▶ 0:04:56No, no. Ours The subcommittee on oversight intelligence will come to order.
▶ 0:05:19The purpose of this hearing is to review waste, fraud, and abuse and US foreign assistance and to examine how ineffectively internal controls and oversight mechanisms have enabled bad actors to profit. I also just want to advise members and witnesses that votes are expected at 3 p.m. this afternoon. When votes are called, we will temporarily adjourn this hearing should it not be already over to allow members to participate and we will reconvene immediately thereafter.
▶ 0:05:47I appreciate everyone's flexibility and cooperations in advance. I now recognize myself for an opening statement. Good afternoon and welcome to today's oversight and intelligence subcommittee hearing entitled Waste, Fraud, and Abuse and Foreign Assistance. Lessons learned and charting a path forward.
▶ 0:06:07I'd like to thank our distinguished witnesses for appearing before the subcommittee today and for supporting our efforts to safeguard US taxpayers dollars to expose waste, fraud, and abuse and hold accountable those who have been exploiting US generosity. As a nation, we should be embarrassed that funding for foreign assistance has too often strengthened America's adversaries, the same adversaries who have oppressed and terrorized the populations we sought to help.
▶ 0:06:32Whether through a local NGO, a large for-profit entity, or a public international organization, opportunistic bad actors have for years exploited pervasive weaknesses in the system of foreign assistance that we created. From my old time, my own time in Afghanistan, I witnessed firsthand how contracts profited enormously with little to show for it. Between 2005 and 2017, $259 million was spent on a road project that was never even completed.
▶ 0:07:00After 12 years, only about 15% of the road was built, and even those sections that were completed quickly deteriorated. Contractors benefited from lack of oversight and took US taxpayer dollars without completing the projects. In 2025, the special inspector general for Afghanistan Reconstruction, Sigar, estimated that as little as 30 to 40% of donor funds actually reach the intended population after the Taliban's and other fees, bribes, and extortion.
▶ 0:07:28Terrorists have extorted and enriched themselves through international aid around the world. For years, al-Shabaab, a designated terrorist organization, extorted millions of dollars annually through collecting taxes, establishing roadblocks to UN aid. In the early 1990s, Somalian warlords deliberately starved their own people to encourage international aid, and in line basically pi their own pockets.
▶ 0:07:52For decades, inspector generals and auditors have sounded the alarm to systemic oversight and accountability failures that have enabled waste, fraud, and abuse and foreign assistance. From the lack of internal controls in the early stages of awarding a grant or contract to the opaque opaque layers of the subcontracting that follows, the bad actors at every single level have profited from US foreign assistance.
▶ 0:08:14In June of last year, a contracting officer for the United States Agency for International Development, US Aid, received an estimated $1 million in bribes to repeatedly manipulate the procurement process, approve awards, and deceive us decision makers in favor of two awardees. Three owners and presidents of their respective companies also pleaded guilty for a decade long bribery and fraud scheme that involved over $550 million in prime contracts.
▶ 0:08:39Last year, the president took an un a very important step to end these wasteful and corruptive practices. With US Aid's failures now behind us, we have an opportunity to chart a new path forward. A path that safeguards US funds and that does not enrich our enemies. A path that does not measure effectiveness by dollars spent, but by real outcome that doesn't just benefit the intended recipients, but also clearly make the United States safer, stronger, and more prosperous. Reform and foreign assistance has been long overdue.
▶ 0:09:10And with that, I look forward to hearing how we can chart this new path together. With that, I will now recognize my ranking member, Representative
▶ 0:09:21Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Appreciate the opportunity. Good afternoon. Thank you to our witnesses for joining us today's hearing on fraud, waste, and abuse in foreign assistance. Obviously, I think it's fair to say that there is fraud, waste, and abuse uh in our federal government. In fact, it would be crazy to not think that in a 7 trillion dollar budget that there wouldn't be some fraud, waste, and abuse. And obviously, that would also apply uh to foreign assistance.
▶ 0:09:49Um and when you have a government spending $7 trillion, it's not going to be perfect. There's going to be errors uh in our system. Um, however, in order to root out actual fraud, waste, and abuse, and make our government programs more effective, I think it's important that we all operate on the same basic definitions. Luckily for us, Miss Love Grayer's agency has definitions for all three.
▶ 0:10:10And as a reminder, the Government Accountability's Office purpose is to analyze how taxpayer dollars are spent and to provide Congress and others with fact-based information that can help the agency save money and work more efficiently. So from the GAO, fraud involves obtaining something of value through willful misrepresentation. Waste occurs when individuals, organizations expend government resources carelessly, extravagantly, or without adequate purpose. I think we're going to find out that Cory Lundowski did a lot of that at DHS.
▶ 0:10:40Uh abuse occurs when someone behaves improperly, unreasonably, or misuses a position or authority. I think again we'll find out some more about DHS. My concern is that fraud, waste, and abuse um lately is becoming a cover for programs I don't like. Just because I don't like a program, if I say there's some fraud, waste, and abuse, I can try to get rid of a program.
▶ 0:11:03And maybe there are maybe, look, maybe there are people out there that think programs that feed starting starving children should go away or providing basic maternal care or eliminating deadly diseases or stopping human trafficking. If they believe those programs should go away, they should vote for that. uh they shouldn't just claim there's fraud, waste, and abuse. They should go on the record. Um I also think it's interesting that, you know, we're talking about fraud, waste, and abuse in an administration that both in the second term and the first term has added trillions of dollars uh to to the deficit.
▶ 0:11:34And so, look, I can disagree with you. I can believe that these programs help stabilize fragile regions that support our partners to advance democratic values and provide strategic advantages for the United States. also why lifting people out of disease and poverty. I can argue that when we pull back our soft power, adversarial nations like China are all too happy to fill the void we've left. Just look at the fact that when we rapidly stood up ident that China rapidly stood up identical programs that we pulled out of last year and and I just don't think you can have it both ways.
▶ 0:12:04My colleagues on the other side of the aisle and I agree with them on this are worried about Chinese influence around the world. But at the same time, if you're worried about that, then you can't withdraw from the international community knowing full well China uh will fill that void. Uh and so because of, you know, these precarious zones in which a lot of foreign assistance is delivered, conflict areas, weak governance regions, we must have an even more rigorous and informed oversight. Uh that's why what hearings like this are designed to do.
▶ 0:12:31And that brings to a point that I I believe deserves acknowledgement today. If the administration really believed that waste, fraud, and abuse, and foreign assistance were serious enough to justify dismantling major foreign assistance uh agencies, then these oversightes hearings should have happened first and they should have happened a long time ago. We should have examined the evidence, heard from the experts, evaluated the oversight mechanisms, and considered reforms. That's how legislative process is supposed to work. Oversight should precede major structural decisions, not follow them. But we all know that's not what happened.
▶ 0:13:00In fact, we watched Doge actually sideline Congress. They even sidelined the Doge caucus. Okay, there was a caucus created in Congress to look at government efficiency and Elon Musk and Doge never even brought them into the fold. Congress was completely cut out. They canceled programs across government claiming fraud, waste, and abuse and they left the Department of State scrambling. In fact, Trump's administration had to undo some of the things uh that Doge wound up uh doing. They never got to the efficiency part.
