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▶ 0:09:44subcommittee of financial services and general government will come to order this is the first hearing of the 119th Congress members will have five legislative days with which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material into the record uh I know I speak for Mr Hoyer when I say thank you all for being here this morning morning uh we'll now introduce and and hear from our colleagues today uh first was Congressman Sarah alth representing Marilyn's Third District did I hammer that yes perfect okay thank you uh Val Hoy uh representing Oregon's fourth district
▶ 0:10:14wining if she gets here uh Congressman Hillary Schon representing Michigan's thirdd District uh congresswoman Nikki badzinski representing Illinois's 13th District uh the inimitable uh Congressman Dena Titus representing Ohio's uh our no Nevada's First District uh and also co-chair of the Cannabis caucus um and uh congresswoman Melanie stanburg representing New Mexico's first district and uh I I will recognize Mr Hoyer for an opening
▶ 0:10:44statement Mr chairman thank you very much Witnesses for being here look forward to hearing from them uh Mr chairman as as I've you and I have us given what is happening in government today uh this committee has particular relevance in that so much uh activity is being done with the treasury Department IRS
▶ 0:11:15uh with uh o om uh with the White House budget and Doge not sure where Doge comes we'll we'll find that out I suppose uh and uh with g a I just saw the list of buildings that they want to put up for possible sale um and for the past six weeks America's watched Donald Trump and Russell vote and Elon Musk and their
▶ 0:11:46disruptors of wreck havoc throughout the federal government do is acted without my opinion and in the Court's opinion in many cases statutory Authority without transparency without regard to the law without any understanding of how their actions hurt the American people and closely without any oversight from this Congress I would hope and because I think we have that responsibility as a first of the co-equals
▶ 0:12:17in government uh the article one agency we have the responsibility to oversee particularly in light of so many cases I see uh this morning that one of the first headlines I read was that the Supreme Court ruled uh contrary to Do's direction or somebody's Direction uh Federal us Aid abroad could not be stopped by
▶ 0:12:47them uh this ought to concern every member of this body Mr chairman I know you're you're concerned about it and I expect many will Express these concerns before us today as a subcommittee that oversees Do's funding we have a duty to get to the bottom of what it is doing uh Doge has sacked federal employees without knowing what they do no sooner had Doge fired certain employees from health care providers for 911 First
▶ 0:13:17Responders to workers who maintain our nuclear Arsenal then it had to start rehiring them because they were necessary um uncredentialed Doge uh disruptors have forced their way into secure government systems and taken the American people's highly sensitive data including their social security numbers home addresses immigration status credit card information health records IRS earning records and
▶ 0:13:47more now very frankly we're not sure where that information went if it went to private servers however that's clearly against the law and we need to make sure that did not happen happen uh we do not know the full extent of this breach because Doge continues to operate essentially out of the public eye what little information they provide is dubious at best and let me say as an aside uh we heard a string of facts that must taken five minutes about social
▶ 0:14:18security false uh those folks are not being paid unfortunately because their computer operation is so old if they strike the it affects the whole system so why they now no longer pay them they are still on the roles and obviously maybe some young kid I don't know got in there saw they were on the roles hypothesized that they were still being paid not true um it didn't and it would have taken
▶ 0:14:48five minutes to find out that that was not true do has over reported its savings as well that President mentioned yesterday and billions billions and billions ions of dollars the past week Doge erased or altered more than 1,000 of the supposedly cancelled contracts it had listed on its website now my presumption is because they found out they made a mistake and they're moving so quickly so rapidly with
▶ 0:15:19essentially people with little knowledge like the 19-year-old kid who was hired and fired that's about 40% of all the contracts listed on Do's site Mr chairman that includes the five largest cuts which were all found to be inaccurate it remains unclear how much if any dose has saved American taxpayers we need to get rid of fraud waste and abuse period
▶ 0:15:49uh and we all agree on that I'm I'm sure there's nobody on the committee who wouldn't agree with that dos will more likely end up costing Americans more for fewer service is that the Trump Administration ched to privatization and contractors to pick up slack Mr chairman it's very easy to say we're not doing this with federal employees but the service needs to be done put it in contractors as if that didn't cost more money because obviously there's more overhead uh and um a profit
▶ 0:16:20presumably with the contractors you're about to G me down we need to remind those that is accountable to the Congress and to the American people that is vital not only to countering these destructive policies but also to preserving this institution's Authority and power that's what the founders had in mind we have the power of the purse not the president and I've got some other comments here that I will submit to the record because I don't want to tread on the Chairman's
