Transcripts For CSPAN3 Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20150418

These villages. So if you have a small hall tank in your home, you can truck water to the home and fill the tank, and you can have faucets and you can have a shower and you can have some water in the home in that respect. But as it turns out, that model doesnt deliver a lot of water into the home. And so what weve learned is that homes that have honey buckets that have basically no system other than a central Watering Point where you go fill up buckets, they deliver about 1. 5 gallons of water per person per day. If you have a small hall system, they deliver about 2. 5 gallons of water per person per day. Now, the w. H. O. Recommends a minimum of 13 to 15 gallons per person per day of water. If you look at what the use is in the United States in general, we generally use about 50 gallons per person per day. So our villages in alaska are doing extreme, extreme water rationing, and we know that this isnt just true for alaska. There are other areas in the arctic, some of our other neighbors in the arctic and Northern Canada and greenland and northern russia also have issues with remoteness and water and sanitation, and so what were hoping to do and weve done this with circumpolar surveillance, were hoping weve learned many things from our partners. Were hoping that this Alaska Initiative on water and sanitation that i explained to you a little bit earlier can potentially be used as a model and help in pushing that model forward to develop these technologies across the arctic. Thank you. Tim, this tenyear study, the new study for the first time in a decade, its very comprehensive, and its encyclopedic. How is it going to be used by the health front how is it going to be used by the leadership of the Arctic Council to move an agenda forward . Well, whoops. Sorry. Not exactly sure, but its i think one of the things we were supposed to do is to highlight some of these differences and to put this out there in front of them and say, you know, especially since this was the second Arctic Human Development. The first was really kind of a stock taking. I mean there wasnt a lot known. And, like i said, this wasnt necessarily new research. It was kind of pulling together existing data and pulling together from a number of scientific studies and like i said, one of our mandates was to look at some of the trends over time. All of of the chapters do that all of of the chapters do that, economic chapter, my chapter, certainly the health chapter. So what weve done is weve looked basically over the first decade of the 20th century since the first report and said, okay, we identified and hopefully i brought these out, these are the areas that theres generally been improvement. Things are Getting Better in certain areas but this chapter is certainly highlighted areas where there hasnt been improvement and hasnt been improvement in specific arctic regions or across the a. Tick and certainly the issue of suicide and some fof these others that ive mentioned are intractable diseases, the issue of Domestic Violence keeps coming up again and again. So hopefully, you know, the Arctic Council and other people interested in the arctic can look at this and say, okay, these areas are Getting Better but theres theres other areas that are actually not Getting Better and those are maybe the areas that we need to there needs to be some focus on. Could you say a few words about the u. S. Calculation in this. You know the policy environment here, you know the history of the u. S. Engagement on these arctic issues. You talk all the time with the administration around these issues. What can we hope for in this next phase in terms of prioritization and leadership on these issues. And will they take up your recommendation . Well, heres hoping. Well, you know, i think that the really disappointing thing i guess was about 12 or 18 months ago, it was put forward to the office of management and budget to create a budget for the u. S. Chairmanship so that there would be extra funds. It would be given to implementing some of these key priorities. Unfortunately, they said that was not a good idea and that budget does not exist. So what is happening is we have these fantastic priorities but agencies, this is again the theme we raised with senator murkowski, going to have to use existing resources and try to squeak, reprioritize and we know in this budget scarcity, this is really difficult. So that was sort of step one. We missed a huge opportunity that i think what the u. S. Chairmanship is going to be is a lot of really good projects and highlighting projects and modeling projects that well showcase but, quite frankly, the funding will not be sufficient to boost them. Great work being done but, boy, they need some turbocharged government. Now i never like to end on a pessimistic note so the white house did has a new body in place, the arctic executive steering group, which is led at very senior levels. This group has been charged with doing a gap analysis. So its if you dare to read the white houses Implementation Plan for the National Strategy for the arctic region, short little title, we do see where in the Implementation Plan there are clear outlines for and i quote, to coordinate better comprehension of the health and survival rates of the arctic Indigenous People for wellbeing as an objective. I hope this gap analysis says we have the u. S. Chairmanship theme is arctic improvements and arctic economic and living and wellbeing conditions. We have some great things but there are not funding. We are going to prioritize this and we are going to put funding. I would argue as a domestic priority for the state of alaska, it is an absolute tragedy to hear some of the figures that youve cited. Its appalling. Its unacceptable, leadership begins at home. We need to start focusing our time and attention on americans that are