▶ 0:13:31Doge never did anything that created more efficiency uh for the government. And then the foreign affairs committee got one closed roundt with then deputy administrator of USADA Peter Morocco. It lasted 45 minutes uh and he didn't have a lot of the answers. That's not what legislative oversight is. So eliminating institutions doesn't automatically eliminate waste.
▶ 0:13:53In fact, after USAD was closed, food purchased with American taxpayer dollars was allowed to sit and spoil, and then more American tax dollars had to be spent to incinerate the hundreds of metric tons of food. To me, that sounds like the GAO definition of what waste uh which we reviewed earlier. It's our goal to reduce fraud, waste, and abuse. The answer is not simply to dismantle institutions and to eliminate programs just because you don't like them. The answer is to strengthen oversight, improve transparency, modernize monitoring tools, and ensure Congress receives clear and timely information.
▶ 0:14:22I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today, working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to ensure that our oversight responsibilities are met. Thank you and I yield back. Mr.
▶ 0:14:30thank you so much to the ranking member. Uh while I agree that we didn't get necessarily to the efficiency piece, that's why the investigation such as this is so important. But I would say the elimination of certain programs and projects, for example, like you saw in the Better Administration's building where they were having a 50 to $70,000 per year contract to water five plants. I think that's something that we could look at as a waste, fraud, and abuse area.
▶ 0:14:55I'll also note that we don't always have to throw hundreds of millions of dollars at nations in order to build strong relationships. I just came back from Honduras yesterday where I met with the new president as well as for the uh head of the Congress and I can tell you that they are very much in line with trying to get rid of China and the corruptive practice that are going on there to get rid of communism which is a long-fought goal of not just the conservative party but the liberal party and uh all it took and this was coming directly from the president and
▶ 0:15:25from the head of Congress said what really got us over the edge was when President Trump had tweeted out and asked to have a free and fair election and showed support for this administration. So sometimes the thing that people hate so much, a simple tweet, can be very effective. Other members of the committee are reminded that opening statements may be submitted for the record. This committee recognized the importance of the issues before us. Our two witnesses today include Mr.
▶ 0:15:49Adam Kaplan, the associate deputy inspector general for the office of the inspector general at the US agency for international development, who has been at the forefront of holding organizations accountable for terrorist diversion, fraud, and corruption. Miss Leticia Love Greer is the director of international affairs and trade at the government of accountability offices.
▶ 0:16:09Miss Lebreer has over 23 years of experience leading performance and forensic audits leading to millions of dollars in savings across federal programs where US taxpayer dollars were at risk of waste, fraud, and abuse. This committee recognizes the importance of the issue before us and is grateful to have you both here to speak with us today. Your full statements will be made part of the record and I'll ask you to keep your opening remarks to five minutes in order to allow members to have enough time for questioning. With that, I'll now recognize Mr. Kaplan for your opening statements.
▶ 0:16:40Thank you, [clears throat] Chairman Mills, Ranking Member Moscowitz, and members of the subcommittee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify Nobody has a track record like the US AG in fighting fraud and corruption and foreign assistance. As the only IG dedicated solely to overseeing foreign assistance programs run by multiple agencies, we know the people, places, and schemes that put taxpayer dollars at risk.
▶ 0:17:09US A had a dedicated staff and solid mechanisms to manage risks to its programs. As the IG, we naturally found shortcomings. Today, I'll summarize three such challenges identified in my written testimony, applicable to any agency administering foreign assistance. Challenge one, ensuring transparent access to information.
▶ 0:17:31US A heavily relied on award recipients operating in remote locations to self-disclose fraud Of all award recipients, the least the least transparent is the United Nations. We encounter non-stop obstruction by the UN to share information about potential misuse of US funds. To illustrate, we've sought information from five different UN agencies on 10 investigations.
▶ 0:17:58Response times ranged from 6 months to two years. This is unacceptable. We urge the State Department to implement a clause mandating that awards to the UN provide us with access to information. Challenge two, ensuring that award terms prioritize accountability. US A had hundreds of regulations designed to address risks to programs. However, there were shortcomings. For example, US declined to include a forum selection clause in agreements with foreignbased NOS.
▶ 0:18:29There's no reason why a Florida-based aid organization can be sued for fraud in US court while one based in London can't. But cases have been dismissed because US A omitted this clause. Further, US A's anti-terrorism certifications applied only to grants, not contracts. This certification allowed the Department of Justice and OIG to bring cases against grantees for concealing past support to Iran and Hezbollah.
▶ 0:18:57Inexplicably, however, contractors were not required to make the same representation. Also, US A required partner vetting of aid organization staff designed to ensure that terrorists don't get our money exempted UN staff. To address this gap, US AIG is investigating UN staff for ties to Hamas to ensure US taxpayers don't pay their salaries. Challenge three, ensuring effective monitoring and staffing.
▶ 0:19:26Mitigating risks requires more than announcing costly monitoring contracts. For example, US A missed opportunities to improve programs in Somalia because it lacked a system for managing recommendations from its monitors. In Ukraine, contractors US A hired to oversee its 26 billion dollars in direct budget support failed to provide required reports on time or at all.
▶ 0:19:50Moving forward, the government must ensure monitors provide timely information and that officials leverage monitor findings to ensure program objectives are being met. To further mitigate risk, the government must adequately staff awards and monitor subawwardees. Our audit found in Ethiopia, US A employed too few people to manage awards and ultimately failed to detect a massive food diversion scandal. The path forward requires an appropriate ratio of staff to awards given the money at stake.
▶ 0:20:18Lastly, despite fraud often occurring at the subawward level, there's no internal database of subawwardies despite their outsized role in programs and involvement in fraud schemes. Finally, combating overseas fraud requires an IG that is willing to follow the money, ask difficult questions, and hold perpetrators accountable.
▶ 0:20:40Rather than playing Monday morning quarterback, USAG's experience places us in the pregame huddle, allowing us to inform Congress and agencies of risks before billions of dollars of programming goes out, not years later. Our unique authority to employ foreign service officers also allows us to routinely visit project sites in remote and dangerous locations.
▶ 0:21:02In doing so, we've uncovered roads that were reported as complete but were never We found edible grain meant for starving kids being replaced with animal feed in distribution sites where food reported as delivered never arrived. Without US aid IG on the ground, those losses would remain hidden and the schemes would continue. And critically, we work to protect and empower confidential sources who face real risks for coming forward to repro to report fraud, diversion, and sexual exploitation and abuse.
▶ 0:21:31The American people deserve confidence that their taxpayer dollars are protected and the communities who rely on US assistance deserve assurance that the support intended them is not lost to fraud, corruption or abuse. I thank the committee for its continued support for US AG's unique brand of oversight and look forward to your questions.
▶ 0:21:51Thank you so much, Mr. Kaplan. I now recognize Miss Love Greer for an opening
▶ 0:21:59Chairman Mills, Ranking Member Moscowitz and members of the subcommittee.
▶ 0:22:04Can you hear me now? Chairman Mills, Ranking Member Moscowitz, and members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to discuss GA's work examining federal efforts to manage the risk of fraud, waste, and abuse, and foreign assistance. US foreign assistance plays an important role in advancing US foreign policy goals. It supports countries that are strategic to US security and economic interest, countries experience experiencing conflict and vulnerable populations around the world.