▶ 0:16:50um patience but I do want to say Mr chairman you and I have a very good relationship I have great respect for you and I believe believe that this committee uh by circumstance has an extraordinary responsibility and I look forward to working with you to carry out that responsibility thank you I truly appreciate the gentleman and uh respect you deeply but it's tough to hold the other folks accountable to five minutes when we're not holding ourselves to the same standards that's all
▶ 0:17:21uh I listen to you I'm glad to listen to you anytime uh in private uh or when we have a more Open session with that representative Ela uh you are now recognized for five minutes thank you very much Mr chair ranking member Hoyer I will I will uh deviate from the Maryland tradition and try to stick to my five minutes if that's okay thank you for the opportunity to testify this morning my name is Congressman Sarah alred and I have the privilege of representing Maryland's thirdd congressional district which is uh just a ston throw away
▶ 0:17:51as this committee well knows I don't have to tell you our civil servants are the backbone of the the the services that hundreds of millions of Americans r rely on every single day as the daughter of two civil servants I personally understand the Vitter role that they play and as the representative of 44,000 federal employees I am seeing along with my colleagues from Maryland on this panel I'm seeing the devastating impacts of doa's cuts in the community every single day when I go home the work of this subcommittee produces is critical to federal employees
▶ 0:18:21across our country of course you are uh responsible for the epicenter of a lot of the turmoil happening right now the agencies at at at uh that epicenter OPM Postal Service treasury IRS White House and om each day the current administration's plan to dismantle the Civil Service seems to Target a new portion of our federal Workforce it's hard to even keep up uh with it as members of Congress let alone how I can't imagine how the public can the recent attacks on probationary employees I want to focus on that today um especially
▶ 0:18:51impact workers of of my generation uh folks who are early in midcareer folks who landed their dream jobs and just to serve their communities in this nation and folks who will be the next generation of leaders in our civil service these workers were arbitrarily fired for no cause whatsoever over the Valentine's Day weekend they were shut off from their work uh they were not given two weeks notice they were not given severance pay these are people with children in school with mortgages to pay with parents to take care of these
▶ 0:19:22are patriots who serve their country every single day and yet they were tossed to the curb and told to not let the door hit them on on the way out frankly it was demoralizing it is legal and it's unimaginable for so many of the people that I serve and we all serve together these hardworking civil servants um currently there's no uniform provision and statute that guarantees if these probationary employees are reinstated by Court action or uh mistakes that we have seen Doge make over over the course of the last few
▶ 0:19:52weeks reinstated because they they aired there's no protection for these civil servants on probationary status for them to be able to re-enter their work and not have to start the clock over again and so uh I believe this is a gap in our law I plan to introduce a bill next week to provide that protection very simple if if a civil servant was fired for probationary status and they are reinstated they can keep the time that they have served instead of starting over again um it's just common sense legislation
▶ 0:20:22and I ask that this language be included uh in the subcommittee markup as well this committee has the opportunity to do right by civil servants who ensure that our drinking water is clean our Food and Drugs are safe our weather is forecasted and Social Security checks go out on time I ask that you include language in the FY 26 bill that reinstates all probation Aries employees fired since January 20th 2025 and ensures when these employees are reinstated they will not need to again restart their probationary period for the same job they previously held and served in we have
▶ 0:20:52seen uh the latest reports the administration intends to continue to illegally remove civil servants from their jobs again putting life-saving services for our constituents in the hands of political frankly unqualified political cronies or to no one at all the irony of course is that our civil servants civil service is uh the Envy of the world um it was created to avoid the situation that we are rapidly entering into this Congress uh recognized the cronyism corruption
▶ 0:21:22did not serve the American people and did something about it back in 1883 and it's hard to believe that we can't remember his history or the lessons of the past for the future of our civil service and for the government that people and for a government that people and our districts can depend on I urge this committee to use every tool at your disposal to protect our federal workers from the onslaught of attacks of Doge in this Administration and with that Mr chair I came in under and I yield my back thank you very much that's admirable representative Schon you're next please
▶ 0:21:53we go in an order of attendance oh okay sure um you're kind enough to be here on time thank you uh Mr chairman thank you Mr Hoyer uh for holding this Committee hearing I I want to start out by saying you know I I am here for fiscal responsibility it is the the principle that guides a lot of my representation it is the the Beating Heart of West Michigan that I represent uh and I think