suffering from these conditions. And then exactly we need to pull this out and provide that leadership effort circumpolar. Pam, my concern about the Sustainable Development working group, the sdwg, it is the mothership of the working groups, its a monster working group and thats where i think it gets stuck because it does so much. Thats why i think its absolutely vital that we pull this out and say, look, if were serious about this, were going to put those resources and were going to hold those arctic governments to account and say, lets put that money in and my frustration, tim, quite frankly, with the Arctic Human Development part, its not an Arctic Council product. Its not. Thats a problem because if its not a product, you go thats a lovely report, thank you very much and then we can keep going to our regular business. This is exactly what we need these wonderful assessments and reports, we need to hold governments accountable for how are they moving the measure. I love that stop sign. The Arctic Council needs that graph and those stop signs. You promise this, you ministers, you sign and you said we agree with this, but our governments have done nothing about it. Whos holding them accountable. And this is part of the Arctic Councils governance requirement but it comes from leadership from national councils. I think we have an opportunity here, and its and to raise Public Awareness absolutely but we must start making the tough budget choices, as senator murkowski show me, show me that money. And so far weve said its important but we havent reflected that its important in our budgets. It begins with our budgets, and i would encourage omb to be much more generous, so easy for me to say from health and human services, weve got to start addressing these challenges. Thank you very much. Lets move to our audience. Weve got 15 minutes, lets collect several bundled together several interventions, we have one here and one here and one there. Yes, sir, please identify yourself, be very succinct and offer a quick comment or question. John farrell, Arctic Research commission. First of all, i completely support your recommendation. Health bless heather, bless you, sister sister. I would take health out of sdwg as fast as i could. They have too many things in it and also structurally, it should not in my personal opinion be head of delegation and have a Service Officer brand spanking new every two years. That causes difficulties and the other ministries do the same thing so we really need to get subject Matter Experts on sdwg for this specifically and specifically on how dr. Collins, thank you so much. Im so pleased to see you involved in this activity. Its a challenge. Part of the tyranny of focusing on suicide in the north is focussing on the small numbers of people. You can have discussions in full in other places and they will point to the large numbers of deaths in Subsahara Africa so if youre allocating funds, you try to go with the large numbers of people, but these are citizens. A question for you, you mentioned rigorous evaluations. They fund a lot of services. Some people would argue thats really not looking at the root cause researchwise in terms of suicidality. We tried at the commission unsuccessfully to get an statute of medicine study focusing on this and we failed because we did not engage with alaska native communities in developing this and explaining what the study was and explaining how committees are formed and how editorial control is done. Do you think an iom study if we tried again would be a useful way to do a rigorous evaluation of this issue in the north . And loaded on that question is, very hard to get capacity, even if you have money oriented towards these problems, hard to get capacity, theres no medical school in alaska, theres not a lot of investigators in the lower 48 to keep people interested in grant in this kind of work. Ion and how do we build capacity even if there is funding . Thank you. Sir . And then good afternoon, charles newsted, state department and i hasten to add im speaking for myself, not the department, or ill find myself in the basement without a telephone. Im very impressed first to comment, im vey impressed by the broad scope and expertise that this panel represents. Its truly impressive. And im also very impressed with the way that you and your colleagues have Brought International cooperation into play in dealing with the arctic. Thats vitally important. Heather mentioned the main thing is money and bottom line. And i found and i think most people would agree with this, International Scientific cooperation is a great multiplier on what you can do with your budget, so i applaud your efforts in that way. And now my specific question, im wondering if the panel could compare in their various different fields the Health Situation in russia, various regions, compared with that in the west with alaska and canada and greenland, et cetera, and final question is, has mr. Putin made hes trying to become a czar again, as we all know. Has he had some effect on the arctic yet . Is that discernible . And is that good or bad . Thank you so much. There was a hand thank you. Linda fernandez. Perhaps as a result of what would be a success of the alaska water and sewer challenge thats going to be magnified to the pan arctic. I guess i have a suggestion as well as a question. Are you teaming up efforts with all the International Collaborators during World Water Week thats convened in sweden every year . Has great buyin across a lot of international countries. As well as private sector organizations like w. H. O. Its clear to me that while you have made Great Strides in having the partners involved, some of what youre suggesting as Technology Developments on sanitation and water have been addressed in other settings with with the Arctic Partners perhaps engaged differently, so id make a suggestion and question whether you can in fact