Cspan. Org. Cspan is your own unfiltered view of government funded by these companies and more including comcast. Are you thinking it is just a Community Center . No. It is way more than that. Comcast is partnering with a thousand comnity centers to create wifi enabled lift zones so students fromow income families can get the tools they need to be ready for anything. Along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. Next a hearing on oversight of u. S. Assistance to ukraine in the fight against russia. The inspectors general for the defense and state departments along with the Inspector General for the u. S. Agency for International Governments testifies. From the House Foreign Affairs committee this is three hours. The committee on Foreign Affairs will come to order. The purpose of this hearing is to assess the accountability mechanisms that ensure american taxpayer money is being spent as intended in ukraine. I now recognize myself for an opening statement. Its been a year since Vladimir Putin launched his unprovoked war of aggression in ukraine. In response, europe has provided significant aid but must continue to do more to keep the government of ukraine from defaulting and ensure it is able to prosecute the war. Additionally congress has also provided a significant amount of assistance to ukraine to ensure putins aggression is stopped at ukraines border and that a nato ally is not next. I supported this assistance because a victory by putin in ukraine would further embolden americas adversaries from chairman xi in beijing to the ahatollah in tehran, to kim jung un in north korea. However, it is imperative the American People know about the existing accountability mechanisms including thirdparty monitors such as dwight and the robust oversight being conducted by congress. In particular this committee. When republicans took the majority we made it very clear accountability will be paramount to continued assistance in ukraine. This is just the first of many hearings and briefings i will hold to ensure the assistance we are providing is being used as intended. Of the 113 billion propose rated across four supplementals, approximately 60 is going to american troops, american workers, and the modernizing of american stockpiles. In fact, only 20 of the funding is going directly to the Ukrainian Government in the form of direct budgetary assistance. As required by law these funds are only disbursed to ukraine following verification that the money is spent on approved items and activities. All funds are subjected to external Third Party Monitoring by deloitte. They are conducting randomized spot checks to verify the use of this assistance. Additionally they are working with ukraines ministry of finance to review its monitoring, transparency, verification, and reporting systems and procedures. Today we have the opportunity to question the independent Inspector Generals from the department of state, u. S. Aid and department of defense. This is the first time all three of you have appeared together before any committee to discuss your oversight role in the 64 planned and ongoing audits and reviews of u. S. Assistance to ukraine. Your work is a critical component to ensure congress is being good stewards of the taxpayers money, and it is necessary to prevent waste, fraud, or abuse and if need be investigate and resolve any incidents. Congress has also been exercising oversight. Through the passage of several bills weve ensured 39 accountability provisions passed into law. Since day one as chairman of this committee i have and actively exercising my responsibility to pursue stringent oversight as well. My First Committee meeting was a classified briefing on the u. S. Response to russias full scale invasion of ukraine. Last month i led a congressional delegation to ukraine and poland to conduct inperson oversight of u. S. Aid to ukraine. I saw firsthand the process is working and delivered a clear message not only to our embassy team but also to present zelenskyy about the importance of u. S. Aid to be spent appropriately to guarantee continued support. In short every dollar counts. The Biden Administration expects this committee to continue to be vigilant in transparency and accountability for u. S. Assistance to ukraine. To be clear, i do not conduct this oversight to undermine or question the importance of support for ukraine but rather to the contrary, oversight should incentivize the administration and ukraine to use funds from congress with the highest degree of efficiency and effectiveness. While there is strong bipartisan support on this committee and in congress for the continued support of ukraine, transparency and accountability are critical to ensure the aid were providing is being used as intended. It advances u. S. National security interests. The american taxpayer wants and deserved accountability. They want to and deserve to know where their money is going. In closing i want to say as i met with all three of you, the first supplemental was passed. I know speaking with the state department, with u. S. Aid, with the department of defense, with our ambassador to ukraine, i stressed to them the importance of putting mechanisms early in place from day one to ensure we had accountability in place. I think well hear from you how that actually isnt working. Its always better to be in right at the beginning rather than later on when something wrong has happened. Really appreciate you being here today and look forward to your testimony wan that i recognize the Ranking Member. Thank you, mr. Chairman and to our witnesses. As we all know russias brutal war against ukraine grinds into its second year and congress and the American People will continue to stand with the brave ukrainians defending their rights and