▶ 0:22:23that we are long overdue in this country for a hard look at our our budget we can't continue to run on a deficit there are some positive things happening about looking at the ways that we can be more efficient uh it's how I run my household I think we should run our government the same way however I want to bring the subcommittee's attention to Serious concerns that my constituents and I have about the department of government efficiency Doge has a mass significant authority
▶ 0:22:53over Federal operations all while operating with minimal almost no transparency and oversight Congress needs to take a hard look at how doge is funded what it's doing and who is pulling the strings the problem starts with funding doge is receiving congressionally appropriated funds that were originally meant to support the US digital service an agency dedicated to improving government Digital Services to make Federal Services more accessible
▶ 0:23:24and efficient for the American people but Doge's activ ities have clearly expanded far beyond it when Mr musk showed up to a cabinet meeting wearing a t-shirt that said tech support and everyone laughed and Jered the American people weren't laughing when they didn't have access to the information about what Doge was doing and are suffering as a result of the actions Doge has taken on Broad responsibilities that impact government
▶ 0:23:54operations even regulatory process in short this is an agency with enormous influence yet Congress and the public know very little about how it operates let's be clear Doge directly impacts taxpayer dollars doge is making real decisions that are affecting hard-working Americans trying to make ends meet and yet it operates in the shadows free from scrutiny and accountability that is unacceptable and if that weren't
▶ 0:24:24concerning enough we have an outside unelected billionaire the president's top campaign donor Elon Musk making these decisions taxpayer dollars should not be subject to the influence of any unelected individual no matter how rich they are or how much they gave to a campaign that is why I introduce the clear act which would ensure Doge allows for public record requests and full accountability we're not telling Doge to even stop its actions
▶ 0:24:54just be accountable who can disagree with that no president Republican or Democrat should be able to hide the actions of their Administration from the American people government should work for the people not in secret and not at the whim billionaires the government should not fund fraud full stop I am 100% in favor of trimming waste out of our budget the American people work hard for their money and they have a right to know how their taxpayer dollars are being spent
▶ 0:25:25and we in Congress have an immense responsibility to spend it wisely Doge has claimed to have found billions of dollars in waste and fraud but the only publicly available Ledger is full of inaccuracies and uh poor Accounting in and of itself they have not shared any cred credible evidence of those claims and these publicly available receipts as we mentioned are full of Errors just as I don't support funding fraud
▶ 0:25:55and waste I don't support taking away someone's Health Care and Social Security on baseless accusations that there might be fraud somewhere we need proof and we need a process that's why my bill the clear Act is so important I urge the subcommittee to take this issue seriously and support the clear act to ensure that no government office is allowed to operate in the dark Congress has a responsibility to demand transparency accountability and integrity in our government
▶ 0:26:25I ask for your support in making sure the taxpayer dollar are protected and that the power of knowledge remains where it belongs with the American people thank you I yield back thank you very much for two for two with people being succinct and getting in their five minutes uh I hope you can follow up with that representative binski thank you you recognized for five minutes thank you very much Mr chairman and thank you to ranking member Hoyer and I want to thank the members of this committee uh for the opportunity to testify
▶ 0:26:56today about one second sure yes I I just want to point out Mr chairman U Miss binski has a specific experience very relevant to this committee and she was the chief of staff at om I was thank you very much ranking member um but today actually I'm here to talk about the United States Postal Service um in particular and the experiences the Illinois 13th District that I proudly represent has had with regards to recent ontime
▶ 0:27:26delivery I along with many of my constituents am deeply concerned about the recent proposals to fire the Postal Services Board of Governors and consolidate the Postal Service into the Department of Commerce as you know Congress established the Postal Service as an independent agency through the postal reorganization Act of 1970 granting Congress the sole authority to oversee its operations this independence from political interference
▶ 0:27:57has made the Postal Service one of the most trusted institutions in government for nearly five decades it is critical that congress not seed this oversight authority over the Postal Service to any other branch of government additionally I'm alarmed by recent proposals to fully privatize the Postal Service privatization would only harm the more than 640,000 postal employees across the country who work day in and day out to deliver
▶ 0:28:27our our mail efficiently and with Integrity but would also threaten the reliable mail service for millions of Americans privatization would undermine the universal service obligation leading to higher costs and delayed deliveries especially in rural areas like the ones that I represent in Illinois as you begin your work on fiscal year 2026 Appropriations bill I ask that you consider and continue to support USPS as an inde
