▶ 0:14:26The committee on oversight and government reform will come to order. I want to welcome everyone here this morning. Without objection, the chair may declare a recess at any time pursuant to section three, subsection r of house resolution five. The committee convenes this member day hearing of the 119th congress. A member day hearing provides members an opportunity to discuss legislation and member priorities within the jurisdiction of the oversight committee.
▶ 0:14:49Today, I look forward to hearing from members of the house my colleagues on the proposals they wish to bring before the consideration of this committee. We've circulated a list of members who will be speaking today, and any testimony provided by those members will be added to the official record. Each member will be given five minutes to discuss their proposals and field questions as needed. I now recognize representative rashida tlaib from michigan. >> thank you so much, Mr. chairman, for this opportunity.
▶ 0:15:20As you know, the committee on house oversight and government reform must do everything in its power to protect the lives and safety of federal workers and conduct investigations and adopt changes when current agency practices are failing to keep our workers safe. I want to talk about nicholas john aker. He was a usps detroit network distribution center worker, allen park, michigan. And it was a tragic workplace accident. Um, and again, we don't know.
▶ 0:15:47But we know it's heartbreaking and it's something that we believe is preventable. His body, mister chair, trapped in a mail handling machine. And he had been dead for 6 to 8 hours before he was found. He checked in at 11 a.m. And his body wasn't discovered until the following day at 1230. His death is unspeakable tragedy for his family. Who?
▶ 0:16:11His mother tearing up and just demanding, looking me in my in my eyes and said, please, please find out what happened to my son, his fiance. They just got engaged. Mister speaker, ten days before he was killed. What's so tragic about his death is that in heartbreaking and tragic about his death to is the fact that he served in our military, us air force for nine years. He wasn't killed serving there.
▶ 0:16:38He was killed being a us postal worker. His death again is heartbreaking. And what we do know from his union is that there were previously raised concerns about safety measures and procedures at this facility, and had recently filed a grievance grievance about 90 days prior to his death. The grievance stated that the management was pressuring staff to look for letters while handling machine was operating. Over a month after his death.
▶ 0:17:08More questions remain. Again remain unanswered. Nicholas was someone's son. Mister speaker, look how young he was. He was a brother. And he was a fiance. Again, he was engaged only ten days before he was killed. They were planning to get married in the spring again. Nicholas served nine years in our us air force. He was generous. He was thoughtful person.
▶ 0:17:30He didn't again die serving in our military, but here at home, at a sorting facility, at a us postal service location in allen park. Shortly after his death, representative debbie dingell and I wrote a letter to the postmaster general demanding answers. And thus far we have not received any any responses? Please, mister chair, work with my team and I if it's legislation that we need to do to make sure this is a preventable and future. Let's do that.
▶ 0:17:59But we can't allow this to happen. Also in the committee, um, we know that we oversee a lot of important initiatives that impact prescription drugs. And so another matter, of course, and I know, mister chair, you've been leading on this effort. I do want to enter into the record, if I may, um, a letter from covenant community care. It's a federally qualified health center. Um. >> without objection. So ordered.
▶ 0:18:24>> describing again their concerns with 340 b um, mister chair right now association of affiliated pharmacies and um, uh apple carries which presents more than 500 independent pharmacies across the country, including 150 pharmacies in my district, are literally demanding that we do something about the pbms. Um, the actual cost of medication they dispense, driving many of them, again, driving the cost, many of them having to shut their doors.
▶ 0:18:52And these independent pharmacies, as you know, mister chair, are anchors in our community. Um, they are trusted by many of our residents that, again, are experiencing some of the worst, uh, health challenges from cancer and so many other diseases. Pharmacy deserts are growing, as we know, because of this, and patients are left without any options. So, um, again, community pharmacy still going are facing unstable, unsustainable losses. And we need to do more about it. We know that pbms and I like to name them because it's important.
▶ 0:19:21But cvs, cvs caremark, express scripts and optimum rx are reporting record profits because again, they lack the transparency, transparency and accountability that is necessary. I hear about these harmful, harmful practices, um, almost monthly from different independent pharmacies that continue again to have these challenges.
▶ 0:19:41Um, mister chair from one pharmacy in jordan, the pharmacists explained to me how he can see 60 to 80,000 loss in a month. And again, it's not sustainable. And it's it's also pharmacy that has been part of the community for so long. Um, so again, community health centers also being impacted.
▶ 0:20:01But one of the things they continue to tell me is that as a result, pbms are trying to make medical and financial decisions on behalf of providers and the patients, and that's unchecked power. It should stay again with the person providing the care. Um, so congress, in this committee, we need to act now. It is something that again, both I think sides of the aisle have come and understand that something again, action needs to take place. So the pharmacies fight back, act.
▶ 0:20:26Um, let's get that through this committee and let's work again, incredibly hard to make prescription drugs much more affordable and protect our independent pharmacies. With that, Mr. chair, I yield. >> the gentlelady yields back. And thank you for bringing this to the committee. The the postal issue. Uh, my sincerest condolences to this family after such a horrific incident. Uh, we've been working with the postal service.
