans it's part of a authoritarian Playbook including the funding freeze and the persecution of diverse cities and it takes courage and
▶ 0:23:21moral Clarity to stand against it and so today I wanted to speak because I want to invite every member of this committee and the house Democrats and Republicans to see this well for what it is to stand on the right side of history and to stand against the save act thank you for your attention and time this evening this morning with that I yield back representative from Illinois yields back I'll recognize myself for five minutes so the purpose have any questions U Mr Panetta uh I was given a map of your District um it does look long and
▶ 0:23:51a little unique uh and so the Commission in California maybe has an opportunity to get some more compact districts uh in the state your point as it relates to uh the number of offices you have is is well taken um and so appreciate uh you coming and testifying before us today uh as it relates to my colleague from Illinois um I think there's a real opportunity to improve election Integrity um and if you compare my home state of Wisconsin and the state of Illinois the contrast couldn't be more clear in the state of Illinois there's no requirement
▶ 0:24:21for a photo ID in the state of Wisconsin there is a requirement for a photo ID we could look to the state North Dakota uh where North Dakota uh includes in real ID whether or not an individual is a citizen um and so that actually addresses the concern you brought forward something maybe the state of Illinois could take a look at um I think there's some real opportunities at the state level in your testimony you noted that non-citizens do not vote as we have shown in this committee we've identified
▶ 0:24:52where noncitizens have gotten on the voter roles where in certain situations have voted it's the reason election Integrity legislation such as the save Act is absolutely essential to make sure that non-citizens are not voting in American elections and so to say that that is part of as you noted um part of a I'll quote it here um to suppress the votes of anyone who threatens their extremist unconstitutional white supremacist authoritarian
▶ 0:25:23agenda end quote I would say it's Common Sense common sense to require an individual ual to show photo identification when they come to the polls to say that they are who they say they are to make sure that it's only US citizens voting in US elections and if we look at liberal cities such as our nation's capital right here in Washington DC which politically isn't that different than the city of Chicago in our nation's capital under current law noncitizens are legally allowed to vote
▶ 0:25:53in Municipal elections and in fact what we saw was multiple non citizens participating in this most recent November election at the municipal level so yes it is true non-citizens cannot participate in federal elections but we know that the radical left wants non-citizens to vote and you can simply look at our nation's capital here in Washington DC that is using taxpayer dollars not only to allow that but to encourage non-citizens to participate and so as we look at the contrast
▶ 0:26:23between states I would offer that Illinois has some of the weakest election inte laws in our country and so maybe an opportunity to go to the home state of Illinois and to say we need to step up to make sure that we're providing election Integrity so that a non-citizen doesn't cancel out the vote of one legal American citizen who's participating and to say that non-citizens do not vote that is a fact we have shown in this committee that that statement is not true it's why election Integrity legislation is so absolutely
▶ 0:26:54critical and with two minutes left I want to yield to my colleague from Illinois Miss Miller to comment on Election Integrity status in the state of Illinois Miss Miller thank you chairman and I would hope that my colleague from Illinois will come to the understanding that the need for robust voter ID and election Integrity laws is essential Illinois has a long history of irregularities and the citizens of
▶ 0:27:24Illinois deserve secure and trustworthy elections we do not have those I would note that the save act does have robust protections for married women whose names have changed Arizona has a very similar statute on the books and no one has been disenfranchised it's very disappointing that my colleague from Illinois has chosen to resort to scare tactics instead of joining the committee's efforts
▶ 0:27:55to secure our elections thank you and I yield to to the chairman the gentoman yields back Miss Griffith I yield to Mr Griffith thank you very much uh Mr Panetta um how how many square miles did you say your district is I'm not I'm not against you on that I just I do have one suggestion
▶ 0:28:26and and I'm not I'm not saying that that I'm opposed to your proposal uh I have a district that's 9,000 square miles and now I do I mean you you raised some other good points what we do is traveling Staff office hours where we go into the municipal governments in the various and we use the you know various offices that they provide to us once a month where our staff goes in and that's been very helpful your district is how long from one end to the other how many how many hours does it take you to drive
