This hearing will come to order. Good afternoon. I want to welcome our witnesses. Appreciate your thoughtful testimony and your willingness to spend time here with us today. I ask consent that my written Opening Statement be entered into the record. Without objection. This hearing really is what this committee is all about. Particularly on the Governmental Affairs portion. We have a Mission Statement that we developed last congress with my former Ranking Member senator and no Ranking Member add very good addition to it. The original one is to enhance the economic and national and senator asked we have more efficient accountable government. Thats what the gao does. Thats what Inspector Generals do. And so we certainly appreciate your work. I dont know how many times i have said it, others have said youre our favorite folks in government. You give us the information that really can make government more efficient, more effective and accountable. Todays hearing is on the gaos high risk series. This is something thats been prepared by gao since the early 90s. Facts speak for them selves and just last ten years, gao reports that about 240 million over the tenyear period, enacting their recommendation answers 24 billion per year. Igs play a key role under that as well. Senator grassley and i sent a letter requesting the igs last control give us a list of all their recommendations that are outstanding. They have been implemented. The result was 15,222 net potential savings of about 87 billion. Even if 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 because we have listened to mr. Dedario testify beautifully without notes and he can speak an awful lot but rather than have him completely on hot seat we thought we would invite two inspectors generals he, we have mr. Mike missal and mr. John roth, Inspector General of the Homeland Security, to testify in terms of their department and activity and high risk list and we invited mr. Thompson. And we didnt invied you here to be on the hot seat. I wanted to bring in the director. And the census is under this jurisdiction. I wanted to bring in director and get your viewpoint in terms of how a director, one of these agencies listed on the high risk list. How you view that, what are your challenges in getting off the high risk list, and how seriously you take it. I truly appreciate what we will good easy on you here and appreciate you coming. Again looking forward to the hearing. I dont want to spend much more time. I will send it off to senator mccaskill. Thank you. I consider the gao one of the most important entities in washington, d. C. An independent nonpartisan agency that investigates how the federal government spends tax dollars. You support us in meeting our oversight obligations under the constitution and helps us improve ksbility in t improve accountability in the government. It is factbased, nonpartisan, fair and balanced. At the beginning of each congress you release a report of Government Programs at high risk due to vulnerabilities he to fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement. Shortly after the release of the report the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs committee invites you the leader, comp troller to testify. I appreciate this hearing is one of our first, full committee hearings, of the 115th congress. Your 2017 high risk 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 Fund for Information Technology investments. The poor management as we know leads many i. T. Contracting to fail or experience significant cost overruns. Contract oversight is not a new problem in government. But it remains one of the attractable and most important problems out there. While most dedicated employees are dedicated servants, there are highlights that more is needed to ensure it is working effectively and efficiently on behalf of the American People. There are critical skill gaps within the federal work force that could pose risk to american tax dollars and american lives. It is alarming even after the large scale cyber breach at the office of Personnel Management and medical wait list scandal at apartment of veteran affairs that the gap by gao still include cybersecurity and nursing. Gao added to 20 Census Program to its list of high risk areas. Knowing our census is rapidly approaching im grateful that director thompson is here to provide a status update on the program. The cost has written over the last couple decades. With the 2010 being the costliest u. S. He is nottus costliest u. S. Census in history. Billions had to be scrapped at the last minute to be sure the census was done on time. Giving the Important Role the census plays in accounting our role as well has taxpayer dollars to community and im eager to know how they plan to effectively manage costs. Im grateful to inspectors general roth and general da dero and thompson with their work with the veterans fairs respectively. Afairs respectively. Fairs respectively. As former state auditor i consider accountability many of the most important park of my work here in the senate. Last week President Trump signed into law the gao oversight act ai and bipartisan measure i cosponsored to ensure gao has full access to the National Data base of new hires. A key tool for cutting waste and fraud 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 is a complex system of agencies that spends more than 3 trillion annual by on behalf of the American People. We are members of a public trust to ensure the tax dollars are used well. Thank you so much for being here today. Thank you, mr. Chairman, for having the committee. I look forward to questions. If you will all rise and raise your right hand. Do you swear the testimony you will give before this committee will be the truth, whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god . Please be seated. Our first witness is mr. Eugene da dario. Mr. Da dario has been comptroller in the Accountability Office since 2010. Plor than 40 Years Experience at the agency including comptroller chief officers and head of the management division. Comptroller dodaro. Thank you. Ranking members, senator mckaskill. Im pleased to be here he to discuss the latest addition to the gaos high risk program. Im pleased to report that many of the areas on the list in 2015 have shown improvements and are in a position now that they meet or partially meet all five criteria for coming off the list. Leadership, have to have the capacity, have to have a good action plan, monitoring effort, and demonstrate progress. This is the hardest to meet that actually show you are reducing the risk or making progress in fixing the problems address. This progress is due to commitment by some of the Agency Leaders as well as as a staff in the agencies, omb and 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 we are showing this program and Congress Held over it 50 countries on areas discussed in gaos high risk program. Im pleased this committee is 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 identified as achieving progress, congressional actions have been instrumental in achieving that degree of progress. One area that met all of the criteria, managing the sharing of terrorismrelated information. This is a very important area for the safety of our country and can i ensure this committee while it is coming off the list it doesnt mean it is out of sight. We can keep an eye on it 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 and have shown steady progress. They