synchronize efforts and join in with that group. Thank you very much. Are there any other comments of questions at this time . Yes, please. Hi. Im michelle learner coming from sort of a different perspective. I work for bread for the World Institute. We work on hunger and malnutrition advocacy so my question is just in general, would you consider that malnutrition or Food Insecurity, lack of money clearly, how do you think thats impacting the health of people in the arctic. Thank you so we have a question around should there be an iom study. Would that be useful . Whats the comparison russia versus the west . I think well turn to tim on that, although everyone here will have something to contribute on that and who will impact putin. What about tieing water week to sweden and then the food and security issue. Michael, why dont we start with you. I think it was a question from the gentleman from the state department about the Health Situation in russia versus other circumpolar nations and i have to say that i know very little at least in regards to water and sewer in russia. My focus has been on Infectious Disease and weve had some collaborations with the russians on a number of variety of different of Infectious Diseases. And i know that in many of those areas there are issues with infrastructure and theres poor infrastructure so there certainly is a great possibility that there are issues with water distribution and sewage and russia versus the other countries, but i cant tell you for sure. The next question was, are we teaming up with partners of the World Water Week in sweden. I would like to speak to you more about the World Water Week in sweden because i actually am not aware of that meet ging and we probably should be attending. Weve had weve had some of our circumpolar partners in some discussions on sanitation of water and health but they havent been formalized. Theyre through our collaborations on Infectious Diseases so id be very interested in learning more and we should certainly attend that meeting and learn more from them. Thank you. Then the woman at the barefoot World Institute im sorry. In terms of Food Insecurity oh, im sorry. Im an Infectious Disease epidemiologist and Food Insecurity is not something im a specialist in. I know in alaska its an issue particularly in rural alaska and melting of the perma frost because many of the native peoples put food in food lockers buried in the ground in the permafrost. Those food lockers are failing. I think i went through the questions. I think i went through the questions. Sure so in response to you, john farrell ill start with the Research Capacity because i think thats critical. In places where you dont have a lot of researchers. One is to develop a cadre of researchers who have some commitment and some insider understanding of the context so we certainly do need to see more Research Career development in the context of alaska. So i would certainly support that and i think that means a number of things. That means figuring out how to establish mentoring for students that the idea of pursuing research as a Career Options becomes a feasible and realistic idea. It means working with institutions in order for them to develop an adequate infrastructure and base for training and sustaining young researchers and researchers throughout their career, as well. So, yes, i agree that that would be important particularly in the context of Mental Health, Mental Health research. Some of those efforts are underway at nih where there are initiatives that focus on american india and alaska native Capacity Building and we need to continue those efforts. With respect to the iom meeting, i think i would probably ask you again, that sounds like how buyin is there in the local context. That seems like it would be one starting place to make sure you got all your stake holders in alaska being of a single mind about pursuing something in that direction but certainly whatever avenues whether its an iom report or whether its some other avenue to bring attention to the needs and to rigorously document where we are with respect to effective interventions in these contexts it would be an interesting intervention. Thank you. Wonderful questions. Two quick comments. First a preview of coming attractions. Well be releasing hopefully in june a major study on the russian arctic. You heard in the energy panel russia has Enormous Economic stakes in the arctic. They have a long history in writing very comprehensive and detailed strategies. Some of them quite interestingly and caitlin has been a great student of studying these strategies. They do have a very robust Sustainable Development component. But as the russian economy continues to experience extraordinary difficulties, you know, this is going to be a challenge for them to sustain their very ambitious strategies but we need to understand whats important. Why is the arctic so important to russia and my thesis is that weve actually seen some significant and disturbing changes in Russias Arctic policy particularly after the crimea annexation. That we need to understand and study that more so, thank you for your question, coming to you soon in a comprehensive report. And just one final comment on the World Water Week and i think what were starting to see and we need to do a much more purposeful job there is an arctic diplomacy that is starting to be formulated so countries working together in the Imo International Maritime Organization were so instrumental in pushing through a new mandatory polar code. Were going to see a similar arctic caucus. Those are my words at the Paris Climate Summit at the end of this year. Saying how are we focussing governments because the Climate Change is occurring in the arctic is occurring two to three times faster than anywhere in the globe. Could we have that where is the arctic subgroup pushing that agenda. We have to think where issues sectorially