▶ 0:22:31In fiscal year 2026, Congress appropriated roughly $50 billion for the Department of State and other foreign affairs programs. For many years, much of this assistance was administered by the US Agency for International Development. However, following changes in 2025, the US Department of State is now the federal government's primary provider of foreign assistance. This time of transition calls for a focus on fraud risk management. Foreign assistance is often delivered in a complex environment marked by conflict, instability, and humanitarian crisis.
▶ 0:23:01Conditions that can heighten the risk of fraud, waste, and abuse. Although most federal spending is not lost to fraud, every diverted dollar weakens programs, waste taxpayers dollars, and undermines public trust. Because fraud is costly and difficult to detect, prosecute, and recover, prevention is the most effective way to protect taxpayer dollars and ensure program integrity, our work has identified several factors that make foreign assistance particularly vulnerable.
▶ 0:23:27First, assistance is often delivered through implementing partners such as contractors, nonprofits, and international organizations. These partners may also fund sub partners controls. If controls are weak anywhere in that chain, the risk of fraud increases. Second, many programs operate in conflict zones where violence and instability may limit in-person oversight by agencies and partners, making it hard to verify how funds were actually used. Third, humanitarian crisis often require rapid delivery of aid.
▶ 0:23:57When agencies must move funding to quickly address emergencies, maintaining strong controls can be more challenging. Finally, agencies have a desire to work directly with local organizations to deliver assistance. This approach can improve long-term sustainability, but some local partners may have limited experience managing federal awards or maintaining strong financial controls. GAO's work has identified real examples of fraud, waste, and abuse in foreign assistance.
▶ 0:24:24For instance, our recent review of the US African Development Foundation identified significant fraud risk management weaknesses as well as highly questionable procurement practices that we reported were red flags for potential fraud schemes. The director of financial man management later plead guilty to contract related offenses. In another example, our 2023 review of fraud risk management and conflict zones described widespread diversion of food aid in Somalia. And in Afghanistan, GA reported multiple instances of fraud and waste tied to reconstruction programs.
▶ 0:24:55These examples demonstrate why strong fraud risk management is essential. Agencies have taken some positive steps. They conduct certain risk assessments, review some partners' past performance, require reporting of suspected violations to inspector generals, and sometimes use thirdparty monitoring to access hard-to-reach locations. However, our work has identified significant weaknesses. For example, some agencies like state and USAD did not conduct program specific fraud risk assessments, leaving them vulnerable to predictable risks.
▶ 0:25:25Fraud awareness training was not required, limiting officials awareness of how to prevent, detect, or respond to potential fraud. Oversight of subp partners was inconsistent or wholly Third-party monitoring often focused on performance management and was not designed for fraud risk detection, and agencies did not always use available data analytics to identify unusual spending patterns that can be indications of fraud or abuse.
▶ 0:25:50From July 2016 through September 2025, GAO has made more than 50 recommendations to improve fraud risk management in foreign assistance. As early as 2026, agencies had implemented only 22 of those recommendations while 29 remain unimplemented. Addressing our recommendations will be particularly important as foreign assistance programs are restructured and the State Department assumes a larger role in administering them.
▶ 0:26:14Congress can also help strengthen oversight by reinstating certain requirements for agencies to regularly report on their anti-fraud and risk management activities by strengthening controls, learning from past risks, and implementing GAO and OIG recommendations. Agencies can better protect taxpayer dollars and ensure that foreign assistance achieves its intended purpose. Chairman Mills, ranking member Moscowitz, members of the subcommittee, this concludes my oral statement. Be happy to take questions at this time.
▶ 0:26:42Thank you, Miss Love Greer. I now recognize myself for five minutes of US [clears throat] A attempted to develop a number of oversight mechanisms to improve program effectiveness and safeguard US funds over the years. Yet, foreign assistance has remained susceptible to waste, fraud, and abuse. Regardless of the type of implementer, bad actors have profited from US generosity abroad.
▶ 0:27:04Whether they are contractors committing fraud or terroristic diverting aid, a multitude of systemic weaknesses have enabled bad actors to commit waste, fraud, and abuse. How have you seen bad actors exploit gaps in the US oversight? I'll start with you, Mr. Kaplan.
▶ 0:27:21Thanks for your question. Um, they certainly have tried to exploit gaps and some of them are exactly what I just identified in my opening testimony and they're examples. I mean, and sometimes they're very slight examples and they go back to the actual clauses that either exist or don't exist.
▶ 0:27:37So, for example, the forum selection clause I mentioned, we actually had a great case in the Southern District of New York where a British NGO had falsified its past support provided to Hezbollah and Iranian affiliates. They had to declare it in their certification. They made the false representation. we had him dead to write. Brought the case.
▶ 0:28:03The judge in New York said, "Well, there's really no ties to um it's a British firm and other than the actual contract grant, there's no ties to the United States. They don't have an office in the US. It's a personal jurisdiction issue. Case dismissed. You have no idea how much that frustrated us because it was a great case and this contractor lied about his past representation with affiliation with terrorist actors.
▶ 0:28:29The judge said had US A simply put in a forum selection clause where the grant recipient would have said okay by virtue of us accepting millions of dollars in aid we accept the risk that we could be brought um brought in US court for a fraud suit. They should accept the risk. They accept our money. The same goes for the United Nations. The United Nations we puts up every excuse in the book as to why they cannot comply with our in information requests.
▶ 0:28:59Every excuse in the book. They are a grant recipient. The problem is the accountability mechanisms are limited. When it comes to United Nations, we have more access and more enforcability over there's criminal consequences, civil consequences for contractors in NGO. With the UN, the enforcement mechanisms are mechanisms are much more limited. However, there's still things that US aid and the State Department can and State Department should be doing and that's enforcing vetting.
▶ 0:29:30There's no reason again why NGO staff and contractor staff operating in high-risisk environments controlled by terrorist actors had to put their folks through US government vetting systems. the UN was exempt.
▶ 0:29:44Why are we to trust the UN's own vetting procedures given what happened with ENRA and the mass infiltration of UN staff that also are Hamas affiliates or participate in the October 7th terrorist attacks. There is no reason why UN staff should escape the same level of vetting and scrutiny as NOS's and contractors. No reason at all. form selection clause, access to information.
▶ 0:30:13There's three buckets of you of recipients, contractors.
▶ 0:30:16I just want to get to a couple more questions before it. Go ahead if you wrap up, please.
▶ 0:30:20Yep. No, I think I've said my piece on this. Go ahead.
▶ 0:30:23All right. And and to your point, I wanted to point these out because I know you're aware of them. You know, examples of waste, fraud, and abuse that we have. For example, the $550 million bribery scheme a USA contracting officer and three executives pled guilty to improperly vetted contractors. To your point about vetting for $800 million in USA contracts last year was uncovered USA awarded for a joint venture to receive up to 800 million to address irregular migration of Central America to the United States and climate change.
▶ 0:30:50Uh even after that the substantial evidence that is the partner uh company visitant was involved in that bribery screen uh scheme uh debarment of former UNRA employees for participation to your point former US aid subawwardee uh employees debarred for 5 years for embezzling US global health funds for falsifying documents and also the director of US aid projects arrested for a 9-year fraud scheme that resulted in over 240,000 to his pocket.
