And abuse. The hearing is about two hours. This hearing will come to order. Good afternoon. I want to welcome our witnesses. I appreciate your thoughtful testimony and your willingness to spend some time with us here today. I ask consent for my written Opening Statement be entered in the record. This hearing really is what this committees all about, particularly on the Governmental Affairs portion, but we have a Mission Statement that we developed last congress with my former Ranking Member and then my new ranking 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 and promote efficient, more efficient, effective and Accountable Government and thats what the gao does and Inspector Generals do. We appreciate your work. I dont know how many times ive said and others have said 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 on the gaos high risk series. Its been prepared by the gao since the early 90s. In the last ten years gao reports about 240 million over that ten year period by enacting their recommendations to make the government more effective. Igs play a key role in that as well. We sent a letter and requested the igs last Congress Give us a list of all their recommendat n recommendatirecommendatio recommendations that have been outstanding. The result was 222 potential savings for about 87 billion. Even in the federal government thats real money and its really folks like you that can make a huge difference. Todays hearing what we decided to do is weve listened to the testimony, but rather than have him on the hot seat we thought we would invite two Inspector Generals to testify in terms of their department and the activity and the high risk list and we also invited the director of the Census Bureau. We depuidnt invite you to be h in the hot seat. The census is under this committees authority. We want to know how you view that, what are your challenges in trying to get off the high risk list and how seriously you take it. I appreciate it. Well go easy on you here. Looking forward to the hearing. I dont want to spend much more time. Thank you, mr. Chairman, for holding this important hearing. I really i know that you know this, that i really consider the gao one of the most important entities in washington, d. C. Its an independent nonpartisan agency that National Weather service how the federal government spends tax dollars. Your work supports us in meeting our legislative and oversight obligations under the constitution and helps us to improve accountability in the federal government. The important thing is your information is objective and fact based, nonpartisan, fair and balanced. At the beginning of each congress, you release a report of Government Programs that are at high risk due to the vulnerabilities much fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement. The committee invites you to testify. I appreciate this hearing is one of our first full Committee Hearings of the 115th congress. Your report provides us with a list of priorities for how this committee can target and root out waste, fraud and abuse. For example, your report says the federal government oversees more than 80 billion in taxpayer funds for information, technology investments, but poor management leads many i. T. Contracting projects to fail or experience cost overruns. Contract oversight is not a new problem in government, but it remains one of the most important problems out there. While most Government Employees are dedicated public servieants more work is needed to make sure the federal government performs for efficiently on behalf of the American People. This report identifies many skill gaps within the federal workforce that can pose risks to tax dollars and lives. It is alarming that even after the large scale cyber breach at the office of Personnel Management and the medical wait list scandal at the department of Veterans Affairs that some of the skills gaps still include Cyber Security and nursing. This year gao added the 2020 census program. I am grateful the director is here to provide a status update on the program. The cost of the census has risen over the last few decades with the 2010 census being the costly 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 and allocating precious tax dollars to the communities, im eager to learn how the bureau manages cost this time. Im grateful to discuss the improvement programs. When there is effective oversight and accountability in government, money gets wasted. As a former state auditor i consider Government Accountability as maybe the most important work here in the senate. Last week President Trump signed into law the act and a measure that i co sponsored to ensure that gao has full access to the National Database for new hires, a key tool for cutting waste and fraud in Government Programs and allowing states to aggressively pursue Child Support payments. The law also strengthens the ability to take legal action if an agency refuses to provide gao information necessarily 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 is a complex system of agencies that spends more than 3 trillion on behalf of the American People. Thank you so much for being here today. Thank you, mr. Chairman, for having this committee and ill look forward to questions. Thank you. It is the tradition of this committee to swear in witnesses, so if you would all rise and raise your right hand. Do you swear the testimony you give before this committee will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god . Please be seated. Our first witness is thas been the office since 2010 and has more than 40 years in the agency including chief operating office and head of the accounting and information division. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Good afternoon to you. Im very pleased to be here today to discuss the latest addition to the gaos high risk program. Im pleased to report that many of the areas of the 32 areas that were on a 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. The five criteria are leadership. You have to have the capacity. You have to have a good action plan monitoring effort and you have to demonstrate some progress. This is the one thats the hardest to meet to show youre reducing the risk or making progress in fixing the problems addressed. This progress is due to commitment by some of the Agency Leaders as well as the staff in the agencies and the congress. Im very pleased that the congress in the past 114th Congress Passed over 12 bills that addressed 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 programs. So im very pleased this committee in particular was sponsoring a number of bills, holding a lot of hearings and im very appreciative of that, but congress is key to making progress. If you look at almost every area that we identify as achieving progress, congressional actions have been instrumental in achieving that degree of progress. One area has met all the criteria is coming off the list. Thats managing the sharing of terrorism related information. This was a very important area to the safety of our country. I can assure this committee while its coming off the list, it doesnt mean its out of sight. Were going to seep keep an eyet and make sure that things stay on track in that area. Another area i know this committee is interested in is the department of Homeland Security. Theyve continued to show steady progressed. Theyve