▶ 0:28:58dependent Federal agency beyond the Postal Services Independence there are several operational challenges within USPS that I hope you will also consider the first issue relates to the downsizing and consolidation of processing and distribution centers across the country I want to thank the subcommittee for including my report language request in fiscal year 25 report which advis the Postal Service to Halt the downsizing or consolidation of
▶ 0:29:28any processing or and distribution centers in districts that are not meeting ontime delivery targets despite USPS leadership's decision to Halt some consolidation many facilities remain at risk including the Springfield Illinois processing and distribution center which handles much of the state government's ongoing mail including paychecks bills and tax returns I urge the committee to retain this language in this year's FS G
▶ 0:29:59report secondly I remain concerned about postmaster General's Local transportation optimization plan often referred to as lto if implemented this plan would reduce the frequency of mail pickups from local post offices that are more than 50 miles away from a regional processing and distribution center the USPS itself has acknowledged that this proposal could cause mail delays of up to 24 hours
▶ 0:30:29for Rural communities and the USPS Inspector General has said that this plan has quote negatively impacted services to customers a full implementation of the lto plan would result in even worse delays for Americans who rely on the postal service across Rural America as such I urge the committee to include language opposing the lto plan in fiscal year 2026 fsgg report
▶ 0:30:59my constituents are already suffering from mail that is delivered sometimes weeks late uh this includes paychecks bills and even medicine Congress must work together to ensure that any changes to the Postal Service are not made on the backs of millions of Americans that we all represent who rely on the Postal Service each and every day chairman Joyce and ranking member Hoyer thank you again for this opportunity to provide testimony to the subcommittee here today I look forward to work working with you in the year ahead
▶ 0:31:30and these important on these important priorities as you craft fiscal year 2026 Appropriations bills thank you and I yield back thank you very much I appreciate your comments the chair will now recognize uh representative Titus for her uh five minutes thank you Mr chairman Mr for this opportunity as you begin your work on the Appropriations bill for fiscal year 2026 I'm just here to strongly urge you not to fun the the government we call do
▶ 0:32:00or to codify any of its Cuts you know ironically last night the president was saying we're noer to give power to unelected bureaucrats at which point the camera planned right to Elon Musk in a seat of Honor now he is an unelected bureaucrat Elon Musk and his team at Do's clearly don't know what they're doing and the uncertainty for federal employees is maddening one day you have a job the next day you don't then you do
▶ 0:32:31but you got to move across country uh this kind of uncertainty is no way to plan a life as Mr horer pointed out many of the claimed efficiencies and savings have also turned out not to be true and have had to be removed from that running tally of their so-called savings so far more than 200,000 probationary employees meaning those who have been on the job for less than a year or have been recently promoted have have been fired last week the National Park Service
▶ 0:33:01staff at Lake me National Recreation Area in my district were terminated with no notice now we welcome six million visitors to Lake me every year it has a great impact on our outdoor recreation economy now not only will these workers who are our friends and Neighbors in my district face Financial uncertainty without employment but the crucial roles they play in maintaining the park and keeping it operational are just going to fall to the Wayside do has also targeted
▶ 0:33:31the US Forest Service who help fight wildfires everywhere but certainly they are prevalent in the southwest they've targeted the CDC and USDA scientists who are fighting the spread of bird flu which we are seeing now spread to cows and even people IRS agents who are processing tax returns it is tax season and thousands of employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs we've always said that we have a solemn oath to care for our veterans when they return home from deployment
▶ 0:34:02well cutting the VA Staffing levels are very people charged with caring for our veterans breaks that promise that we've made now on top of that just generally speaking 6,000 federal workers have served in the armed forces they're veterans themselves probationary employees are often at the start of long careers in public service and have chosen to help their communities through this distinguished work you don't become a government employee to make money that's for sure now their careers are at the whims of a billionaire
▶ 0:34:32who's trying to fund his own tax breaks that never gets discussed if you ask me laying off thousands of the nation's best and brightest is not a merit-based system the long-term ramifications of this ill-advised policy can't be overstated and that's just the beginning last week the Office of Management and budget and the office of personnel management issued a memo to agency Leaders with guidance on how to conduct large scale layoffs in the near future and in addition