▶ 0:28:56about four hours yeah mine's a little bit bigger but not a whole lot depending on where you're starting from one of the issues that I think you're going to find uh with this new District you may already have is is the prohibition on flying and unless you take a commercial flight now maybe you have commercial flights I have no commercial airports in my district and the prohibition even within your own District I think has made it harder for people with large districts to well serve their people uh and so I would I would say you might want to we
▶ 0:29:27might want to be looking at that too Mr chairman is to whether or not if you're flying within your District or within 20 or 30 miles of your District uh to use some of the small commuter airports and to allow us to fly with people who I mean we pay for the gas we note it all in our our records for ethics purposes but right now it's not that's not allowed and so there have been many occasions particularly on uh like 911 when I'm trying to get to official events and can't get from one place to the next in sufficient time
▶ 0:29:57and I'm only able to do one or maybe two events out of six or seven in my district so having a long District does make it difficult you do have and you point out properly you do have the issue with um the fact that your district is a lot more expensive than mine my household income is about 50,000 I know I'm over but I would have happily taken my own five minutes but anyway uh I do appreciate that and and so I just I throw that out as a suggestion but it does make it more difficult particularly with the cost of having
▶ 0:30:27uh your folks living in a much higher expense area I Yi back jenman yields back the ranking members recognized for five minutes uh thank you uh and thank you both uh for being here again uh quick questions for you Mr Panetta uh were you suggesting it's both a uh cost of rental and the the costs associated with uh having for offices in high uh expense areas or we also
▶ 0:30:57talking about staff allocations is it both both because you know we're having to compete with these counties that pay a hell of a lot more than we do at the federal level yet the cost of living is ridiculously high and therefore it's trying to balance and trying to get recruit and retain talent that keeps on getting sucked up into these County offices or State offices that are paying a lot more than we are because that's how they can afford to live in such an expensive area so so you're essentially
▶ 0:31:27I think and I don't want to put words in your mouth but some adjustment for everyone's MRA based on a Baseline and then what the additional cost or lower cost of living is so if you start with an average and then if you're in an area that's below average you get a lower MRA and if you're in a is that essentially what you're suggesting some exactly exactly ranking M some Factor please yes that's exactly it's something to take into account the subjective factors that are there in each district that really uh kind of make it
▶ 0:31:58uh different than if you just kind of threw them all together which they do now like I said the comparison of the kuy's fifth district versus California's 19th congressional district it's with the cost of living as Mr Griffin talked about um how expensive it is it just makes it very very difficult and to have a district like I said not just geographically bigger but the different communities of interest that have different service needs you really got to go into those communities and stay in those communities and they appreciate that and they deserve that thank you thanks um Mr MZ
▶ 0:32:28um first of all thank you so much for your comments uh I think if there is an issue on which uh uh the two sides disagree more than the save act electional I don't know what it is we we try to work together on most issues this is one that there is clearly a huge divide and I would just point out and I'll let you comment on this but it's the the the question or the issue of non US citizens voting in federal elections only seems to be a problem when the Republicans
▶ 0:32:58lose not when they win I haven't heard a single thing or any examples of non- US citizens voting I certainly haven't heard of the radical left organizing uh anyone to do it this past year I would actually argue the save Act is an extreme very expensive and cumbersome solution in search of a problem um so you know we will continue on this committee to have our differences um but I wonder if you could share with me in Illinois where you're where you represent um how many complaints do you are you aware of this year
▶ 0:33:29of non US citizens voting in the presidential election that just passed thank you Mr melli I mean I think you'd hear complaints from my colleague here uh who would be saying that but when you actually look at the record we don't have first let me make sure that people understand this for those of you that may not understand the immigration U System well if a non-citizen would vote in an election they would be prohibited for to never ever be able to apply for residency or citizenship a nonen does
▶ 0:33:59let me interrup you for a second isn't it isn't it a felony it is a felony and therefore they are prohibited in any way to ever apply for a green card or a pathway to citizenship if they voted this is the scare tactics that are being used but really it's about the women I mean for example in Cher Steel's District we have 162,000 women who would now have to figure out how to bring a birth certificate if their real ID doesn't prove that they are a citizen I mean really this is really about voter suppression and this Boogeyman thing that if you put the