▶ 0:20:55You, your staff and our staff have been communicating. Uh, we're trying to learn more about this and and how to ensure that it will never happen again. I pledge to work with you. And our staffs will continue to work to try to figure out what we can do to prevent this, and see if we get any answers as to how it happened. So, uh, thanks. Thank you for bringing this to the attention. And again, it's a this is a terrible thing and we will work together to find some resolution on it. You have my my promise to that.
▶ 0:21:24And secondly, as you know, I'm a co-sponsor of the pharmacists fightback act with you. Uh, this is something that is is a huge priority for me. We've had three good bipartisan investigative hearings and published a very substantive report on the abuses of the pbm from this committee. So I want to see legislation and more than self-governing, uh, oversight from the pbms who I don't trust.
▶ 0:21:51So I pledge to work with you to try to get the support to get this to, to not only pass the house, but but pass the senate and become law. So, uh, I'm with you on both issues and appreciate you coming here. Do any other members wish to speak or ask questions to Mr. lee? Okay. All right. Thank you. I now recognize representative david taylor from ohio.
▶ 0:22:19>> thank you, chairman and ranking member garcia, for giving me this opportunity to speak here today. And thank you for the very hard work this committee does. I represent a very rural appalachian district in southern ohio, and I'm here today to talk about two issues that directly impact many throughout rural america combating the fentanyl epidemic and out of control federal regulations. As you know, fentanyl is an extremely deadly substance that affects all our districts.
▶ 0:22:44While I applaud the trump administration's diligent work to secure our southern border, congress needs to pass legislation to protect our communities from illicit fentanyl that has already entered our country. Thankfully, there are programs such as the national high intensity drug trafficking area program or ida that assist federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies operating critical drug trafficking regions across the united states.
▶ 0:23:10With 33 programs spanning across all 50 states, this program works with communities to dismantle and disrupt drug trafficking organizations, saving countless lives across the united states. Last year alone, thanks to the hard work of our law enforcement officers and the training provided, the height of program seized over 7000kg of fentanyl. That amount of fentanyl could potentially kill 3.5 billion people, according to the dea.
▶ 0:23:35The district I represent has been ground zero for the fentanyl epidemic, and this needs to change. With two designated counties in my district, I was proud to introduce the fight fentanyl act to reauthorize provide additional resources to the height of program. This bill would not only better equip our law enforcement officers with the tools they need to seize more illicit drugs, but it will also help keep our communities safe.
▶ 0:24:00Additionally, my bill also allows the attorney general to allocate additional resources to investigate and take drug traffickers and dealers to trial to remove these destructive criminals from our communities. I want to thank our law enforcement officers who risk their lives every day for their work to combat fentanyl, and our officers for the training and the work they do to keep our communities safe. I also want to thank congressman levin for co-leading the fight fentanyl act with me, and I would love to work with you, Mr.
▶ 0:24:28Chairman and ranking member, to provide our programs and law enforcement officers with the tools they need to keep our communities safe. I appreciate your consideration of that issue. The other issue I came here to speak about, and I hear about from people across southern ohio, is the overwhelming amount of regulations that hurt businesses, farmers, and increase the cost of living for all of us.
▶ 0:24:49In my district, ridiculous regulations led to the closing of several critical businesses, including the coal plants, which provided affordable electricity to an entire region. As a small business owner myself, I know firsthand the impact that burdensome regulations can have on an economy. That's exactly why the first bill I introduced in congress was the regulation decimation act.
▶ 0:25:11This bill, which codifies an executive order from president trump, would simply require agencies to find ten regulations to repeal for every new one promulgated. The harsh reality is that no one even knows how many federal regulations there are. The best guess we have to go off is the number of pages in the code of federal regulations, which had roughly 23,000 pages in 1960, but is now up to nearly 200,000, which is approximately a 769% increase.
▶ 0:25:38This is largely reflective of congress slowly giving away all of its authority to unelected bureaucrats within federal agencies. And we saw the impact of this during the biden administration with their de facto electric vehicle mandate and the wotus rule, which sought to punish nearly every business and farmer in the country. This needs to change. We cannot continue allowing such important decisions to be made by those who can never be held accountable. I applaud president trump and his 10 to 1 deregulatory agenda, and I'm happy the supreme court struck down the chevron deference.
▶ 0:26:06But congress needs to act. Mr. chairman, I'm happy to collaborate with you on the best ways to cut regulations and restore responsibility to congress to fulfill its constitutionally mandated duties. I appreciate you letting me share my perspective today, and I'm looking forward to working with you on my bill and this issue. Thank you guys. And I yield back. >> gentleman yields back. Thank you for your testimony today. And I was proud to sponsor the office of the reauthorization of the office of national drug control policy.
▶ 0:26:36Last congress, we passed the house in a bipartisan manner. It went to the senate and my junior senator from kentucky held it up in the end. And it didn't become law, even though I think there was overwhelming support in the senate. So that may be someone you need to talk to about that. And that's where the height of funding comes through the office of national drug control policy. So it's a big issue in my district. My law enforcement officer support that as well. So we'll we'll work with you to try to get that funded.