▶ 0:35:03to initiating Mass layoffs Elon Musk and his inexperienced team at Doge have taken steps to intimidate federal workers including the use of threatening emails asking these hardworking air traffic controllers to stop and justify their jobs what could be more ridiculous uh asking federal employees to detail their roles in respons possibilities IND indicate who they work for who they report to and send all of that information
▶ 0:35:33in an email is an immense National Security risk our adversaries have been trying to map out our federal bureaucracy for years putting it all in writing and sending it via email does all the hard work for them the Trump administration's also working to weaken essential worker protection institutions protections Trump has fired the National Labor Relations Board member Miss Cox will Cox stripping the board of its Quorum and inability to protect workers dismissed
▶ 0:36:03two Democratic Commissioners and the EEOC uh both of these moves unprecedented and illegal so I stand with our hardworking Federal Workforce would do everything in my power to stop this illegal and unprecedented attack we've introduced amendments to stop the funding of B those that didn't get heard that got blocked with the budget hearing co-sponsored legislation like taxpayer protection act uh to prevent individuals with clear conflicts of interest like must from interfering
▶ 0:36:34with treasury operations so as we do these things I urge the my colleagues on this committee to please stand up to Elon Musk uh these federal workers provide essential services to our constituents they need their help they're not in it for any various reasons and I ask you to not gut them that's not the way to provide those services thank you for your testimony I took one of their seconds that they had left fair enough uh
▶ 0:37:04we'll now recognize uh representative Hoy for five minutes um thank you we go thank you CH chairman Joyce uh ranking member Hoyer members of the committee um I I appreciate the opportunity to testify in front of your committee um we have Crews ready to break down break ground on major infrastructure projects um they're waiting for work that might never come we have apprenticeship and training programs um for the next
▶ 0:37:34generation of workers that are completely stalled and Washington DC's chaos has already cost us over a month in fire mitigation for our forests this is what's happening right now and American taxpayers are paying the price um Congress already made the decision you all made the decision to spend money on these priorities but we're here today watching the administration stall delay and ignore the law while small businesses and the people they
▶ 0:38:05employ wait and projects um that help our economy grind to a halt and Congress is doing nothing to stop it Congress holds the power of the purse we're the closest representatives of the people not the executive branch and certainly not unelected bureaucrats there's a process for reviewing directing or clawing back funding but this Administration is ignoring it with no regard for the law now the law is clear
▶ 0:38:35if the administration wants to withhold funding that we have already approved it must follow the empowerment Control Act if it wants to review programs and recommend cuts it can do so legally without stopping the funding the president submits a budget every year for this reason but this Administration is outright ignoring the law Congressional leadership has the power to hold the executive B Branch accountable and we have the responsibility
▶ 0:39:06to hold the executive branch accountable because we are separate and equal um uh parts of government my constituents and the American people deserve to know why promised Federal funding isn't reaching them and why their neighbors are being indiscriminately fired if the administration continues to or congress's will then its budget should reflect that this subcommittee can force the Executive Office of the President and the Office of Management and
▶ 0:39:36budget to answer for cuts that weaken wage theft enforcement stall job training programs or delay Wildfire response among other things um and many other things it can condition funding to ensure money is spent as Congress intended it can even take more drastic measures like defunding these offices in IR L you have the tools to protect workers from politically motivated attacks the subcommittee should increase funding for the Merit systems
▶ 0:40:06protection Board office of special counsel and the feder federal labor relations authority to handle a surge in wrongful termination request no person democrat or republican should have unchecked power that allows them to circumvent our entire system of civil service protections attacks on on these agencies hurt workers who don't have any recourse the consequences if Congress doesn't act are real billions in federal payments to our
▶ 0:40:36Farmers remain Frozen funding to help our federal Forest is drying up and that's to say nothing of what's happening to the very real people who make these programs possible federal workers uh Noah which supports our commercial fishermen and helps detect Wildfire threats is hemorrhaging staff Leia offs uh at at the VA and at the Roseberg VA where I represent are leaving um the hospitals with skeleton Crews to stock medical supplies
▶ 0:41:07while people who were hired and moved their families across the country are being told that there is no job these are nurses and doctors it's absurd that we're sitting here making requests for fiscal year 2026 when the administration is failing to honor this year spending directives if the executive bran can ignore Congress then why are why are we even here the choices are clear help preserve Congress as a co- equal branch of government