▶ 0:34:29word immigrant in a bill it will force people to vote one way the um I did note uh to your point if you're a woman my wife made the decision to take my name when we got married on her birth to get the name Morelli wouldn't appear That's right so she'd have to assume she'd have to bring a marriage license she does have a passport but to your point half of the American public does not have a passport so now to register you can't do it by mail you'd have to go to local Board of Elections so
▶ 0:34:59that eliminates campuses having voter registration drives or or vote by register by u mail but you'd also have to have a slew of documentation to prove you're an American citizen to prove that you are who you say you are um which adds all types of obstacles to the ability for anyone to register let alone to vote and frankly still there's no I haven't heard a single person post election day on the Republican side say there was a massive amount of
▶ 0:35:29us n non US citizens voting in federal election so I I agree with you I appreciate you coming uh we obviously have a a huge Gulf between us uh my view and I I suspect yours is that we should do everything we can to make sure that every single American has a voice at the ballot uh and to make sure we use different methods to to ensure that that happens so anyway with that I appreciate both of you being here and for your interest in uh the work of this committee and with that I he back back gentlemen yields back uh the committee will
▶ 0:35:59pause while the witness panel changes thank you thank you e
▶ 0:37:14we welcome the second panel um as we did uh with the previous panel we'll give each uh witness three minutes uh to testify following the conclusion of the testimony uh the majority and the minority will at each control 5 minutes total uh for question questions uh to our colleagues um I'll begin by recognizing uh the gentleman from Mar Maryland uh Mr oleski thank you very much uh chairman style ranking member melli uh members of the committee thanks for the opportunity to provide uh and and
▶ 0:37:44address a timely issue the dedicated public servants who comp comprise our federal Workforce and the assault that we're seeing from president Trump and Elon Musk these days it seems far too easy to Dem ize these workers from afar for political gain however for those of us privileged enough to work here on Capitol Hill particularly the members of this distinguished committee on house administration we know better every single day we see public servants working hard behind the scen so that we
▶ 0:38:14can perform our constitutional duties on behalf of those we represent whether that's the audio and video Engineers from the house recording studio who came in early this morning to ensure this could be broadcast to the public the capitol police officers and civilian employees who protect us while we deliberate the worldclass Carpenters Masons and other skilled trades people who maintain these historic buildings the cyber security professionals who work around the clock the attorneys the parliamentarians the clerks um and those who facilitate our legislative process these public servants
▶ 0:38:44along with countless other others are lucky that they have uh constitutional protections that Shield them from The Purge being Unleashed by the president and Mr musk on the executive branch however the three million other fedal Federal civilian employees in the executive branch Now find themselves scared confused and abandoned by the very country they have served for years or in some cases decades to me and I hope to you I find this an incredible betrayal Maryland is home to 140,000 Federal civilian
▶ 0:39:14employees more than 22,000 of mine are constituents in District 2 these are real people with real bills to pay and real families to support just as important they provide critical services to Americans ensuring we're safe when we fly our food is safe to eat and processing Social Security checks and tax refunds Americans are in for rude awakening when there is virtually no one left to perform these and other vital Services my guest tonight at the president's joint address is my constituent Katie stall
▶ 0:39:45Katie is a biologist who has recently let go from her position with the US Fish and Wild blind Life Services she was hired during President Trump's first term to help farmers in Maryland she was fired in president Trump second term because she was in probationary status and she was only in probationary status because she was exceptional at her job she was promoted Katie was fired for being good at her job she received no notice no severance not even the documentation she needed to apply for unemployment
▶ 0:40:15I hope you agree with me that this is wrong before coming to Congress I served as Baltimore County Executive where I led efforts to find efficiencies and cut wasteful spending I welcome that discussion here too but but I also recognize that our employees are our most valuable resource and the best way we can identify those cuts at any level of government what president Trump and Elon Musk are doing is not about efficiency their actions prove to me they do not understand that good employees are our best resource it's my sincere hope that members of this committee Republicans and
▶ 0:40:46Democrats alike will join me in condoning these actions and pushing back against them thank you again Mr chairman for the opportunity today the gentleman from Maryland yields back the gentleman from Rhode Island Mr meaz has recognized for minutes thank you chairman and ranking member uh I'm here to ask for your support of HR 396 the trust in Congress act a bill introduced by myself and Mr Roy with more than 50 co-sponsors Republicans and Democrats to ban members of Congress