cross and lets gather the eight arctic county till members and the observers if they have a role to play. How can we caucus and say lets put the arctic on the agenda . I that s thatthink thats an agenda we have to push, how can we push the agenda. Thank you. Tim. Ill address the question about the comparisons between russia and the United States in terms of health indicators, Life Expectancy, et cetera. Ive done a lot of richmond on that. Russia more than so than other ss seems to be extremely susceptible to economic downturns. You can kind of correlate declines in gdp per capita with declines in Life Expectancy with the breakup of the soviet union and downturn with the transition. Things improved and they got worse with the 98 global crisis. And havent checked the numbers but i think theres been some increase in the death rates over the last year or so with this economic downturn. You know, its hard to say why but i mean theres it just seems to be more like i said more so than most other countries and we had our financial crisis in the late 2000s. And that didnt Life Expectancy didnt drop by three or four years all of a sudden because of that but in russia, especially among men i mean that seems to be particular trend and like i highlighted here. These gaps in Life Expectancy between men and women but overall Life Expectancy in these arctic regions especially if you go certainly further out into siberia theyre extremely low and i havent seen anything where thats a priority of the russian government. To adress some of these issues. Maybe around the margins but i i forget the name of the institute but there was an institute for the arctic Indigenous People thats been abolish abolish abolished. Like it is in the u. S. I dont think its a priority like it is in the u. S. Ill end on that pessimistic note. Weve gotten into the end of our time. I think this is just in closing this is in a way a very opportune year. We have the arrival of the u. S. Chairmanship. We have the sd the Sustainable Development goals coming forward in september. We have the paris Climate Change at the end of the year, the summit. There will be multiple opportunities to move this forward. I want to thank tim, pamela and michael for bringing the enormous expertise that you have on in your respective areas around the arctic. Its really been kind of astonishing to just list enen and we know you had to travel a bit of a distance to get here. And carve out some time and were very grateful for you doing that and, heather thank you very much for your leadership on this. Watching you over the course of this morning has just exhausted me. So, nations. And thank all of you for your Great Questions and comments and your patience in sticking with us and thank you all and were adjourned. Thank you. [ applause ] on the next washington journal a look at efforts by the u. S. Army to boost morale among soldiers. Usa today reporter greg zoroya talks about recent data from 700,000 troops that shows more than half expressing pessimism and unhappiness in their jobs. Friends of the earth president erich pics and Nicholas Loris describe the annual event 45 years after it was first celebrated and discuss environmental changes facing the u. S. Join the conversation by calling in or leaving a comment on facebook or twitter. Washington journal live every day at 7 a. M. Eastern on cspan. This weekend is full of live event coverage on the cspan networks with politics on cspan, l. A. Times festival of books on book tv and historians discuss the end of the civil war on American History tv. On cspan saturday morning beginning at 10 eastern live all day coverage of the New Hampshire Republican Party first in the nation leadership summit speakers include texas senator ted cruz, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker Ohio Governor john kasich and kentucky senator rand paul. Soothe at 1 30 p. M. Eastern on cspan 2. Book tv is live from the university of Southern California for the Los Angeles Times festival of books with panels on journalism and publishing and author callin programs throughout the day. Some authors include bestselling buyiographer berg, hewitt and our festival continues at 2 00 with panels on crime and u. S. History with sim quinones and authors will take your phone calls throughout the day. Cspan3 saturday 845 eastern for an all day event they include Harold Holzer James Mcpherson and bash gras gannon the 150th industry of president obama lincolns assassination with the ceremony at lincolns cottage and take a tour of Peterson House where the president died. Get our complete schedule at cspan. Org cspan. Org. Tour of Peterson House where the president died. Get our complete schedule at cspan. Org. At age 25 she was one of the wealthiest widows and during the revolution while in her mid40s she was considered an enemy by the british who threatened to take her hostage. Later shed become our nations first first lady at age 57. Martha washington, this sunday night at 8 p. M. Eastern on cspans original series first ladies influence answer image examining the public and private lives of the women who filled position of first lady and influence on the presidency from Martha Washington to Michelle Obama sundays at 8 p. M. Eastern on American History tv on severe 3 and as a complement to the series cspans new book first ladies, president ial historians on the lives of 45 iconic american women providing lively stories of these women creating an illuminating and inspiring read available as a hard cover or an ebook through your Favorite Book store or online book seller. Next a House Oversight subcommittee on how federal Government Employees view their jobs. Its the focus of an annual survey conducted by the office of Personnel Management which looks at Employee Engagement and Job Satisfaction to determine workforce conditions. The partnership for Public Service then uses the data to rank all federal agencies. The witnesses include representatives from the Homeland Security department, the National Archives, and the Government Accountability office. This is two hours. The committee on Government Operations will come to order and without objection the chair is authorized to declare a recess at any time. Theyve had surveys theyve declared governmentwide in Employee Engagement and satisfaction and get these results from the federal Employee Viewpoint survey. Its an opm administered survey that reaches out to more than 800,000 and nearly 4,000 provides numbereds and kind of a useful metric. 