Particularly on the Government Affairs portion. We have a Mission Statement that we developed last congress with my former Ranking Member senator carper and then my new Ranking Member had a very good addition to it. The original one was to enhance the economic and National Security of america and the senator suggested we add for efficient and effective Accountable Government and thats what the gao and Inspector Generals do. We certainly appreciate your work. I dont know how many times ive said it, youre our favorite folks in government. You give us the information that really can make government more efficient and effective and accountable. Todays hearing is really on the gaos high risk series. Their list. This is something thats been prepared by gao since the early 90s. The facts speak for themselves. Just the last ten years, a gao report that 240 million over a tenyear period by enacting their recommendations to make government more efficient and effective. Thats 24 billion per year. Of course, igs play a key role in that as well. Senator grassly and i sent a letter requesting the igs last Congress Give us a list of all their recommendations that are outstanding. The result was 15,222 net potential savings about 87 billion. So even in the federal government, thats real money. Its really folks like you that can make a huge difference. Todays hearing what we decided to do is because weve listened to without notes and he can speak an awful lot but rather than have him completely on the hot seat there, we thought wed invite two Inspector Generals, mr. Mike missil and mr. John rock testify in terms of their department and the activity in the high risk list. And then we also invited mr. John thompson to be here not for the hot seat. I wanted to bring in the director, this is obviously the census is under this committees jurisdiction. I wanted to bring in the director and get your viewpoint in terms of how one of those agencies is listed on the high risk list. How you view that. What you do. What are your challenges in trying to get off the high risk list and how seriously you really take it. I truly appreciate it. Well go easy on you here. We truly appreciate you coming. Again, looking forward to the hearing. Ill turn it over. Thank you, mr. Chairman, for holding this important hearing. I really i know that i really consider gao the most important entity in washington d. C. Its an independent, nonpart Season Agency that investigates how the federal government spends tax dollars. Your work supports us in meeting our legislative and oversight obligations under the constitution and helps improve accountability in the federal government. The important thing is you provide information thats objective, fact based, nonpartisan, fair, and balanced. At the beginning of each congress, you release a report of Government Programs that are high risk due to vulnerabilities to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement. Youre invited the leader comptroller to testify. I appreciate this hearing is one of our first full Committee Meetings of the 115th congress. Your 2017 high risk report provides us with a list of priorities of how this committee can target and root out waste, fraud, and abuse. For example, your report says the federal government overseas an 80 oversees 80 billion in taxpayer funds for information and technology investments. But many i. T. Experience significant cost overruns. Contract oversight is not a new problem in government but it remains one of the while most Government Employees are dedicated public servants, the high risk report highlights that more work is needed to ensure that the federal mccarcinomas Skill Mission critical skill g mccaskill to its list of high lovac areas. Knowing that our next census is rapidly approaching, im grateful the director is here to provide a status update on the program. The cost of the census has risen over the last decades with the 2010 census being the costliest u. S. Census in history. Billions of dollars were wasted on programs that had to be scrapped at the last minute in order to ensure the 2010 census was done on time. Given these challenges and the Important Role the census plays in counting our citizens as well as advocating precious taxpayer dollars to communities im eager how the bureau expects to effectively manage costs and monitor the brand. Im grateful to the Inspector Generalals for joining us here today to discuss work to improve Government Programs at the department of Homeland Security and veteran affairs respectively. Has full access to the National Database on new hires. A key tool for cutting waste and fraud in many of the governments largest programs as well as allowing states to aggressively pursue Child Support payments. The law also strengthens gaos ability to take legal action if an agency refuses to provide gao with information necessary to perform its functions. This law is a great example of what our committee can do when we Work Together to promote accountability in the federal government. The federal government spends more than 3 trillion annually on behalf of the American People. We must ensure those tax dollars are spent well. Thank you so much for being here. Ill look forward to questions. It is the tradition of this committee to swear in witnesses. So if youll rise and raise your right hand. Please be seated. Our first witness is mr. Eugene dodaro. He has more than 40 years of experience with gao include willing as acting comptroller general, chief operating officer, and head of the accounting management division. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. Good afternoon to you. Im very pleased to be here today to discuss the latest addition to gaos high risk program. Im pleased to report that many of the areas of the 32 areas on the list in 2015 have shown improvement and are in a position now that they either meet or partially meet all five criteria for coming off the list, leadership, capacity, a good action plan, monitoring effort, and you have to demonstrate some progress. This is the one thats the hardest to meet, to actually show youre reducing the risk or making progress in fixing the problems addressed. This progress is due to commitment by Agency Leaders as well as staffing the agency and the congress. Im very pleased thatted the congress in the past 114th Congress Passed over 12 bills to address high risk areas and were part of the reason why were showing this progress and Congress Held over 250 hearings on areas discussed in gaos high risk program. So im pleased this committee in particular was sponsoring bills, holding hearings. I appreciate that. But congress is key to making progress. If you look at almost every area that we identify as achieving progress, congressional action has been instrumental in achieving that degree of progress. One area has met all the criteria coming off the list managing the sharing of terrorismrelated information. This was a very important area to the safety of our country and i could assure this committee while its coming off the list it doesnt mean its out of sight. Were going to keep an eye on it. Make sure that things stay on track in that area. Another area is department of Homeland Security. Theyve continued to show steady progress. Weve theyve improved their ability to monitor their action plan that they have in place. They really need to focus on their acquisition programs, fixing their Financial Management systems, and improving employee morale. Thats what they need to continue to do. There are a number of areas on the list, however, that need substantial attention. These i would particularly cite to this committees attention. First is veteran healthcare. I added that to the list in 2015 for a number of very Important Reasons that i can elaborate on in a q a. But im very concerned that theyve only made limited progress. Defense department Financial Management. Weve talked about that several times before this committee. Theyre still the only Major Federal Agency that has not been able to pass the test of an audit. Information technology and acquisitions and operations that senator mccaskill mentioned. Thats an area that needs significant oversight and attention to fix. Cyber security. Both Cyber Security as it relates to federal governments own Information Systems but also Critical Infrastructure like the electricity grid, Financial Markets, air Traffic Control system and others. We added the federal government as a high risk area to the list in 1997. This is the 20thyear anniversary. Weve been trying to get agencies to move on that area and despite even the breaches, we have a thousand recommend additions that are still outstanding in the Cyber Security area. And then reforming the Housing Finance system. This is one area that was not addressed coming out of the Global Financial crisis. Fanny may and freddie mac are still in conservatorship that theyve been in since 2008. A lot of the risk has moved to the federal government either directly or indirectly. Directly through the federal Housing Administration who had to get an infusion of treasury between 1 and 2 billion a few years ago. 70 of all the mortgages right now are either for Single Family homes or directly or indirectly supported by the federal government. We need to address fanny, freddie, and get the private sector back into the Financial Market as well. Provide oversight over programs to help Indian Tribes and their members. Were very concerned. We looked at the education programs. Not properly staffed. Healthcare area. There are no quality standards for healthcare. A lot of vacant positions. Not properly staffed, no quality standards for healthcare, a lot of vacant position, distributing funds to send people to private sector care if its not available in indian hospitals, theyre still using a formula they used in the 1930s. It needs attention. Also where the tribes want to exploit oil and gas on their lands but they need federal permitting and licensing explore oil and gas on their lands and its slow. Theyre not able to generate that revenue to help them deal with those issues. Secondly, both to dispose of waste from Nuclear Weapons complex as well as from commercial power plants. The liability right now is approaching 1 2 trillion dollars. I believe it to be understated because of problems we saw one example for d. O. D. And not properly estimating environmental viabilities for cleaning up after department op rehabilitations as well. The federal government spends millions of dollars every year to clean up this waste but it keeps growing, not enough Decision Making in those areas and we have a number of outstanding recommendations. The last is the census, as you mentioned. We added that to the list because the last census was over 12 billion, costliest ever. In order to contain costs they introduced a lot of novel concepts using