▶ 0:41:16from Trading stocks all of us in elected office should be focused on doing what is right for the people who sent us here not turning a profit for ourselves and as members of Congress we frequently have access to inside sensitive information and we make decisions that impact the performance of the market because of this the opportunity for members to profit off of our positions is just too great this presents an enormous loophole in health ethics rules
▶ 0:41:46that must be closed as members of Congress we generally have strict limits on our outside income if you or I wanted to make extra money after hours by driving having an Uber or bartending there are strict caps on how much outside income we could make but there is no limit whatsoever on members of Congress trading stocks off of their position again a tremendous loophole it is ridiculous it is absurd and it must change our bipartisan legislation bans
▶ 0:42:16members their spouses and dependent children from Trading individual stocks while in office members who hold individual stocks will have the option to either devest those assets or place them into a blind trust where they cannot have knowledge of how of when or U when they are bought or sold Americans across the political Spectrum overwhelmingly support a ban on Congressional stock trading recent polling showed nearly 90% of Americans support prohibiting members of
▶ 0:42:46Congress and their families from Trading individual stocks with this legislation Congress can take an important step in earning back the trust of the American people this is a bipartisan and straightforward bill it has been endorsed by numerous non uh nonpartisan good government organizations across the Spectrum I am thankful to representative Roy for his partnership and Leadership on this issue as well as former representative Abigail spanberger who originally introduced the trust in Congress act
▶ 0:43:17in 2020 this bill continues to grow in bipartisan support and momentum it is time to finally get it done and I urge the committee to join us in supporting this legis isation I'll yield back thank you the gentleman yields back uh the gentleman from Texas my friend and colleague Mr Roy is recognized for three minutes that light up oh there it is lit up all right thanks guys sorry about that um Mr chairman appreciate it
▶ 0:43:47appreciate the time thanks for holding this day uh Seth thanks for your words there um and I want I do want to thank Abigail for her work she's no longer uh serving at congress with us but um I'm not going to repeat what Seth just said um I co-sponsor uh what his uh remarks just were but I would just add let me just go through a couple of examples here I'm not going to mention by name because I'm not here to point out any member this isn't about members you trying to get personal but got a a a Democrat here 4,000 trades
▶ 0:44:17$66 Million worth with a 19% return Republican 1925 trades $167 Million worth 20 2.7% return a Democrat 575 trades $91 Million worth 21.8% return a Republican senator 270 trade 7.16 million in volume 5.7% return a rep a Democrat 186 trades for 13 million for a 56% return
▶ 0:44:47that's pretty good return should be following that that particular Democrat uh a uh Republican 164 trades for a million dollar worth um a republican 160 trades $4 million worth 30% return I could keep going there's a laundry list here that I could keep going down um I could go down and talk about you know a republican that made 149% return in 24 a Democrat that made 142% return a Democrat that made 123% Republican that made 111%
▶ 0:45:18return my point is just this the American people the reason it's called the trust Act is how can the American people trust that we're actually doing this with the blindfolds we're supposed to have on like Lady Justice in our justice system we're supposed to be objective how can you be objective if you're looking at a question about breaking up big Tech in judiciary or a question about section 230 or a question about health care policy when insurance companies and hospitals and pharmaceutical companies are rolling in government money how can we have a serious conversation about defense when defense
▶ 0:45:48contractors are really not only rolling in money they're driving half our damn defense policy and we're all sitting here and everybody's trading these stocks so all we're trying to say is maybe just maybe we should put all these things in broadly held mutual funds maybe just maybe we should say let's limit the ability you can trade them now there's some differences of opinion we have some colleagues another uh bill that's Republican and Democrat supported that has penalties in it let me explain why I don't think we should have the kinds of penalties that are in that bill I don't
▶ 0:46:18think we should be policing ourselves here in congress with criminal penalties being at the end of that rainbow because that turns Congress into something it shouldn't be but I am interested in saying well if you break these ethics rules if we were to adopt this legislation maybe you're no longer a chairman maybe you're no longer sitting on certain committees we can police things and have penalties if we break those we need to restore the American people's trust in Congress we should not allow people to be profit by day trading while we're sitting here we can do that and the last point I'll