▶ 0:31:14So, um, with the time that I have remaining at this point, I want to talk with GAO for a minute [cough] [clears throat] and this is kind of important for me. In in your testimony, you identified systemic weaknesses in agency's efforts to prevent, detect, and properly uh, respond to fraud, risk, and foreign assistance or made recommendations for these weaknesses. Many of these recommendations have not been implemented.
▶ 0:31:36Was US a not effectively managing fraud risks uh, and implementing internal controls We did identify weaknesses in US A's efforts to do so. You mentioned some of them. Uh the screening and the of implementing partners and subp partners was limited. Here's another area we haven't talked about yet.
▶ 0:31:56When we are working with partners who we know have committed fraud, waste or abuse or been suspended or barred, that information is often not making it back into the federal procurement databases that are used to screen them for future awards. So we have a we can have a cycle of working with the same actors who we know have had a history of violating uh our rules, our regulations and fraud, waste and abuse being among them. So that's one of the internal control weaknesses we identified.
▶ 0:32:21There's uh others that relate to monitoring especially in conflict zones where we can't uh go ourselves. For example, we're not using thirdparty monitors effectively. And we have been recommending for over 10 years that third party monitors be trade on fraud fraud awareness and it be built into their contract that they look for fraud and and report on detecting fraud. That is still inconsistently happening.
▶ 0:32:44And so you both believe that members or companies or for-profit entities or implementing partners who have been accused and found guilty of waste fraud and abuse should be disbarred from being able to like go for future contracts.
▶ 0:32:58They they they should be debarred whether or not they're found guilty or convicted. Sometimes it's very hard because of the jurisdictional issues, but at very least they should be debarred. And US AIG has been exceptionally aggressive in referring implementers for department.
▶ 0:33:10Miss Love Greer, just yes or no. Your feelings of that as well.
▶ 0:33:13Yeah, depending on the case, uh absolutely we should not be working with actors who have a repeated history of uh fraud, waste, and abuse.
▶ 0:33:20Thank you so much. With that, I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to the ranking member, Mr. Moscowitz, for five
▶ 0:33:25Uh thank you, Mr. chairman. Uh Mr. Kaplan, you spoke about issues in accountability at the UN and mentioned that we should tighten mandatory disclosure requirements and add clear consequences for failure to comply. Can you provide uh some more details on on what you think that should look like and would you recommend additional auditing and transparency tools?
▶ 0:33:42Abs. Absolutely. Thanks for that question. It's just a constant source of frustration. It should frustrate every single American taxpayer where money is going to the United Nations where money continues to go to UN agencies. Um again they're a one bucket of recipient. You have UN agencies, NOS's and contractors. When it comes to the UN we have the least enforcement remedies available. We have the least access and the least transparency in that.
▶ 0:34:08So I think there's absolutely means to tighten up in the 2024 appropriations act. There's a specific clause section 7048 if you're keeping score at home that requires the secretary of state to seek to implement in all agreements with the UN access for the US aid IG state IG and GAO. That is essential and failure to comply with that should either result in not receiving an award or reward remedies for non-compliance.
▶ 0:34:36All right. Well, I appreciate that and I I I agree. I I want to go with this logic for a second that because there was waste, fraud, and abuse in USAD, we should get rid of it, right? Which that was the argument. Um I I assume you would agree that in a $7 trillion budget, we could probably find in fact we have found waste, fraud, and abuse in every department. Right.
▶ 0:34:57That's why you have inspectors general to root it out.
▶ 0:34:59That's right. So there's there's waste, fraud, and abuse in the Pentagon. Right.
▶ 0:35:03And there's waste, fraud, and abuse in DHS. Yes. In fact, we just saw the other day $200 million, right, to be spent on advertising, right? That sounds like a waste to me. I mean, it was more money that was spent on the last Jurassic Park movie or one of the Lord of the Rings movies or one of the Harry Potter movies. Uh, I think the Barbie movie was less expensive. In fact, I think every movie except one that was nominated for an Oscar was less expensive than what Christine Gnome spent. To spend $200 million Christine Nome and not get nominated by an Oscar, I think shows their liberal bias.
▶ 0:35:34Um, so there's definitely waste, right? But no one's talking about getting rid of those places. No one's talking about, you know, just because we're spending, you know, $9 million on crab legs in the Pentagon or $220 million on furniture in the Pentagon or, you know, $100,000 on a Steinway piano in the Pentagon. No one's talking about getting rid of the Pentagon just because there's waste, fraud, and abuse. Right. That would be unreasonable, Mr. Kaplan. You agree?
▶ 0:35:59No one's talking about getting rid of those agencies.
▶ 0:36:01Right. Right. Of course. Right. So it would it's unre and that's where the disconnect is here is that somehow because this agency no different than all the other agencies we could sit HUD department of agriculture we could go through them right there there's there's waste fraud and abuse and we owe it to the American people by the way to eliminate that waste fraud and abuse there's no excuse for that okay we owe it to them but in the search of trying to eliminate waste fraud and abuse doesn't mean we should get rid of a entire agency no we should eliminate the
▶ 0:36:31waste fraud and abuse from those agencies because all of these agencies still have important functions. Obviously, the Pentagon, we're not going to get rid of the Pentagon even though they haven't been able to pass an audit eight years in a row. There's over two and a half trillion, let me say that again, over two and a half trillion dollars missing in the Pentagon. Like real money, okay? And no one's talking about getting rid of it. And so, you know, that's the function of the problem I have. Look, in my own household budget, right?
▶ 0:37:00I can tell you my kids are definitely that there's tons of waste in my family budget based on what my kids like to spend. Okay? There's definitely abuse going on and based on the amount of boxes that show up at my house every day. My wife is definitely committing fraud. Okay? But but the point is I'm not getting rid of these people, right? What am I going to do? I'm going to sit them down at the c at the kitchen table and I'm going to say we need to spend less, right? What are we spending on? We didn't have that conversation here with USAD.
▶ 0:37:28We never got to say, "Hey, look, these programs, delete them. These things, get rid of them." Okay? Every other agency somehow is getting that benefit of the doubt. Right? We're giving that benefit of the doubt to the Pentagon. I want to end with this. Now, that these functions are going to move over to the State Department. All right, Mr. Mr.
▶ 0:37:48Capital, do you think the State Department has the resources, the personnel to do all of this oversight, the grant oversight, you know, to to to the capacity to handle all of this without uh adding more personnel to the State Department?
▶ 0:38:02Let let me let me begin with this. Um, Congressman Moscowitz, um, I can assure you that the same vile predators that sought to steal from US aid or divert funds to terrorist organizations or sexually abused minors like they did in the Ebola response will try to do the same thing at state.
▶ 0:38:21Yeah. And look, that's all terrible. We we all we all support, you know, cramp clamping down on that and getting rid of it. My question is, do do you think the State Department at this juncture needs additional resources now that they have all this additional responsibility?
▶ 0:38:35You know, contrary to media reports, foreign assistance programs are not dead and they're billions and billions and billions of dollars now being spent and administered by not only my time is up. I'm just trying to get an answer. So, okay. Yes, I'm I'm with you. But do you now think that now that that is all moved over to the State Department, do they need more resources to limit the fraud, waste, and abuse? Because otherwise, aren't we going to wind up in the same situation where there's going to be fraud, waste, and abuse because we're not investing in that oversight?