▶ 0:41:37or be complicit in its demise um I sincerely hope you make the right decision we can disagree about the size of government and the path to get America working again but it is our decision that should happen here so thank you very much um for listening to my test testimony today thank you very much for your testimony uh last but not least representative stanbury you're now recognized for five minutes wonderful thank you
▶ 0:42:07so much Mr chairman ranking member I deeply appreciate the opportunity to appear before this committee not only as the current ranking member of the subcommittee on the Doge subcommittee of the oversight committee but because I am a former federal employee of the White House Office of Management and budget and in fact was a budget examiner and was deeply involved in former efforts during the Obama Administration to cut waste Fraud and Abuse using the appropriate executive power that was available so I want to uh use this opportunity
▶ 0:42:38to talk about what I see the current Administration doing and the proposals in the budget framework that was put forward last week and talk about one why this is not normal and two why this is not legal so I want to cover six areas in brief first let's talk about the creation of the Doge entity by executive order and the placing of Elon Musk in charge of this entity uh as I understand it the executive has used their authority to create a new entity
▶ 0:43:09placed at the digital service I actually served in the Obama Administration when the digital service was established it was created for the purpose of modernizing our federal agencies however has as has been made clear over the last several weeks as numerous court cases have come before the court it's very clear that uh the executive is not clear on its own authority number one to use executive order to create a so-called Department of government efficiency
▶ 0:43:39the usage of an existing office within the Office of the President and is using the courts to try to backtrack on who is actually in charge of these efforts the reason why they are doing that is because it clearly does not have the executive authority to do that secondly let's talk about dismantling of entire fedal agencies this is not only not normal it's not legal not normal the normal process for creating and changing federal agencies is to use the statutory authority of Congress since
▶ 0:44:09time of the beginning of this country uh executive uh BR the executive branch has come and worked with Congress especially the Appropriations committees and subcommittees to put forward proposals through the president's budget and through uh presidential initiatives to create the congression authority to do that as this Administration has been dismantling agencies they are both violating uh the authorizations for these agencies that Congress has put forward they are violating the Constitutional
▶ 0:44:39separation of powers and they are violating Appropriations law third let's talk about the withholding of federal funds it is illegal for the executive branch to withhold funds after uh Richard Nixon's uh corruption and withholding of funds during his administration Congress passed several statutory Frameworks to ensure that the president would not illegally withhold funds that were appropriated by Congress I certainly don't need to tell the Appropriations Committee that you hold the authority to do that but it is very
▶ 0:45:09clear that this Administration is using uh tools within the Office of Management and budget both to slow walk the rolling out and execution of funds to Target specific funds and is specifically Frozen funds that it does not have authority to do so there are now over a dozen court cases that have been heard in front of federal courts that have found that the Administration has not complied with its uh Authority and it's very clear that this Administration believes that they hold executive power
▶ 0:45:40that time and time again uh both the US Constitution the courts and Congress has asserted that they do not we understand that this Administration is going to continue to assert that Authority but it is not normal and it is not legal fourth hacking government uh Data Systems this is not normal it is not legal they are violating uh American privacy and National Security by hacking and data mining Data Systems across the federal government fifth uh six sorry self-dealing
▶ 0:46:10uh in addition to um data mining Federal firings dismantling federal agencies this uh Administration is using the opportunity to control These funds to give themselves Federal contracts as we've seen with Elon Musk and the FAA just last week it is very clear this Administration does not have a regard for the separation of powers and the rule of law and the Appropriations power and the power of the purse of Congress and we recommend that this committee as you are working on the next
▶ 0:46:40fiscal budget use every tool in Appropriations law as well as the report language and other tools of this committee to reign in The Reckless harmful and illegal activity of this Administration and I yell back thank you very much for your testimony I appreciate apprciate all the witnesses being in here today um with that the commit subcommittee stands a joury no no we going have questions from the witness AR no this member day they get to ask to make
▶ 0:47:10their presentations we're not ask questions I've got a meeting at 11 St Ste with chairman Cole Witnesses and franking my my three colleagues I was told there's no questions they don't they had no questions I was told that we were had no questions I don't know that we have prepared questions that may be no prepared questions I'm now prepared okay Nick you want to
▶ 0:47:40take over I have a meeting with the chairman go at 11 o'clock thank you
▶ 0:48:29why don't we get going with it guys you want five minutes of question Mr warer um could I have I understand this is not usual want to accommodate I thought is five minutes Fair sir yeah okay recognize Mr Hoyer uh for five minutes of questioning Mr Ivy has not had an opportunity to speak nor have you but you've had a very quick uh I'm happy to my opport if you're if Mr is going