▶ 0:46:48make is it's not in our bill we could also adopt what is it called the 10 31 exchanges is that what you know a policy where you know you can convert all your when you get here from equities go put them in a mutual fund but not hit the tax uh you know implications of that so a lot of things we can do very open I think I speak for Seth to here we're open to whatever but I just think but the time is now to do it and we ought to move and I appreciate the chairman for giving us the time genten yelds back uh the gentleman Mr Carter's recognized for three minutes thank you Mr chairman I appreciate the opportunity
▶ 0:47:19to present for you today thank you for allowing me testify I want to discuss some very important matters that I hope the committee will prioritize in this 119th Congress under the previous administration the United States experienced a historic rise of drug overdoses and poisoning driven by an increased supply of synthetic opioids such as illicit Fentanyl and its analoges last fiscal year Customs and Border Protection confiscated over 21,000 Pounds of fenel at our borders that's enough fenel
▶ 0:47:49to kill every American several times over and that's just the drugs we know about elicit fentel overdoses and please listen to hello illicit fentel overdoses are now the number one cause of death among adults 18 to 45 the number one cause of death however I believe we have a great opportunity to make significant and sustainable progress in combating this crisis in 2023 I wrote a letter
▶ 0:48:20this letter right here to the Food and Drug Administration calling for nooon an overdose reversal drug to be available without a prescription now I'm often critical I think with good reason of the FDA for what what they don't do however I applaud them for doing this they did that they made n lockone OTC where you don't have to have a prescription to get it and that's good that's what it we need the lockone nasal spray is safe it's easy to use it's
▶ 0:48:50it's it's proven to reduce medical emergencies drug overdoses and deaths by up to 46% as the fentel crisis continues to devastate our country there is no moral medical or safety related reason for these life-saving overdose reversal agents to remain locked under prescription regulations we must continue to expand the availability of Overdose reversal treatments like nooon removing the stigma associated with carrying it and making it as common as a defibrillator I
▶ 0:49:20have an loxone in my backpack I carry it with me everywhere I have to go I've never had to use it thank God but I have it if I do have to use it Mr chairman the Republican members many of the Republican members on this committee today were over at the CHC the CHC has noock on by the defibrillator here at the capital you've got to call the capital police first and then it's got to be reported as a medical emergency before you can get that in the lockone
▶ 0:49:50my request here is simple now lockson ought to be available here at the capital it ought to be where the defibrillators are it ought to be available it's safe you can't misuse it I suspect you could if you tried hard enough but but essentially it's safe and we need to make sure that it's available that's what we're trying to do that's why I sent a letter to the committee on house administration the office of the attending physician and the architect of the capital
▶ 0:50:20urging them to stock FDA approved opioid overdose reveral agents such as the lockone in the house of representative Office Buildings in Washington DC the drug overdose death is four is 64.3 per 100,000 people one of the highest rates in the nation Mr chairman this is something we need to do we need to make sure we get this done I look forward to continuing to work with the committee to ensure that FDA approved opioid overdose reversal agents such as nooon are available and accept
▶ 0:50:51and accessible in the House of Representative buildings thank you and I'll you back gentleman from Georgia Mr Mr Carter yields back I'll recognize myself for 5 minutes um I'll yield to uh Miss Bice for 90 seconds thank you uh Mr or M Mr magaziner thank you for bringing this forward as someone who made the decision when I was elected to congress to sell all of my socks stocks and put everything into um efts and mutual funds I understand the the scrutiny and concerns that we have about this but here's something that I
▶ 0:51:21struggle with and that is uh it is not just members of Congress that I think should be included in this I mean our staff has access to classified information if you have that clearance uh if you are looking at the judicial system there are many uh judges who are looking at court cases that are antitrust or otherwise that could have an impact so explain to me why we should limit this to only members of Congress and not expand this to staff and others to be able to if if we're truly interested in protecting the institution it shouldn't just be members of Congress that
▶ 0:51:51are uh under this this new legislation well I'll speak for myself and and say that well that's that's why y'all are on this great committee right you take in this stuff and then let's work on the legislation let's bring It Forward let's amend it offer ideas and then let the legislative process work I just think we need to let the legislative process work on the substantive question the reason we didn't put it in the bill and the reason Abigail and I didn't put it in a while back was that we didn't I want to eat up all your time was that um we wanted to focus on this one issue and now when you talk about Judges you talk