90 of the federal employees surveyed are willing to put in the extra effort necessary to get the job done an incredible number and that they consistently look for better ways to do the job. Yet, Employee Perception of Agency Leadership continues to decline with only 42 of workers expressing confidence in their superiors and thats from cabinet, secretaries all the way to midlevel managers. And only 50 of employees had positive things to say about the integrity it should be a concern for Agency Leaders and raises questions about the priorities in managing our nations more than 2 million Public Servants. Something that is extremely troubling i know to me and the Ranking Member. Our Agency Leaders really doing enough . Is the question, you know survey results from agencies that appear before us today suggest that not enough has been done. And specifically dhs and the chemical safety board are consistently below governmentwide averages for plea engame. In satisfaction. The department of Homeland Security and miss emerson will be hearing you from, the department of Homeland Security rests as the worst place to work among cabinet agencies and saw its score drop by nearly 3 points from 2013. Dhs had ranked 19 of 19 in terms of cabinet agencies on factors such as effective leadership, fairness, empower. And skills to match the mission. Specifically one thats near and dear to me as i have mentioned to you is the secret Service Employees ranked number 276 out of 315 among places to work. I continue to get emails from agents who are willing to give their life for the president and yet theyre afraid to engage in supervisors in terms of making decisions. So i say that. Were having this hearing because this will not be the first of any hearing. This will be an ongoing really the Ranking Member and i believe that focussing on the great workforce that we have is critical. Weve agreed to go out and meet with the rank and file on a regular basis to hear from them and so if the message is out there today, there is at least one democrat and one republican willing to look at what matters most to the hundreds of thousands of federal workforce employees that serve our public every day. I want to thank you for meeting some of the folks for doing a job part of history. As i went around to see the dedicated workers and that are there, i got a real sense of their desire to serve sometimes in a very hot warehouse sometimes in a place that is not necessarily the most glamorous in terms of working for but indeed theyre part of history. And so i share that to say that i have great hope that today mr. Connolly and i will be able to embark on an effort that is not a hearing for tv or anything else. That its a real hearing about a message that these surveys and their input matters, and were going to put real pressure on those who dont perform. I would be remiss in not saying even though my Opening Statement was negative about dhs that the secretary of dhs just came by and had a meeting with mr. Connolly and i and has laid out a number of steps on where he is wanting to address this particular concern for employee morale and so i thank all of the witnesses for being here today and i look forward to a working relationship where we can Work Together to make sure that we have improved numbers but more importantly improved satisfaction of our federal workforce and with that i would recognize the Ranking Member, mr. Connolly from virginia. Thank you, mr. Chairman and thank you for having this hearing and i know your commitment is quite sincere. You want to collaborate to make things better and i think thats a really important point to be emphasized and you and i will collaborate in trying to accomplish that because its easy to complain or highlight problems, its a lot more difficult to try to address them. As you said mr. Chairman the secretary of Homeland Security cared enough about this topic to come and see you and me. Prior to this hearing and i would ask unanimous concept the letter addressed to you and me be entered into the record. Without objection. I thank you my friend. According to the annual federal Employee Viewpoint survey administered by the office of personal management and partnership for Public Service employee morale and Job Satisfaction in the federal government have tliened rather dramatically over the last several years. The partnerships best places to work 2014 analysis concluded that the federal employment morale fell to its lowest point ever since the Organization First started measuring it in 2003. The results of 2014 continue to troubling pattern of decreasing Employee Satisfaction scores for the fourth Consecutive Year dropping from a high of 65 out of 100 in 2010 to 57 today. Federal government is clearly going in the wrong direction with respect to supporting its people when contrasted with private worker sat fact. Private Sector Workers increased their Job Satisfaction in the same time period from 70. 