▶ 0:48:59to pass Mr ivy for five minutes please thank you Mr chairman I I I do appreciate your fast rise uh here on the appropriation subcommittee Miss stanbury it's a pleasure to see you uh and I I appreciate your comments um today and last night frankly um but I did want to ask a couple of questions first I did want to ask about Federal contractors um I've got quite a few in my district who have have been uh caught up in all of this just like
▶ 0:49:29government employees many of them have actually performed work for the federal government already um but they're behind several months in getting payment and what that means is that they're having to lay off Federal contractor employees they're not directly government employees but they're um doing the work for the government and um that's enabling or undermining the ability of them to continue to do work uh that the Federal government needs uh and by the way I think to the
▶ 0:49:59empowerment point this goes directly to that because we've appropriated the money for these uh projects to go forward there were contracts put in place specifically for the work to be done so there's really no issue about you know presidential um you know discretion as to whether the money should be paid there there's already a contract that been in place cont the work's been performed so I want to get your take on on that especially under the impoundment and separation of powers aspect of it
▶ 0:50:30yeah absolutely well the founding fathers were very clear when they wrote the Constitution that Congress would hold the purse and the idea was that we would have a separation of powers between between the three branches of government Congress would create the laws they would appropriate the money and the executive branch is called the executive because it executes part of how you execute is you execute contracts you execute payment you execute on the laws that have been passed by Congress we've seen since the last six weeks that this Administration has used executive orders om guidance
▶ 0:51:00and actual Doge and other Federal uh political appointees to withhold funds that have already been contracted in some cases funds have already been obligated and they're trying to claw back funding that includes a usaid as well as several of the contracts pursuant to congressional laws like the inflation reduction act this is illegal it's both illegal empowerment of these federal funds it is also o uh violates the contracts that the federal government has already signed with these entities
▶ 0:51:31and uh because this is the breaking of federal laws normally doj would be the enforcer here but of course doj is complicit in this activity so that is why the states tribal entities and nonprofits are bringing suits along with private entities and individuals who've been harmed in the courts and the courts are vital in making sure that the government makes uh good on its responsibilities I appreciate that and I I just want to point out before I yield back um the impact that uh is being had not only on the government
▶ 0:52:01employees and congressman hoer and I share Prince George's County which I don't know what's our total number of federal government employees I have 77,000 but that's my whole District okay about 50,000 I think yeah so we've we've got quite a few federal government employees in our district who are being really devastated by this and unfairly I think um you know many of them are being either pressured to leave or trick into leaving with the the the so-called buyout proposal or out just outright fired especially
▶ 0:52:32those targeting the probationary employees even though there's no no evidence of them doing anything incorrect or any kind of misconduct in fact they've got evaluations many of them over Decades of doing outstanding work uh but just quickly the the impact of this is you know for example termination of NIH trials I had someone come to we had a town hall meeting on Saturday 900 people showed up one of them was an NIH uh contractor and she was talking about how
▶ 0:53:02cancer research Alzheimer's research Parkinson's research uh was being terminated and it's not like a a light switch you can just cut it back on and start it over again you got to start from scratch and so that means you're losing in some instances years and in some instances millions of dollars and I picked those three diseases because I'm a cancer survivor and so I have a strong interest in sorting out um you know giving them the chance to find uh you know cures for those sorts of things my
▶ 0:53:32father died from a combination of Alzheimer's and Parkinson so I'm especially interested in it uh but I I I appreciate your testimony uh Mr chairman thank you for giving me a chance to speak Mr Hoyer giving me thank you for uh yielding your time and with that I yield back gentlemen's time has expired Mr H did you do five minutes no but I want to thank you for allowing Mr Ivy to speak uh and I thank Mr amsbury for being here I know you left a hearing
▶ 0:54:02and came here but as the ranking member on the Doge oversight committee I think it's very important that we hear your testimony and Mr chairman I think it's very important and like on the record a request that we uh ask Mr musk to testify because this is within the Ambit of our jurisdiction obviously he's having a very broad impact I think it's important for this committee to have his testimony be able to ask him what he's doing thank you very much the request
▶ 0:54:32is noted there being no other business I'd like to thank our witness for being here today this subcommittee stands adjourned than
▶ 0:56:25e for