freedoms. Ukrainians did not ask for this unjust aggression. They are only asking for our support as they defend their home and their sovereignty. It is in our National Interest to provide that support to ukraine so it may win this war, which it will. Our effort isnt just about ukraine and its citizens. This struggle is for democracies around the world and free people standing up to brutal autocrats like putin to reinforce the notion that might does not make right. When i was chairman and served as chair i was proud to lead congressional delegations to ukraine, muldova, nato headquarters, and other critical neighboring countries in a bipartisan fashion before and after the february 24th full scale invasion. We were together on many of those trips and i believe bipartisan unity, strengthens our coalition of allies and partners and i want to thank the chairman who traveled with me to many of those places and we worked very collectively in that regard as we continue to do here. On those visits and in the hearings and briefings weve held over the years weve had the opportunity to see first hand the impact american assistance to ukraine has had on the trajectory of this war. We also had the opportunity to engage with the administration on its diplomatic and military strategy as well as the unprecedented oversight the administration and offices of our witnesses here to date are undertaking. Which is why, to be frank, it is not the chairman and i disagree with the premise cited by some others on the other side of the aisle who are falsely claiming that support for ukraine is, and i quote, a blank check. This is simply not based in fact. It reveals a lack of understanding of the safeguards already in place on our assistance to ukraine or, worse, an effort to mislead the public to undermine the assistance in ukraines defense against russias invasion. Better in our countrys support for ukraine are strict oversight mechanisms. Every dollar and shipment of u. S. Security assistance provided is audaciously cracked by an integrated whole of government effort led by the departments of state and defense. These mechanisms arent new. They span across agencies and coalesce into the inner agency that has regularly briefed, been briefed to congress including the administrations interagency effort entitled the u. S. Plan to counter illicit diversion of certain advanced conventional weapons and eastern europe. Members of this Committee Received multiple briefings on this very effort and have available to them scores of documents detailing the exact types of assistance provided to ukraine and the timing of that assistance. In addition to the administrations own efforts to ensure utmost monitoring and accountability of our assistance to ukraine, three inspectors generals overseeing the state department, defense department, and usaid developed an integrated response and accountability investigation approach called the joint strategic oversight plan for ukraine. In january of this year our witnesses traveled together and we thank you for that, to ukraine, underscoring the seriousness with which the administration is taking your work as inspectors generals. Your trip is just one facet of a sustained oversight over the humanitarian, economic, and military aid to ukraine and to neighboring countries affected by the war. But the u. S. Does more than provide defense and humanitarian assistance. We are providing global leadership. When putin gave the order to invade ukraine he did so under the false assumption the rest would be divided and the United States and our partners and allies would not meet this historic moment. I want to commend the Biden Administration for leading global efforts to push back against russian aggression and cultivating unity against russias actions in ukraine. Now, the world is watching us. Unfortunately, some of my friends on the other side of the aisle who happen to be maga republicans are putting putin exactly where he wants and giving him exactly what he wants and even at times repeating kremlin talking points. We cannot allow those efforts to compromise u. S. Leadership in places like the u. N. Where our diplomats sit across from our russian counterparts. I want to thank our witnesses and our chairman for his stand up and fighting to make sure we continue to give the ukrainian people what they need to make sure they are able to win this war. Youve been stand up. Weve been walking side by side in that and i want to make sure it is clear that i appreciate the actions and movement of the chairman and i and we will continue to Work Together and thank you for the work that you do to assure the American People that we know where every dime is and with that i yield back. The gentleman yields back. I really appreciate your comments, sir. I think this is a necessary step to build confidence with the congress that the money is being accounted for. And so other members of the committee, you are reminded Opening Statements may be submitted for the record. We are pleased to have a distinguished panel of witnesses before us today. We have the deputy Inspector General who is currently performing duties of the Inspector General at department of state. We have the acting deputy Inspector General who is currently performing the duties of Inspector General at the u. S. Agency for International Development. And we have the Inspector General at the department of defense. I want to thank all of you for being here today. Your full statements will be part of the record. I ask that you keep your spoken remarks to five minutes. I now recognize ms. Shaw for opening statement. Good morning, chairman, Ranking Member meeks, distinguished members of the committee. Thank you so much for inviting me to discuss the department of state office of Inspector Generals