▶ 0:52:22about executive officials agree staff gets a little more complex when we ask these people to come in work on our offices but I hear you I'm certainly open to it but we wanted to focus on the core problem of members address it and then move from there and if I could just very quickly um I think it's a very valid point and you know personally you know I'm open to looking at including staff or certain categories of Staff looking at other branches but I think something that we agree on is we also don't want the perfect to be the enemy of the good here like we want to get something done on this and we can think of lots of ways
▶ 0:52:52to come up with the strongest version possible that may make it harder to pass and so we just need to find that balance of something that is doable but also meaningful we have the license certificate thank you I yield back my time's expired the gentleman neeld's back uh Mr Carter appreciate you you being here and testifying I think you bring up a really important point in making sure that we have emergency services uh in the capital there's always discussion about the best way to provide that but appreciate uh your testimony and interest in that space I want to jump back uh to
▶ 0:53:22to you Mr Roy if I can um I think you're you're asking the right question questions I appreciate you doing it when the when the stock Act was passed in 2012 it was referred to six committees committee on Administration being one the trust act last Congress was was uh referred just to this committee and so it's navigating through uh with our other committees in the house as well removing the appearance of impropriety uh from members uh I think is really really important one of the questions that I have uh and I could offer I'll offer to you but Mr magaziner feel free to jump in as
▶ 0:53:52well is how do we make sure in your bill that the blind trust is actually blind mind and what I mean by that is uh sometimes uh in blind trust remove Congress blind trust in general they have like 2020 Vision uh and it really makes you suspect because now you've removed disclosure right so the current regime is a disclosure regime an alternative method uh to provide uh the American public confidence would be a non-disclosure regime a blind trust which would by definition remove disclosure or
▶ 0:54:22it wouldn't be blind how do you make sure that a blind trust is really blind well I think that's one of the things that we'd have to work through with the committee bring in experts and figure out the best way to do it there are ways and different entities have set it up uh to to make it truly blind to create barriers between you and that individual but look I got to be honest with you but do you prefer just a do you prefer the blind there there's kind of two broad Avenues of approach one is the blind approach right which is no one knows what's in the Black Box including the member and including the American people the other is a
▶ 0:54:52full disclosure regime which is here's all the information may may people do you you both are good and this is going to be the dialogue we're going to have here but I think it's an interesting and worthy point to to consider I do to the only thing I'd add is is if it's cleaner for us to just say don't do that either and just say it's look you got to be in broadly held mutual funds um or I mean look and I'm open to in regimes where we say look we we totally ban the buy side you and I've talked about this before ban the buy side you cannot procure additional equities or options or whatever
▶ 0:55:23but then you're able to hold equities that you came to congress with with and that's all fully transparent maybe like and you have to pre uh you know sell your or whatever pre-market your your TR and we see that in many ways with the administration having different rules and regulations uh than we do and I think it's always important to remember uh that any insider trading is illegal by anyone who engages in insider trading and what we're working on uh is not to create a new insider trading law that is illegal and should be and people should be held accountable if they break the law uh
▶ 0:55:53but this is also about the appearance of the impro uh in the first place I know my colleague will have his 5 minutes and so I'm going to to recognize the time I'll yield back um and I will recognize the ranking member uh for his five minutes uh thank you Mr chair and thank you to all my colleagues who asked I think uh really important questions and thank you to all of you for being here uh I'll just start um with um Mr magaziner and Mr Roy uh as someone who's divested uh several
▶ 0:56:23years ago myself I completely agree I would have associate um myself with the remarks by Miss Bice and I think it needs to be broader I do admit Mr Roy I think it's a bit of a challenge when you're talking about staff but particularly senior staff that are involved and in conversations with members it's hard to acknowledge that they don't have real influence uh here I certainly think extending this to the Judiciary makes great deal of sense um I'm not sure I totally agree that a blind trust and disclosure are binary questions there
▶ 0:56:53could be a way to have an administrator of a blind trust disclose question is who gets to look at it Etc I think there's ways to maybe uh work that difference out but I think it's worthy to have that conversation I'm just sort of curious um I'm not sure I understand why Mr Ro you take the position that'd be no criminal sanctions I'm not not sure I understand that um so I don't know if you could shed a little light on that for me well first of all I also want to I prefer that no one breaks the law so we have to