the internet. Address lists from spatial and other means rather than doortodoor canvassing and using administrative records. All these things add to the risk. Final plans have not been put in place yet. We look forward to answering questions from this committee. Thank you. Mr. Thompson is the director of the Census Bureau. Before that he was president and ceo of norc, known as the National Opinion research center. Director thompson. Good afternoon, chairman johnson, Ranking Member, mccaskill and members of the committee. I appreciate the opportunity to update you on the 2020 census. Im proud to report today we remain on the Critical Path to rea readiness. The 2020 census has been added to the most recent high list risk from the Government Accountability office. Both the 2000 and 2010 censuses were also on this list a reflection of the complexity, scale and importance of condu conducting a fair and accurate census. This decade, the complexity is heightened as we replace the paper and pencilbased design with Innovative Technologies that will save taxpayers bill n billions of dollars. We already have robust controls in place to mitigate the risks of carrying out this constitutionally mandated task. As we plan and test the 34 operations and roughly 50 systems that comprise the 2020 census, were aware of the many risks the program faces. Thats why were working rigorously to moderate and manage and mitigate those risks. In the final years of the deca e decade, Risk Management is critical to our Operational Plan in 2020. Other important part is continuing to work with the colleagues at the gao and inspector of commerccommerce. I discuss it in greater detail in my testimony for the record including overarching risk of funding uncertainty. Today, i want to highlight following specific risk areas, were concentrating on. First, cybersecurity, fraud detection and insuring the publics trust. Were actively securing our sk m skims and devices for the went went census and 2020 census and field tests insuring we prevent Cyber Attacks and we will use a layered strategy. Second, insuring systems read readiness. We developed and field tested proof of concept systems and the design is supported by findings from the census tests. Now that weve awarded nearly all the key contracts for 2020, were finalizing our systems ahead of the 2018 end to end census test. Third, refine our field procedures through testing, fourth, managing the integrative master schedule for the 2020 census and its supporting progr programs. Lastly, documenting and valid e validating our 2020 census life cycle cost estimates. Census tests are key to final e finalizing our designs and reducing risks. Last year, we tested core census operations in texas and los angeles county, california. Additionally we tested our address canvassing procedures and systems in parts of North Carolina and st. Louis, missouri. We learned many lessons from these tests and were using those lessons to refine our operations and mitigate the r k risks of an innovative census. In addition, the Census Bureau has planned test operations in 2017, these involved Critical Systems in operations that must be tested ahead of the 2018 end to end census test. The 2018 end to end census test is the final major field test before the 2020 census. Field operations will begin on august, 2017 with a census day of 2018. Pierce county, washington, providence county, rhode island and blue field beckley oak hill area of west virginia. Collectively it will cover about 77,000 housing units. Well test and prove in nearly all of the 2020 census operat n operations, procedures and field infrastructure. We will also produce prototypes of our geographic and data release products making sure all of theisen sus systems work individually and in concert with each other is critical. Using the lessons from 2018 will make any necessary adjustments to insure were ready for the census and finalize our plans for operations. Weve been transparent how were approaching the redesigned census and held public Quarterly Program management reviews, we publicly documented and tracked our biggest decision and shared our master schedule with the gao every month. There are many challenges ahead. Were confident with appropriate funding levels we can success l successfully execute the 2020 census. I need to note 2017 and 2018 are critical years in the census cycle. The funding we receive in these years will have a great effect on the outcome of the 2020 census including achieving 5 million in cost savings. Wi were six months away from field work on the census but not yet clarity regarding the programs funding in 2017. In january, uncertainty about the fullback iscal 2017 budget us to make difficult decision s on scopes of the program and uncertainty funding lists. This will add to more work in 2019, to a delay in opening three of our six Regional Census Centers in 2017 and the elimination of advertising in the 2018 end to end census test. It will lead to deep cuts in program and Test Management operations despite the gao and our Inspector General deeming them critical for a program of this complexity. I must stress we need Adequate Funding to do development, validation and documentation and planning necessary for Risk Mitigation in which the gao has urged us to conduct. We are planning an innovative modern design for 2020 that will bring the census into the 21st century. Our approach takes advantag