▶ 0:39:03Maximum oversight is essential and that's what we brought as the IG for us a max over when you have billions going out in complex emergency environments and money spent overseas in areas controlled by terrorist organizations and any armed group you need adequate staffing people good monitoring and an effective IG to oversee and investigate any misuse of those funds.
▶ 0:39:25All right. Thank you. Thank you Mr.
▶ 0:39:27Thank you so much. I will just note really quickly though that while comically anecdotal the unlike other agencies, foreign assistance has benefited designated terrorist organizations who have prayed on civilians, undermined US national security. So that's a little bit different and I don't throw your family into that, although I understand Amazon can be terroristic. Um, trust me, my son gets on my phone and looks at Amazon and I've had packages that came without my even knowing.
▶ 0:39:53Uh, with that, I'm going to go ahead and recognize uh the gentleman from Rhode Island for five minutes.
▶ 0:39:59Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to our witnesses uh for being here and for uh your continued work uh conducting oversight and ensuring federal funding is spent on foreign aid programs as Congress directed. Now, last year, President Trump and Secretary Rubio used unfounded claims of waste, fraud, and abuse as an excuse to illegally close USAD and decimate our foreign assistance programs. While their justifications may have been false, the impacts are very real.
▶ 0:40:27Between 500,000 and 1 million people died in 2025. Hundreds of thousands of lives lost in the name of eliminating fraud that didn't even exist. By 2030, these cuts could lead to more than 14 million deaths, including the deaths of more than 4.5 million children under 5 years old.
▶ 0:40:49Because of this administration, children were allowed to starve while food was left to rot at ports and in warehouses and die of treatable diseases as medicine expired on shelves. And while Secretary Rubio continues to claim that no one has died from his aid cuts, I think we all know the truth. He's continuing to endanger lives and even worse is causing more waste fraud and abuse.
▶ 0:41:13In February 2025, he fired the USAD Inspector General Paul Martin when he warned in February 2025 that $489 million in food assistance was at risk of spoilage or potential diversion. In July 2025, he green lit the State Department incinerating 500 metric tons of emergency food assistance that could have fed 1.5 million children.
▶ 0:41:38The GAO defines waste as the use or expenditure of resources carelessly, extravagantly, or to no purpose. Spending $800 million of taxpayer funds on life saving food aid that no that feeds no one and then another $125,000 to incinerate it seems to match this very definition of waste from the GAO.
▶ 0:42:01So, Director Love Grayer, uh, in your expert opinion, would incinerating lifesaving food aid and spending nearly $1 million in the process be considered waste under GAO's
▶ 0:42:15Paying for food that never reached its uh, intended beneficiaries would be something that we probably would classify as waste if it could have been
▶ 0:42:23And on top of that, spending money,
▶ 0:42:26spending money to do so, if it could have been avoided, is something that probably would meet that definition.
▶ 0:42:32Check. Waste. The rapid termination of our foreign assistance programs and the firing of expert USA ID staff caused many reported instances of wasted supplies and equipment. There are reports that US aid inventory and equipment uh were abandoned or auctioned off at a significant loss to the US government due to a lack of guidance from US A and the State Department.
▶ 0:42:57Before US A was illegally closed, there was clear guidance on what to do with extra supplies. But now, over a year after the administration shuttered the US A website, erasing that guidance, the risk of waste continues. That's why I introduced the Supplies Act, which would require the State Department to establish clear guidance on handling unused supplies to ensure that aid is not diverted, destroyed, or allowed to expire. So, Mr.
▶ 0:43:24Kaplan, what guidance should be established to prevent continued waste and to ensure our aid helps the people we intended to save not waste away in warehouses or on shelves beyond the reach of those who need them.
▶ 0:43:37Yeah, thanks for that question. Um look after we issued that report in in February that launched a multitude of us a IG products and we did look exactly at that issue about the disposition of of assets um that US government funded assets in the field. We dispersed auditors to eight countries including Ukraine to account for taxpayer funded equipment. This is I including IT equipment, laptops, armored vehicles.
▶ 0:44:04I will say this to US A's credit and to the US A staff still around and despite having limited staff generally well the agency shuttered so they're not US aid staff anymore
▶ 0:44:17at the time but to their credit generally the assets were disposed of sold or donated according to plan and that is a testament to their responsibility and the policies that were in place and that they did follow. So we gave a solid rating to US A for managing the disposition of assets under some very extenuous circumstances.
▶ 0:44:36Well, thank you, Mr. Kaplan. And it's good that they have a solid rating, but the agency is closed, shuttered illegally. And so even with guidance in place now, uh it would be nearly impossible for the State Department to be able to implement this this guidance without expert staff. In May 2025, the State Department's inspector general said that the department may not have the staffing capacity to implement the foreign aid programs and now overseas. So, Mr.
▶ 0:45:02Kaplan, what would uh the the State Department need to do to ensure its workforce has the capacity and capabilities to prevent waste in our foreign assistance programs?
▶ 0:45:11First of all, you need two [clears throat] things. You need adequate people to to adequately staff programs, especially in complex emergency environments. And we've, you know, we dinged US A for years that US A was not did not staff it. awards well enough. There was one statistic for every contracting officer. There was one contracting officer for every 65 million dollars in US aid funds spent overseas. One for 65. DoD is one for 15 million. One contracting officer for 15 million.
▶ 0:45:41US aids were 1 for 65. Adequate staffing is essential. We saw this in the Ethiopia um aid response to the crisis in the crisis there. Only six of 16 positions were filled. Six of 16. US A staff on the ground were looking left and right. Where's everyone? Where are the other 10 coming in to adequately monitor and oversee these awards? They never showed up. And that placed US funded food commodities at great risk.
▶ 0:46:08And it resulted in a massive food diversion scandal also involving the UN by the way, but massive food diversion scandal because it was not adequately staffed. so that there could be a rapid response to reports of misuse of funds. So, yes, adequate staffing is vital as foreign assistance moves forward.
▶ 0:46:28Well, I I appreciate you making that point and I thank you both uh for your work to root out waste forward and abuse and I'm hopeful that uh we see real efforts at that going forward. With that, I yield back.
▶ 0:46:39Thank you so much. At this time, I'll recognize Representative Schneider for five minutes.
▶ 0:46:43Uh thank you, Chairman Mills, and uh I want to thank the witnesses for being here. I think it is notable that we have a imbalance on the uh representation here. We hear a lot about waste, fraud, and abuse from my colleagues on the other side, but evidently this hearing is not important enough for them to come and explore it. What you all do is important. And uh Mr. Kapin, you mentioned you talked about 1 to 65 million uh dollars. It's it's a matter of return.
▶ 0:47:10and every one of our inspector generals and everyone people in jail more than pay for their salaries with what they protect in investments uh for what we spend in a time where we're spending a billion dollars or more in Iran a day. Um having that in inspection uh capacity is important and the money we spend on uh USA ID development is so important for us to to protect and defend American interests around the world. Um couple questions for you, Mr. Kaplan.