improved their ability to monitor their action plan they have in place. They really need to focus on their acquisition programs, fixing their Financial Management systems and improving employee morale. Those are the key things they need to continue to do. There are a number of areas on the list that need substantial and these i would particularly cite to this committees attention. First have Veterans Health care. I added that to the list in 2015 for a number of very Important Reasons that i can elaborate on in a q and 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 hasnt been able to pass the test of an audit. Information technology and acquisitions and operations. Thats an area that while were seeing progress needs significant more oversight and attention to make sure it gets fixed. Cyber security, both Cyber Security as it relates to the federal governments information systems, but also infrastructure like the electricity grid, official markets, air Traffic Control system and others. We added Cyber Security across the federal government as a high risk area to the list in 1997. This is a 20year anniversary. Weve been trying to get agencies to move on that area and despite even the breaches, we have 1,000 recommendations 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 mae and fanny mack are still in conservetorship that theyve been in since 2008. The Housing Administration had to get an infusion of treasury between 1 billion and 2 billion a few years ago. 70 of all the mortgages right now are for either Single Family homes or are directly or indirectly supported by the federal government. We need to address fanny and freddie and get the private sector back into the Financial Market as well to reduce the risk on the federal government. Were adding three new areas this year. First is the federal efforts to oversee provide oversight over programs to help Indian Tribes and their members. Were very concerned. We look at the education programs. The schools are in poor condition, not properly staffed, the health care area, there are no quality standards for health care. A lot of vacant positions. Theyre 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 and its slow. It takes forever and theyre not able to generate that revenue that could help them deal with the number of their issues. Secondly is growth and environmental liebabilities for the federal government. The liability right now is approaching 1. Trillion. I believe it to be understated because of problems at dod and not properly investigating Environmental Liabilities for cleaning up after Defense Department operations. The federal government spends billions of dollars every year to clean up the waste, but the liability keeps growing. Theres not enough risk based Decision Making made in those areas. We have a number of outstanding recommendations. Last area is the census. As you mentioned, weve added that to the list because of the fact the last census was over 12 billion. The costliest ever. In order to contain costs, theyve introduced a lot of novel concepts using the internet, developing address lists from spashl and other means rather than going door to door canvassing. All these things add to the risk. The final plans have not been put in place yet. We look forward to working with this committee and i look forward to answering questions today at the appropriate time. Thank you very much. Thank you. Our next witness is mr. John thompson, the director of the Census Bureau. He was president and ceo of the National Opinion research center. Director thompson. Good afternoon, chairman johnson, Ranking Member 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 readiness. The census has been added to the most recent high risk list. Both the 2000 and 2010 censuses were on this list which is a reflection of the complexity, scale and importance of conducting a fair and accurate census. This decade the complexity is heightened as we replace a paper and pencil based design with Innovative Technologies that will save taxpayers billions of dollars. We already have robust controls in place to mitigate the risks that are inherent in carrying out this constitutionally mandated tasks. As we plan the 50 systems that comprise the census, were aware of the risks the program faces. Thats why were working to mitigate those risks. In the final years of the decade, Risk Management is critical to our Operational Plan for 2020. Another important part of our preparations is continuing to work with our colleagues at the gao and the office of the Inspector General at the department of commerce. I discussed the steps were taking to mitigate the risks in greater detail in my written testimony. Today i want to highlight the following specific risk areas that were concentrating on. First, Cyber Security, fraud detection and ensuring the publics trust. Were actively securing our systems and devices for the 2020 census while ensuring that we prevent fraud and cyber attacks. Well use a layered Defense Strategy to protect the data we collect and administrative records. Second, ensuring systems readiness. Weve developed and field tested concept systems and our design is supported by findings from the tests. Now that weve awarded nearly all of the key contracts for 2020, were finalize until our systems ahead of the 2018 endtoend census test. Third, refining our field procedures through testing. Fourth, managing the schedule for the census and the supporting programs and lastly documenting and validating our 2020 census life cycle cost estimates. Census tests are key to finalizing our designs and reducing risk. Last year we tested core census operations in harris county, 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 operations and mitigate the risks of an innovative census. The bureau has planned test operations in 2017. These involved Critical Systems and operations that must be tested ahead of the 2018 endtoend census test. The 2018 endtoend census test is the final major field test before the 2020 census. Field operations will begin in august 2017 with a census day of april 1, 2018. Well conduct the test in three areas. Pierce count, washington, Providence County rhode island and the Bluefield Beckley area of west virginia. It will cover about 770,000 housing units. Well test in nearly all of the 2020 census field infrastructure. Were also produce prototypes of our data release products making sure all of these systems work with each other is critical. Using the lessons from 2018 will make any necessary adjustments to ensure that were ready for the census and finalize plans for operations. Weve been transparent about how were approaching the redesigned census. Weve held management reviews and we publicly documented and track our biggest decisions. Ive shared our master schedule with the gao every month. There are many challenges ahead, but were confident that with appropriate funding levels we can successfully execute the 2020 census. I need to note that 2017 and 2018 are critical years in the census cycle. The funding with he receive we e a great effect on the census. Were less than six months away from beginning field work on the final major test for the 2020 census, but theres not yet clarity regarding the promigram funding in 2017. In january uncertainty about the 2017 the fiscal 2017 budget required us to make difficult decisions to descope some aspec