6 in 2010 to 72 in 2014. In fact now the gap between the two federal and private sector has nearly tripled in that time period since 2010. Looking at the data and the dates certain events have likely distribute contributed to the decline. After the great recession, private sector Job Satisfaction started to bounce back in 2010. Conversely, since 2010 federal employees have endured a threeyear pay freeze 140 billion in pay and benefit cuts, sequestration, budget cuts, hiring freezes reductions in performance awards and training budgets and a 16day government shutdown. With also the threat of perhaps shuttling down the department of Homeland Security averted at the 11th hour last month. Its not surprising that these event at long with political attacks disparaging the federal workforce by some including this body have actually had a toll on federal morale imagine. The problem isnt just within federal agency management, part of the problem is the political management problem right here in the halls of congress. We have to take responsibility for the impacts were having on your workforce. Whats even more worrisome is that majorities in both the house and senate recently passed budgets for fiscal year 2016 that would further slash Agency Spending below sequestration levels by 760 billion. Over ten years. These measures call for additional federal workforce related cuts. More than 280 billion over 10 years in the house proposal alone. Im worried about the negative impact of low Employee Engagement and satisfaction in employment productivity, Agency Mission retention of valuable employees and recruitment of the next generation. We specially need to be minefuldful on the service the federal government provides to the American People because thats what well be focused on. Last march i joined with Ranking Members cummings and lynch in requesting that gao conduct a study of federal engage the trems as well as po pension root causes. We asked gao to provide recommendations for improving workforce morale. I know theyre completing that study and is leer to testify about preliminary findings and i welcome mr. Goldencauf to the table. I understand the National Records administration enchemical safety and hazard Investigation Board have ranked poorly in the use surveys. This offers us an opportunity to discuss their particular challenges and the steps theyre taking to address them. So its also important to note many federal agencies are performing better than the ones before us today including entities that boast higher satisfaction and commitment scores than the average private sector score of 72. For example, nasa ranked number one of the large agencies with a score of 74. 6 . Sorry, 74. 6. The top six midsize agencies fdic, gao smithsonian institution, federal trade commission, federal Energy Regulatory commission and the nuclear Regulatory Commission all scored higher than the private sector. Im encouraged that despite the klein in the indices of employ engagement Work Satisfaction 2014 Term Employment have youpoint data indicates federal employees have persevered through a lot of adversity and remain positive about their service to the country which the chairman alluded to. 90 of our federal employees believe that the work they do is important. 96 of our federal employees are willing to put in the extra effort to get the job done. 90 are constantly looking for ways to do a better job. That gives us a lot to work with and makes and renews my faith in who these Public Servants. They are dedicated fellow americans who want to make this a better country and i really appreciate that sentiment being expressed by the chairman who recognize that is in his own interactions with our Public Servants so thank you, mr. Chairman for holding this hearing and i certainly look forward to hearing the testimony and having a chance to have a dialogue with our witnesses. Thank you, mr. Connolly for those insightful remarks. I will hold open the record for five legislative days for any members who would like to submit a written state. Well recognize our panel. Im pleased to welcome david ferreiro, the honorable manual erlich board member of the u. S. Chemical safety board miss Katherine Emerson chief Human Capital officer for the u. S. Department of Homeland Security and mr. Robert goldingcauf for the u. S. Government accountable office. Welcome to you all. All witnesses will be sworn in before they testify so id ask you if you would please ride and raise your right hasnts. Do you solemnly swear or affirm to that your testimony that youre about to give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Let the record reflect that all winters have answered in the affirmative. Thank you and please be seated. In order for to allow some time for discussion and dialogue, i would ask that you would limit your oral testimony to five minutes but your entire written statement will be made part of the record and so mr. Ferrero, well come to you recognized for five minute. Good morning. Chairman meadows and Ranking Member connolly and distinguished members thank you for inviting me to discuss the National Archives and records admission and our ranking in the partnership for Public Services best places to work in federal government. My written testimony contains details of the many actions under way to address employ engagement and morals. What i would like to convey now to you and more importantly tony staff member who may be watching this hearing, is that i take the results of the annual Employee Viewpoint survey very seriously and personally. Much of the work that goes on behind the scenes is hard physical work and windowless facilities that lack amenities found in most federal office settings. Believe me, i know. I began my career pulling and resolving books and journals for long hours in the bowels of the libraries at m. I. T i met with employees, what is most distressing to me many staff feel that they have felt undervalued and overworked for years. Theyre also rightfully frustrated by the simple facts that over the past three decades our holdings have more than tripled. Customer expectations have changed and electronic records require new resources while at the same time our workforce numbers have declined. Were far behind finding efficiencies to do more with