▶ 0:47:39Um, President Trump has undermined the very oversight mechanisms that was put in place to mitigate fraud, waste, and abuse. Uh, Trump, Elon Musk, Secretary Rubio, Rubio fired nearly 10,000 USID experts overseeing billions of dollars in our foreign assistance with no plan for transitioning oversight uh of USAD functions to the State Department. On top of this, State Department laid off another 1,300 state employees, including many with foreign assistance programming experience.
▶ 0:48:07Public reporting suggests that the process by which the State Department assumed primary responsibility for managing US foreign aid programs was rushed and uncoordinated. So, Mr. Kaplan, have those staff reductions in the USAD state merger impacted the United States ability to mitigate fraud, waste, and abuse and foreign assistance?
▶ 0:48:24Look, I'll I'll defer any questions specifically about staffing at the Department of State to the Department of State. We do not we as USAG currently currently do not have access to that information. We'd like to have access so we could do our oversight work at state department. We don't have that access. So respectfully I would defer that that question. I think in general what I can tell you is that yes the given the billions of dollars going to the most romate remote or dangerous locations.
▶ 0:48:54It's absolutely essential to have experts understanding the risks the vulnerabilities to programs understanding the implementers not just once it's awarded but at the pre-awward stage. Do you to to extend on that? Do you in your view do you think the state department OIG has the cap capabilities and personnel to oversee former US aid programs or new initiatives like the $2 billion UN OCA uh memorandum of understanding announced in December.
▶ 0:49:21I can tell you that US AIG has the capacity and longstanding historic experience to oversee these funds. We have been authorized five different times by Congress to provide oversight of additional agencies administering foreign assistance agencies. We also really appreciate the support and the confidence of Congress in the recent SFOPS 26 bill to fully fund US AG for to provide continued oversight of foreign assistance dollars.
▶ 0:49:50We we appreciate that confidence on the part of con Congress in our office. I know I have several of our best law enforcement personnel sitting right behind me. We are hungry for the work. We want to do the work. We have an overseas presence which is unique to us. We are in Ukraine, Israel, El Salvador, Thailand, South Africa. We're looking to expand to other places. We are confident we can do the work. It requires more oversight, not less.
▶ 0:50:15Thank you. And and let me turn to uh uh Director Love Grayer. Uh you're well aware uh last May uh ranking member Meeks, Congresswoman uh Jacobs requested GA review GAO review of the financial costs and strategic consequences of the Trump administration's illegal effort to collapse US ID into the State Department and terminate thousands of state and USID contracts, grants, and cooperative agreements.
▶ 0:50:40Trump's USAD closure has led to the needless deaths of thousands of people around the world and exposed the executive branch to legal actions which cost US taxpayers millions of dollars. Unfortunately, not a single Republican signed on to the letter. It seems like potential waste, fraud, and abuse by the Trump administration is something they're willing to let slide.
▶ 0:51:00So my question uh director love Greer is it is our understanding that state has delayed providing critically important information response to GAO's requests for over six months since that letter was sent which hinders congressional oversight limits accountability and reduces opportunities to improve the process. In your understanding why has state delayed responding to these requests and what do you need from Congress to succeed in meeting GO's congressionally mandated reporting requirements on these issues?
▶ 0:51:28Can Okay, good. Uh thank you for the question. Uh you are correct. We have had a request out to the state department to understand what programming they've assumed. Uh what programming it they've actually pulled over from USAD along with their current programming, what their staffing levels are to the questions that have been asked today about whether they have adequate staffing.
▶ 0:51:48We are trying to understand whether they have adequate staffing for oversight as well as the processes they've been using to not only uh move those programs over but also to uh oversee them in the future. And we have been delayed for almost eight months in getting a response to those questions. It's not clear 100% uh why we've been delayed. We've we've heard uh part of it is the transition of staff uh different not sure who's supposed to be taking on certain questions that we have.
▶ 0:52:18But I did uh thankfully receive some assurance over this last Friday that there will be greater cooperation in the future. What we need from Congress is encouragement from the of the agencies to respond to GAO and OIG audits. Again, this is information that's critical to understanding whether they are capable or or positioning themselves to effectively oversee all this new foreign assistance. we're unable to provide that information to Congress and taxpayers in a timely way when we're waiting, you know, up to eight months for basic answers to
▶ 0:52:48Thank you. And and I'll yield my time, but before I do, uh, I ask the chair join us in helping to get that pressure and let's get those reports done. I yield back.
▶ 0:52:56Thank you, Representative Schneider. I will just have one rebuttal, which is that US A's budget steadily increased over the years. More money did not fix US A systemic problems. further the cost of compliance can exceed the cost of delivering foreign assistance as well. And Congress has a right to fund or not fund any department agency and or bureau. It's not illegal for the president to eliminate anything where wage, fraud, and abuse or create anything such as Doge.
▶ 0:53:21Mr. Chairman, I have a UC request
▶ 0:53:24without Go ahead.
▶ 0:53:26Uh thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh we'd like to enter uh submit to the record a statement from Donald Sherman, president and CEO for the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and a statement from uh Asher Amos, the executive director of the Alliance for the American Leadership. Both statements address the disruption of oversight with the illegal dismantling of USAD and detail recommendations for the path forward. And then a letter to the committee from the campaign legal center, a nonpartisan legal organization to help strengthen and enforce campaign finance and ethics laws to prevent
▶ 0:53:54It shall be entered.
▶ 0:53:56Thank you, Mr. chairman.
▶ 0:53:57With this, I'd like to recognize the gentleman from Ohio, Mr. Davidson, for five minutes.
▶ 0:54:02Uh, thank you, Chairman, for holding this hearing. And, you know, Mr. Kaplan, I appreciate your work uh as an inspector general. And, you know, when you think about the uh premise, you know, somehow it's controversial that America's resources should advance America's interests. I I think, you know, that's long overdue. So when Secretary Rubio came in and started looking at, you know, USID, look, we've talked about it for years. They they felt they were so autonomous that they didn't even need to respond to the Secretary of State.
▶ 0:54:32They certainly didn't respond to Congress. They would come give us information, but they would continue on autopilot doing the things that they felt were important regardless of what the executive branch told them, regardless of what strings were attached on ledge branch money.
▶ 0:54:47So I think it's long overdue for them to be shut down and uh the essential things are being done and the things that you know some of my colleagues are you know grieved about are you know funding like millions of dollars for DEI initiatives and climate agenda things like transgender operas or transgender surgeries and you know advancing these in particular in countries where their laws found it offensive.
▶ 0:55:12So if you look at Guatemala for example, they were being pressured to change their constitution because it is pro-life. It protects life. That was the priority for the administration in the Biden administration instead of trying to say, well, how do we work together with Guatemala to do the things that are mutually important uh to Guatemala and the United States? And when Guatemala offered to try to help all the migration crisis that was flooding our country, the Biden administration was like, "No, no, no.
▶ 0:55:40We're doing that on purpose." don't don't get in the way here. Uh to the point where they were actively trying to remove the prosecutor general and put leverage on the members of Guatemalan Congress to do that. All to advance, you know, an agenda that isn't the United States agenda. It's a radical left agenda uh run by the Democrat party today. So that's why my colleagues are here venting their frustrations today as we turned off their boodle bag. You know, you look at Mr. Kaplan.