oversight of the u. S. Government response to the war in ukraine. Im very pleased today to be joined by my counterparts from our primary oversight partners in this space the u. S. Agency for International Development and department of defense oigs. To date congress propose rated more than 100 billion to fund a vast array of activities in support to the response to the war in ukraine. We in the Oversight Committee recognize it is vitally important to our stakeholders including all of you and the American People that those precious resources reach their intended beneficiaries and accomplish intended goals. Fraud, waste, and inefficiency cannot be allowed to taint that effort, which is why we take our oversight role incredibly seriously and have each made oversight of the u. S. Response to the war in ukraine our number one priority. The status us aid and dodig are well positioned to take on this critical interagency oversight work given our long history of collaborating on overseas contingency operations. Leveraging that history and the deep relationships weve forged with each other and others in the Oversight Community over many years, we established the Ukraine Oversight Interagency Working Group nearly a year ago. Consisting of professionals from 20 u. S. Government accountability organizations. The closely coordinated work of that group is resulting in agile, integrated, and comprehensive oversight of the sizable u. S. Enterprise. As reflected in the joint strategic oversight plan for ukraine we published earlier this year. This plan and a report issued this week expanding on the plan present the full range of the working groups ukraine related work amounting to nearly 90 completed, ongoing, and planned projects. The plan and recent report detail three strategic areas of oversight that cover the water front of the u. S. Ukraine response effort. These are Security Assistance and coordination, nonSecurity Assistance and coordination, and management and operations. State oig has carefully designed its work to contribute in important ways in each of these three areas. Our work, which is described in more detail in my written testimony and on the state oig website is expected to culminate in more than two dozen products that explore a range of topics within each of the strategic areas including end use monitoring of u. S. Origin defense articles and other equipment, how the department is deploying aid to address humanitarian needs, whether the department has developed a strategy for the billions of dollars of foreign assistance flowing to ukraine, and embassy kyiv operations from its shuttering in february of 2022 to its reopening in may to its current operating status. In addition to this important work we also recognize the need to be proactive especially as it relates to our antifraud and corruption efforts. On that front we are working with oig counterparts to disseminate products to increase fraud awareness and reporting and also expanding our investigative Data Analytics capacity to help identify trends in the ukraine related fraud reporting as well as common criminal schemes. I am confident that our completed, ongoing, and planned work when taken together with that of our partners on the working group will provide an endtoend account of how the vast resources propose rated in this context appropriated in this context are being utilized. Weve made an excellent start but there is a potentially long road ahead and to that end we need to strategically plan how best to do this important work. This was forefront in our minds when we traveled to ukraine and the region earlier this year. My counterparts and i directly communicated to u. S. And ukrainian officials the message u. S. Assistance must be transparently accounted for and that corruption affecting u. S. Assistance will not be tolerated. That message was well received at the time but we recognize continuous inperson engagement and direct observation will be needed to ensure necessary controls are in place. We are working closely with the department to secure permanent positions at embassy kyiv which we believe will help us better deliver the independent oversight on which our stakeholders rely. Thank you for your interest in our work and the opportunity to discuss our commitment to timely, objective, comprehensive u. S. ukraine response oversight. I look forward to addressing the committees questions. Thank you, ms. Shaw. I now recognize ms. Angela for her opening statement. Good morning mr. Chairman and Ranking Member meeks and distinguished members of the committee. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the u. S. Agency for International Development office of Inspector Generals oversight of assistance to the government and people of ukraine. Im honored to be sitting here today with my close partners ig stoich and deputy ig shaw. My testimony will discuss response efforts including a summary of our recent planned and ongoing work overseeing u. S. Aids economic and humanitarian assistance to ukraine. I want to clearly state that providing timely, independent, and objective oversight of u. S. Aid is my top priority. I appreciate the support from members of this committee providing 13 million in supplemental funding to our office to conduct this important work. Since the start of russias invasion u. S. Aid has been the primary agency providing nonSecurity Assistance to ukraine including billions of dollars appropriated in direct budget support, also humanitarian assistance and more than 800 million in development assistance. This support requires proportionate levels of independent oversight. To provide this oversight u. S. Aid oig has more than 60 staff supporting its ukraine portfolio. Over the past nine months we issued eight products including a jo