less. The very nature of our work has changed to the point where employees of 30 years ago would not even recognize it. Our staff work hard every day to provide Excellent Service to customers and preserve and manage our holdings but the pressure does affect morale. I inherited the low scores when i took the job five years ago. As youll see in my written testimony much has been done but because you invited me you also know positive change has been slow in comes. Weve adopted new of the most innovative practices including the ones in the omb memo in organizational performance and the six best practice strategies recommended by the partnership for Public Service. These practices include holding executives accountable for executing engagement improvement plans developed with staff partnering with our labor union and being transparent about our evs results. More importantly, we listen to staff and are following through with actions they identified as important to improving their satisfaction includeing developing a cadre of motivated well trained supervisors administering a fair and effective performance system, providing meaningful career paths. Creating a culture of respect and appreciation and making the workplace, making Workplace Safety a priority. Providing easy access to the tools employees need to do their jobs. Weve started to see the results of these efforts in our annual scores in 2014 the majority of our employees responded positively to questions focused on the relationship with their supervisor including trust, respect and support. Weve seen improvement in questions related to Performance Management and diversity and inclusion. Our employs have coast fencely demonstrated commitment to nars and responded possley that measure perception of teamwork and quality of work. These are strengths that nar must nurture and grow in order to build Greater Trust and pride in being part of our agency as a whole. They deserve an agency that can honestly call one that they can honestly call one of the best places to work in the federal government. I firmly believe that we are on the right path and that the future is bright for the National Archives millions of people visit our facilities and walk away full of pride having been inspired by the history of our nation. 3,000 nar employees make that experience possible. From those who are driving forklifts to those helping respond to more than 1 million annual requests to help veterans claim benefits to those caring for the declaration of independence they all work for the common good of the National Archives and the citizens of our country and we should all be proud and inspired by their service. Thank you so much for your testimony and ive been informed that it is streaming back to some of your employees and so i know they take to heart your comments but would be remiss if i dont say personally a real thank you to many of them the hospitality they showed me when i was visiting there and for the way this they treated me with not only such Genuine Hospitality but frankness and support ainge i look forward to working with you. Thank you. Mr. Erlich youre recognized for five minutes. Mr. Chairman Ranking Members and members of the sub. Com, thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to appear here today representing u. S. Chemical safety board of the usb. We welcome your visitation to the agency. So you have have a better understanding what we do and how we do it. Since the csb has recently without a chairperson the agency for now is being run with three president ially appointed Board Members of whom i am one. All thee we are working together my views today are my own. I came to the csb with training and experience in Human Resource issues and spent over 50 years in the Chemical Industry in a variety of positions much of my career spent with bsf corporation, the largest Chemical Company in the world. At bsf i worked as a Chemical Plant manager and in many other roles. I completed graduate studies in Chemical Engineering and i have masters degrees from columbia and counseling psychology for business and industry. Many i understand the issues related to some of these Human Behavior topics. In the five months that i have served on the u. S. Chemical safety board, what has impressed me most is the dedication and professionalism in the staff. I have been to Industrial Chemical accident sites with Investigation Teams and have seen firsthand how diligently they perform potentially hazardous work. Put in long hours and spend months away from home. They have a steadfast commitment to making Industrial Chemical facilities safer places for workers, companies and communities. I am privileged to work alongside of them and the rest of the staff. The federal Viewpoint Survey does not show show csb morale is low in some areas. The board is taking steps to improve it and i believe there are critical steps that congress can take to help. But the survey does not tell the whole story. Since i became a board member i personally have met with every staff member facetoface. Ive listened to their concerns sought their input on what we as president and. Ed Board Members can show appreciation for them and found commitment to the csb mission and workplace to be very strong. And morale in many areas is high. The staff derives a great deal of Job Satisfaction finalizing reports presenting them to communities and Public Meetings and news conferences and seeing their safety recommendations implemented. They tell me they get considerable Job Satisfaction in saving lives. That is the csb mission and we take it personally. To address morale issues the csb has an active workplace improve committee. Members of which were suggested by the staff itself. Which has been meeting regularly to suggest specific improvements. They have spoken to all Staff Members since last sunday summer sorry the committee created action items on improving employee