▶ 0:56:09So much of this money is essentially laundered through non-government organizations. I don't think there's a lot of irony in the word non-government organization because of course it's funded almost completely by the government. So uh can you talk about the challenges of transparency when the money goes through non-governmental organizations and maybe with spec specific application to Ukraine for example?
▶ 0:56:34Thanks for that question especially for referencing Ukraine. We are the only IG office with full-time criminal investigators posted in Kev that are investigating fraud and corruption involving nonsecurity US foreign assistance to Ukraine. So very active in that space. We always have been um with I would again put it the three buckets of recipients contractors NOS and United Nations.
▶ 0:57:02I'd put the UN at the very bottom in terms of transparency and accountability way at the bottom like under this table for transparency and accountability. NOS's really depends and if it's a foreign NGO meaning an NGO that's based in London or based in Guatemala as opposed to an NGO which is really just another name for an aid organization you know think Mercy Corps based in Oregon save the children with the DC office Samaritan's Purse in North Carolina there's different types of aid organizations we had trouble with foreign NOS's
▶ 0:57:33usually they're lawyers and they would you know NOS's based in Europe they would again try to hide behind um European in general data privacy regulations or some other thing that they seem like they'd make up on the spot as to why they couldn't share information regarding employees who corrupted, defrauded US programs or even worse sexually assaulted beneficiaries while performing US government funded awards. We would have those fights.
▶ 0:58:02We would navigate those challenges. We would [laughter] find solutions. I think tightening up award tightening up award provisions both with the United Nations and foreign NOS's where transparency and access is much more limited and challenging and recourse is much more limited too. It's much harder to subpoena a NGO based in Geneva than one based in Ohio. So that is a major challenge. Access and transparency that challenge continues not just US A.
▶ 0:58:31It's going to continue at future foreign assistance agencies.
▶ 0:58:34Yeah. I think look, you know, if they're not supportive, if they're not fully cooperative in transparency, why would they be eligible for another dime of aid and in particular here, you've got uh, you know, NOS's and others that are in clear violation of the United States law. So, if you look at the Helms Amendment, you're not supposed to be able to use US money to fund abortions. In domestically, that's Hide and in foreign aid, it's Helms Helms amendment.
▶ 0:58:59And so, you know, we had uh statements by East African faith leaders who viewed US aid as quote missionaries of evil because the B administration hijacked the aid programs to promote abortion, LGBTQ, transgenderism initiatives um with US dollars. So, with respect to abortion, that violates our laws. And that's why I introduced uh that's why I introduced the Aid accountability act of 2025 to permanently defund these agencies. So, I think that's the question.
▶ 0:59:27Can we get something like that applied and would you be able to audit
▶ 0:59:32on on the abortion specifically or or access in general?
▶ 0:59:35Correct. uh you know compliance with law, abortion as an example, if that aid if that passes and becomes law, would that be easy for you to audit and apply?
▶ 0:59:45What whatever compliance requirements were imposed on aid recipients by either Congress or the administering agency and if there's a potential violation of policy laws, rules, regulations on the books, that would be something that we absolutely would be able to audit and investigate. it would be our responsibility to do so. If a law is on the books and an organization receiving US taxpayer dollars is violating that law, that absolutely would be in our
▶ 1:00:13Thank you. I yield back.
▶ 1:00:15Thank you so much. At this time, we'll recognize Congresswoman Jacobs for five
▶ 1:00:20Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, first of all, um, I just want to reiterate my colleagues who, um, requested that the administration cooperate with the GAO review that was requested in a bipartisan way by by a ranking member and myself, um, to look at the impacts of the illegal dismantling of USAD and the foreign assistance cuts. Um, I also want to follow on uh, my colleague Mr. Davidson's questions. Um, Ms.
▶ 1:00:47love He highlighted the difficulties in, you know, being able to do oversight when you're giving it to when you're giving money to NOS's. Um, but the Trump administration has actually taken dramatic steps to change how we're doing foreign assistance. For example, in the past, we would give NOS's money to deliver key global health assistance, including in countries known to have high levels of corruption.
▶ 1:01:12However, now the state department will provide health assistance directly to those governments through government-togovernment memorandum of understanding. And while government to government can be an appropriate tool to enable long-term sustainable transition transition off foreign assistance, its implementation actually requires enhanced oversight and risk mitigation techniques to prevent fraud. So in your view, what risks do such changes present? and does the State Department currently have the appropriate oversight in place to ensure accountability for that funding?
▶ 1:01:44Thank you for the question. uh as you mentioned there are there are risks to to all the different types of delivery mechanisms when we work directly with uh NOS's other um international organizations depending on the type as Adam has mentioned we often have stipulations we have access to their documentation we have access to the information that um they're collecting and that uh access is limited when we're doing government to government we don't have audit authority to audit another federal government we can't
▶ 1:02:14require or another country, we cannot require them to uh provide us with certain types of information. So the the visibility into how the funds have been spent can be a little less um it can be a little less transparent. So there are risks to government to government. There are actions you can take to improve those risks such as building in requirements for certain types of reporting and building that into the actual award as a stipulation for receiving the award.
▶ 1:02:38But we would need to see how these government-togovernment awards are being structured to determine if they have the right level of oversight uh built into the actual award language. And in terms of whether state has the capacity to oversee them, um we have in the past identified uh weaknesses in both state and USAD in terms of having a sufficient number of staff to conduct oversight with the uh new programs that state is administering and uh with the fact that they have not increased their staff. We this is an area that we're looking into.
▶ 1:03:08We want to be sure that they do have sufficient oversight.
▶ 1:03:10Thank you. So, it's clear that changing the way we're doing this is not actually to decrease fraud, waste, and abuse because this is actually potentially opening it up to even more. Um, Mr. Kaplan and Miss Love Grayer, since January 2025, have senior USAID leadership ever impeded GAO or the Office of the Inspector General from addressing instances of waste, fraud, and abuse in foreign assistance? I'm sorry.
▶ 1:03:39I want to make sure I captured your entire question. Can you say that one more time?
▶ 1:03:42Sure. Have senior USID leadership since 20 January of 2025 ever impeded GAO's ability to address instances of waste, fraud, and abuse and foreign assistance. So, we have um requests for information to USAD uh the the current leadership that's left and of course since 2025 that uh we have not received responses to but we have not had uh any senior officials directly tell us that they were not going to cooperate.
▶ 1:04:12We just have um a lack of
▶ 1:04:17Mr. Kaplan,
▶ 1:04:18it's been we have we have not had anyone tell us um that we can't do an auditor investigation. However, it's challenging. It's sometimes very quiet at the US A office space and trying to get access to um individuals to answer our questions or produce uh required records has been challenging if if they're no longer there.
▶ 1:04:42Yeah. And what about at the USA ID legacy unit at state or the state department more broadly? Are they fully cooperating with GAO and OIG inquiries and investigations related to foreign
▶ 1:04:54Well, our general council is currently uh collaborating with theirs to try to uh get past some of the the concerns that uh USAD has raised with regard to providing information moving forward. So, we are at a bit of a standstill, but we're hoping to move forward with some progress soon. for USA IG.