have improved their ability to monitor the action plan they have in place. They need to focus on their acquisition programs, fixing their Financial Management systems and improving employee morale. Those are the things they need to continue to do. There are a number of areas on the list however that need substantial attention. And these i would particularly site for this committees attention. First is Veterans Health care. Added that to the list and 2015 for a number of very Important Reasons that i can elaborate on in q a, but im concerned they only made limited progress. Defense department management, we talked about that several times before this committee. They are still the only Major Federal Agency that has been able to pass the test of an audit. Information technology and acquisitions and operations of senator mccaskill mentioned. That is an area that while seeing progress needs significant more oversight and attention to make sure it gets fixed. Cybersecurity. Both cybersecurity as it relates to federal governments own Information Systems but also like the electricity grid, Financial Markets, air traffic c control system and others. We added cybersecurity across the government as high risk area to the list in 1997. This is a 20year anniversary. We have been trying to get agencies to move on that area and despite even breaches, we have a thousand recommendations still outstanding in the cybersecurity area. And reforming the Housing Finance system, this is one area that was not addressed coming out of the Global Financial crisis. Fannie mae and freddie mac are in private security that they have been since 2008. Many have moved through federal government, directly through federal Housing Administration who had to get infusion from treasury, between 1 trillion and 2 trillion, 7 of mortgages are for Single Family homes are directly or indirectly supported by the federal government. We need to address fannie and freddie and get the private sector back into the Financial Market as well to reduce risk on the federal government. We are adding three new areas this year. First is iff federal efforts to help Indian Tribes and their members. We are very concerned. We looked at education programs. Schools are in poor condition. Not properly staffed. Health care area, no Quality Standard for health care. A lot vacant positions. Distributing funds if it is not available in indian area hospitals. Using programs from the 1830s. And using striebs the tribes th promote oil on their lands and it is just slow and they arent able to generate that revenue that could help them deal with a number of their issues. Secondly, growth and environmental liability for their he government. To despice of waste from Nuclear Weapons complex as well as commercial power plants. The liability right now is approaching onehalf trillion dollars. I believe it to be understated because the problems we have seen for one example with dod and not properly estimating Environmental Liabilities for cleaning up after Defense Department operations and installations as well. Now the federal government spends billions every year to clean up the waste but liability keeps going. Not enough risk based Decision Making in those areas but we have ra number of outstanding declarations. Last area is the census. We have added that to the list because of the fact the last census was over 12 billion costly as of and in order to contain costs they have introduced a lot of novel concepts using the internet, developing address lists, from spatial and other means rather than going door to door canvassing. And also using administrative records. And new Information Technology. All of these things add to the risk. And they 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 mr. Dodaro. Next witness is mr. John thompson from the Census Bureau. Mr. Thompson was president and ceo of 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 census. We remain on the Critical Path it readiness. 2020 census as been added to the most recent high risk list from the government Accountability Office. Both 2000 and 2010 censuses were also on this list. Which is a reflection of the complexity scale and importance of conducting the fair and accurate census. This decade the complexity is heightened as we replace a paper and pencilbased design with Innovative Technology that will save taxpayers billions of dollars. We have robust controls in place to mitigate risks inherent in carrying out constitutionally mandated task. As we test the operations in roughly 50 systems that comprise the 2020 census we are wear of the many risks the program faces. Thats why we are working rigorously to mitigate those risks. In 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 their colleagues at gao and office of the Inspector General at the department of commerce. I discussed the steps we take to mitigate risk in greater detail in my written testimony for the record including the risk of funding uncertainty. Today i want to highlight the following specific risk areas were concentrating on. First, cybersecurity, fraud detection and ensuring the publics trust. Were actively securing our systems and devices for the fields tests while enshiring we prevent fraud and cyberattacks. We will use a layer of defense sfr strategy to protect administrative records. Second insuring systems readiness. Develop and field tested concept systems and design supported by findings from the census tests. Now that we have awarded nearly all key contracts for 2020 we are finalizing our system of systems ahead of the 2018 end to end census test. Third, field procedures through testing. Fourth managing the integrated master schedule for 2020 census and supporting programs. Lastly, dock thing and validating our 2020 he is nottus life cycle cost estimates. Census testets 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 pro ved usai in northern carolina and st. Louis, missouri. We learn many lessons and use that to refine operations and mitigate risks of a census. The Census Bureau planned test operations in 2017. These involve Critical Systems and operations that must be tested ahead of the 2018 end to end census test. The 2018 end to end sonsus te c test is the final field test before the 2020 census. Field operations will begin in august 2017 with a census date of april 1, 2018. Will conduct the test in three areas, pierce county, washington. Prove dent county, rhode island. And blue field beckley oak hill area of west virginia. Collectively itll cover about 7 770,000 housing unit. We will also produce prototypes of our data release products, making sure that all of these census work individually and in concert with each other is critical. Using lessons from 2018 will make any necessary adjustments to ensure we are ready for the census and final eyes our plans for operations. We have been traps parennsparen. We have held quarterly management reviews. We publicly document and track our biggest decisions. Sharing our master schedule with the gao every month for example. There are many challenges ahead but were confident that with the appropriate funding levels we can successfully execute the 2020 census. I need to neat 2017 and 2018 are critical years he in the census cycle. The funding that we receive in these years will have a great effect on the outcome of the 2020 census including the achieving 5 billion in cost savings. We are now less than six months away for the 2020 census but there is not yet clarity regardin