onboarding, creating a database the csb of best practices and clarifying employment policies as they are now working to implement these action items. I emphasize again that the core work is being accomplished. The csb has been highly productive particularly in the past year since the opm survey was last conducted. The number of cases is now down to seven from 22. A case backlog five years ago. We closed two more cases in the recent Public Meeting and a tote alvarez eight reports over a ninemonth period. Despite the agency achannels we are in a period of high productivity. I will draw to a close by suggesting the morale could be improved even more if two things could happen. First, we immediate a chairperson confirmed. We need the ability to hire more investigators. Right now we have only 20 to cover the entire country based on our current budget. As a result we frequently must pull investigators off one investigation and put them in new ones on an ad hoc basis. This has caused more than a few morale problems and delays over the years has led to criticism. We do not let the quality of investigations falter. So Additional Resources are needed to perform the csbs mission. In zimmerman summary i would like to reiterate good work is being done at the csb. We are productive. All of us whom the president appointed to the board are committed to working college rally to improve morale further. We look further to working with you and other congressional committees to continue to serve the public. Thank you. Thank you mr. Erlich. Are you streaming this back to your employees today, this hearing . Im sorry but i dont know, sir. Okay. Miss emerson. Chairman meadow, Ranking Member connolly, members of the subcommittee. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to address the department of Homeland Securitys efforts in enhanceing Employee Engagement. Im Katherine Emerson. The departments first career chief Human Capital officer. Im responsible for the departments Human Capital policy which covers recruiting, Diversity Inclusion learning and development and workforce planning in support of dhs mission. My Office Supports Employee Engagement efforts led by secretary johnson and deputy secretary mayorkas. Dhs employees stand on the front lines day in and day out to protect our citizens from threats at home and abroad. Our employees do difficult work under challenging circumstances from protecting the border at the Rio Grande Valley to guiding maritime traffic on the Mississippi River to managing shipments at the port of seattle and welcoming visitors at the Jfk International airport. Therefore, as the deputy secretary has stated we must create the department our employees deserve. We recognize that we must start with our leadership to improve employee more ram. Employee engagement is not a Human Resources program. We see employee engame. S a leadership responsibility for the entire department with Human Capital support. Demonstrating this leadership responsibility the secretary and the deputy secretary launched the employee focus building the department you deserve initiative. Led by the deputy secretary and coordinated through an operationally focused Steering Committee three items this initiative have focused on are, the secretary honoring over300 employees at a recent awards ceremony, this was a first one that was held in over six years. The secretary as directed component leadership to host appropriate ceremonies and events to honor the contributions of their employees in dhs partners and we are doing this to acknowledge and recognize the fine work of our employees. Our employees have asked for Greater Transparency in the departments hiring process. We have posted personnel information on our internal website, provided helpful tips for managers that highlight how to lead a transparent hiring process, and we have made a concerted effort to more prominently post job opportunities. Additionally dhs is continuing to build a common leadership experience that begins at our on boarding and continues throughout our leaders careers. We will continue to emphasize our key executive programs including the dhs Senior Executive service candidate Development Program and the departments own executive Capstone Program for new members of the Senior Executive service. Moreover the secretary and the deputy secretary are committed to personally hearing from our employees. Both of our Senior Leaders hold regular meetings with rank and file employees as well as with supervisors, managers and execute tiffs when visiting field offices or in video conferences. In these meetings they are listening to the concerns and suggestions of our employees across the country. Furthermore, the deputy secretary regularly engages with our Union Partners hearing their feedback and concerns. Building the department our employees deserve is also about finding better ways to do business and building opportunities for them to succeed. We thank congress and this committee particularly chairman cahafitz. This legislation is an excellent example of finding a better way to do business as it replaces the administratively un uncontrollable overtime model with a new and sound process for ensuring our Border Patrol personnel are properly paid for their work. We are leaning forward to implement action that is we believe will make a lasting and viable difference to our employees. In the words of secretary johnson, we must inject a new energy into dhs and we are working diligently to do just that. Through our efforts we hope to enhance the Work Experience and honor the contributions of our hardworking and dedicated workforce. Thank you again for supporting our employees who are protecting all of us each and every day. I look forward to your questions. Miss emerson, thank you for your testimony and i will say thank you for the energy i witnessed just in the meeting prior to this and i look forward to working with you