▶ 1:05:14I'd say um we believe and I think Congress just confirmed in SOPs in the state appropriations bill that USAG has continued oversight jurisdiction over programs under part one of the foreign assistance act which is basically all humanitarian and development. We have the expertise to do so. We know the people's projects problems places where the fraud occurs.
▶ 1:05:36Uh it we are working with the department of state to try to obtain access both operationally to state department systems and records and personnel. It has been to date the position of state and the state IG that we USA IG despite our expertise should only look backwards only look at allegations that came in pre July 1, not post July 1. We appreciate Congress's support.
▶ 1:05:59We appreciate the ongoing efforts and work with the department to get access to state records and information so we can continue to combat fraud, waste, corruption, diversion, sexual exploitation, and abuse, human trafficking, so on and so forth in foreign assistance programs because we know what we're doing.
▶ 1:06:17Thank you. Well, I urge the administration to cooperate with you all. These investigations are important. We all want to address waste, fraud, and abuse, but what they're doing is actually making it harder to do so. Mr. Mr. Chairman, I
▶ 1:06:28thank you so much. At this time, I'd like to uh recognize Miss Maline Dean from Pennsylvania for five minutes.
▶ 1:06:34Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member. Uh I'm glad we're having this hearing. It is important to focus in on auditing, forensic auditing, uh identification of waste, fraud, and abuse whenever taxpayer money is involved. So, I thank both of you for testifying today. Thank you for the work that you do. Uh and Mr.
▶ 1:06:51Kaplan and Miss Love Grayer, I want to enlist your help because [snorts] what we hear in this committee and so often from the administration is misinformation is propaganda and sometimes downright lies repeated so often in order to damn the work of USAID and the many many people of USAD who have done extraordinary life-saving work. The truth is powerful. I need your help.
▶ 1:07:19We have heard this majority party and the administration focus on a small handful of examples about which they are not being honest. You heard it here today. $70,000 for production of a DEI musical in Ireland. Shocking. You know what the DEI of it was? Number one, it was not USAD. This was a State Department grant, not USAID.
▶ 1:07:43In 2022, the US ambassador hosted an event featuring Grammyinning folk duo uh Theresi and Giddens along with other Irish and American musicians. Horrible. How did we ever let that happen? 47,000 for transgender opera in Colombia. How often have we heard about the transgender opera? I'm sick of it because guess what? It wasn't USID. They did not fund it.
▶ 1:08:12The White House appears to be referring to a $25,000 State Department grant that uh was in Bogota to stage an opera as one, it is called composed by Laura Kaminsky. It is a well-known opera in the United States and highly acclaimed by its audiences. How about $32,000 for a transgender comic book in Peru? We've heard that one from the president, from this majority party. Wrong.
▶ 1:08:39USAD did not fund this and it was not specifically transgender. Instead, the grant, State Department grant provided 32,000 dollars under the guise of public diplomacy to Peru's education department to cover expenses to produce a tailor made comic book featuring an LGBTQ plus hero, not USAD. Let's talk about the vast vast majority of what has been cut. critical life-saving aid.
▶ 1:09:09I've purposely brought these with me. I was recently in West Africa visiting programs impacted by the shuttering of USID programs helping pregnant women with vitamins. The United States pulled out of that program life-saving vitamins for the women's uh nourishment as they were pregnant. Programs that measure, maybe you've seen this band used. It is used around the arm of a baby.
▶ 1:09:36And if you see the red, they are malnourished. I can't tell you the number of arms that I saw in programs in Ghana and Togo where the children were in the red. Children the size of infants when they were actually What did we do? We pulled out. We're not going to do that anymore because of the trans operas. Honest to God, help me with the truth. This is already costing lives.
▶ 1:10:04Studies have estimated that USID's dismantling will lead to 14 million additional deaths globally. Think of the irony. Think of the Think of the paradox. The Trump administration wants you and us to gut the mechanisms and staff that are essential to mitigate against waste, fraud, and abuse. And so, let me ask you one question.
▶ 1:10:29Speaking of waste, as my colleague said, let's repeat this horrific example. In 2025, following the president's shuttering, the United States government chose to destroy nearly 500 metric tons of emergency food assistance procured by USID. Starving children, their families hungry, too.
▶ 1:10:52Instead of using it to feed as many as 1.5 million hungry children that had already been purchased $800,000 worth of food, it cost another $125,000 to incinerate it. Would anyone in this room oversee a program that would do that? Would anyone Would you? That certainly wouldn't be our intention. No.
▶ 1:11:23Well, somebody should have stood up and stopped it. I consider that grotesque waste. I consider that a fraud on the American people and I consider it abuse of the global health system. I don't know if were any of my photographs available from my trip. Were they shown while I was speaking? Just to show you.
▶ 1:11:48In the middle is uh a vaccine clinic in Togo where the village elders were encouraging the mothers, the fathers to come with their children. We helped administer vaccines as of course we have the nonsense here in this country under secretary of health and human services. These parents were so eager to make sure their children were vaccinated against disease so that they could thrive. You can see the mothers holding their babies. You can see that baby being weighed and not nourished enough.
▶ 1:12:18They measure their arms. They measure their development and they come in regularly. UNICEF is doing the middle program. US isn't helping. Uh and these other programs the United States dollars have been shuttered. And that's just a handful of programs. There are programs around women and girls uh sexual abuse, rape, incest. What did we do? We visited one such program. our money is gone and so the program is far less effective.
▶ 1:12:47We saw a woman who was waiting for help. She had been badly beaten. We went in and visited with her. She was bloodied. And in order to get to the next doctor with no US funding in the program that had been US funded, she needed $5. She didn't have it. So guess what? The person who beat her up was called to come pick her up. That's failure of US leadership.
▶ 1:13:13I will argue till my dying day that we should spend more in humanitarian aid in this kind of financial assistance around the world. Dollars spent like this magnify versus dollars spent in war, a billion dollars a day taking lives. I ask for your help to please stop the majority party and the administration from putting forward these lies that are actually harming health around the world. I yield back and I thank you for the indulgence.
▶ 1:13:43My pleasure. I understand the passion that we have and certainly it is always important for us to ensure that money gets to those who are in need. But the problem we have seen is that the increase in us a funding hasn't led to better oversight but more waste fraud and abuse has demonstrated. It's led to better outcome
▶ 1:14:00to include Miss Dean the exact program that you talked about when it comes to global health funds where there are falsified documents of over 359 unauthorized wire transfers just in the US a funded bank accounts. And so this is why the IG being referred to this case the US attorney's office of the district columbia which declined to pursue criminal prosecution but US aid issued the former civil war another employee a 5-year debarment uh from working.
▶ 1:14:26So the these programs have been grossly abused, but the necessary aid and support to those in need certainly we should find and that's why this is about finding a pathway to ensure that we can get control of the wage fraud and abuse and guarantee that the money gets to those in need. I want to thank the witnesses for their valuable testimony and the members for their questions. The members of the subcommittee may have additional questions for the witnesses and we will ask you to respond these in writing.
▶ 1:14:51Pursuant to committee rules, all members have five days to submit statements, questions, and extraneous materials for the record subject to the link limitations. Without objection, the committee stands adjourned. I thank you both so much for this opportunity and look forward to working with you in the future, as well as for helping to support more transparency and no stonewalling. With that, we're Let's get