▶ 0:57:23but I you know I don't want to I don't want to monopolize the time Seth jump in on this I'll just answer that question for me yeah in saying I think it is a dangerous place when Congress gets into policing ourselves with respect to criminal type activity and when you start attaching fines or you start attaching things that start to go into that realm we spend our time policing each other as opposed to acknowledging an Ethics violation allowing the people to decide that in the election Andor potentially like I said with your chairmanships your power that we do have the power to Dole out
▶ 0:57:54due process matters and look I I appreciated my friend Jamie Rasin who in Judiciary Committee the other day said he didn't vote for um the uh uh the removal of one of our members of Congress Mr Santos because he didn't think he' had due process I'm not here to debate that I understand differences of opinion I just think we ought to be careful with that that approach but respond to that and then you don't mind quickly respond to the Chairman's question as well so the way I think about all of these questions is we want something that is
▶ 0:58:24strong and meaningful but also achievable like I don't want the perfect D of the good here and so in the context of penalties we want penalties that are meaningful we want penalties that will that will be P but not to the point that uh we can't get something passed right and so realistically I'm skeptical that members are going to vote for something that's going to you know potentially lead to you know them being thrown in jail or criminally prosecuted if their spouse accidentally you know executes
▶ 0:58:54a trade or something like that right but we can have penalties that are meaningful and strong perhaps internal to the house you lose your committee assignments you know something we can work together on what is Meaningful but also achievable um but I think we got to find that right balance but there should be some meaningful penalties and then just quickly I mean I would just say that what we have seen since the stock Act was passed is that transparency regimes alone are not enough right like there needs to be it needs to be harder uh uh for people to trade to insid or trade
▶ 0:59:25right like yes Insider training is already illegal but it is just too easy for members to do it and transparency alone has not solved that problem transparency has shown us that the problem is very large as as uh as chip alluded to and um I forget what your other question was but I'll come back to later that's thank you I I will before I move on I just say and this is just me editorializing I think the compensation for members and reimbursement for members for expenses needs to be looked at in in
▶ 0:59:55in conjunction thatly sorry and blind Trust on on that yes so we could look at making expenses related to setting up a blind trust MRA eligible for example um I would also again just argue that you know with BL when it comes to Blind trust no system is perfect yeah you know the question is is it better than what we have now and the answer would clearly be yes I would say uh in in regard to your comments Mr Carter I think uh we just have to sort of figure out where the the uh drug would reside whether it's with Capitol Police who are First Responders or but I think it's
▶ 1:00:25well worth considering um and I didn't realize Capital police don't have it maybe they do I don't know the answer to that but I think it's certainly worth uh investigating and and if I may excuse me um I've got a bill that would require an unlocks on to be available in all elementary schools and and secondary schools in America wherever you see a defi you ought to see the locks on gotcha number one cause of death now for 18 to 45 year olds
▶ 1:00:55yep and it's it and it can be reversed you can save lives yeah no I appreciate that I appreciate your comments I just wanted to uh leave it with um uh or ask U uh Mr ooki I'm I'm sure I'm torturing I I the chairman asked me I said I don't know I just call him Johnny O but um but um just a quick description when you were County Executive if you're looking for efficiencies um this it seems akin to me right now as chopping off your foot to lose a couple pounds what what man
▶ 1:01:26do you think is is preferable how did you handle it yeah and if and if I uh May ranking member I just just to make this bipartisan love continue I'll associate myself with the remarks of Representative Carter and and in support of the lockone also have one in my backpack um we we did a top to bottom review of our government and we were already pretty lean we brought in an outside agency um not unlike Doge uh and we did it was called um uh government uh I'll get you I'll get the committee the name um uh
▶ 1:01:56Public Works it was public works and we did a line by line review of all of the things that our employees were doing all of our programs and our employees they they talked to the directors they talked to the employees the employees were the ones that said to us here's where you can do things better and do things differently and we realize significant Savings in our local government I appreciate that thanks for the courtesy I I yield back gentlemen yields back like to thank uh all of our Witnesses today two productive panels here in the committee on house administration without objection
▶ 1:02:26each member including the witnesses will have five legislative days to insert additional materials into the record to revise and extend their remarks if there's no further business I thank the members for their participation and without objection the committee stands
▶ 1:03:24e e