▶ 0:27:05But I think the problem is in the senate with that. So do any other members wish to seek recognition? Seeing none. Thank you, representative taylor. I now recognize representative mccormack from georgia. >> thank you, Mr. chairman. And thank you, ranking member, for having me here today. This is a issue near and dear to my heart, something I've come to your office for and I'm happy to come to, uh, the democrats for the same reason.
▶ 0:27:34I think this could be a bipartisan solution. We know what the problem is. Uh, everybody is is now recognizing that paying $1 trillion of interest payment on basically $38 trillion of debt is unsustainable as we continue to be downgraded as a currency, we're going to end up being at about $2 trillion, especially when we see medicare and social security objectively, predictably becoming bankrupt, probably in the next presidency.
▶ 0:28:02This is an unfortunate byproduct of not having the foresight to do something different than we normally do. My bill is very simple. We know that we've had a 50, almost a 52% increase in federal spending just since 2019. We know that during that period, we've also had about an 86%. Increase in deficit spending. Uh, we can't continue doing this. My bill is very succinct, very simple.
▶ 0:28:31As a matter of fact, it's been reviewed by leadership as saying, this sounds too good to be true, that why haven't we done this sooner, typically in a budget? And I came up with this idea about 30 years ago when I was a logistics officer for my squadron and, and realized at the end of my year, when I have 10% in reserve for my emergency spending, that all of a sudden I have to spend a bunch of money.
▶ 0:28:55And we see this in the military, but also through our every bureaucracy in america where if we don't spend it, we lose it, somebody else spends it anyways, and they'll actually reduce your budget because you obviously didn't need it. So we all got in the habit of doing something we know is wrong, we know is wasteful, and we know it's built in by the american government to be wrong. We're spending money we don't need to spend.
▶ 0:29:19My bill says, instead of use it or lose it, which is what we have now, a stick to do the wrong thing instead, whatever you don't spend for that year, 49% of that goes back towards debt and deficit. Not to speaker, not to the president, not to higher headquarters debt and deficit. A real problem, 49% rolls forward to the next fiscal year.
▶ 0:29:39So instead of being penalized with a smaller budget, you actually get a larger budget, and then 2% goes back to reward the people who are being effective and efficient in that department, with bonuses up to 10% of their salary as retention, it's three carats to do the right thing instead of two sticks to do the wrong thing. I think this should be bipartisan, gentlemen. Bipartisan, that we can actually say this is entirely voluntary and non-punitive. There is no downside for it.
▶ 0:30:09There's no way the cbo can score it wrong. I'm a big critic of the cbo. How could you do anything other than save money on a voluntary basis? It gives you an option to not be penalized, but to be rewarded for saving the american taxpayer money, to save our children money on interest payments. Why wouldn't we do something so common sense? Why wouldn't this be bipartisan? Why wouldn't this be a good solution? Can we not reinvent the way we look at government?
▶ 0:30:40I hope that everybody in both sides of the house can actually get behind this bill. It's called the incentivized savings act. I think it's going to be great for america. It's going to be great in the way we approach government. I think it will be great for approaching debt and deficit and responsible thinking without having a dose, stepping in and making the decision for you. You're in charge of your own self determination of your department and what you save money on, and you get rewarded for doing the right thing.
▶ 0:31:07Please, I encourage you to all sign on to the incentivized savings act. It's the right thing to do. It's common sense. And I know it sounds too good to be true, but it's not my second piece of legislation. H.r.
▶ 0:31:216211, the medical professional access act, which just simply allows people during times of emergency, whether it be, uh, something catastrophic, a hurricane or whatever, when you cross boundaries in state lines, I'm a physician and you have credentialing issues between states because that's what we do. But they're not that much different from each other. And in times of emergency where there's need, it's basically a good samaritan law that says we don't have to go through another credentialing process, that you're allowed to practice there.
▶ 0:31:49During that time, there's a declaration of emergency by the governor or by the or by the president. You're allowed to practice there without consequences, without review, because we don't have time. This is just a common sense approach to solving a very real problem. When you need people to help others in the health care industry during an emergency. I highly encourage you also to sign on to h.r. 6211 in order to help people in times of emergency. And with that gentleman, I yield.
▶ 0:32:19>> thank you again for coming by the office and explaining that that sounds like common sense to me. And we we appreciate it. Look forward to working with you. Uh, in the in the next year. Does any other member seek recognition? Uh, we will suspend momentarily as we move to the second panel.
▶ 0:33:13>> he's in here. He's in here. Hey, mark. So.
▶ 0:34:12We'll get him in. >> uh, we'll now move to to panel two. Mr. mfume may be in route when he gets here. We'll we'll let him, uh, participate, but I never. Guys. Representative bill foster from illinois. >> uh, thank you, chairman, ranking member garcia and members of the committee.
▶ 0:34:28I'm here today to request your support for hr 6571, the responsible and ethical ai labeling act, the real act, which will require government agencies and officers to include a disclaimer on public facing communications that are created or generated with artificial intelligence. I'm happy to introduce the common sense bipartisan bill with the support of your chairman of government operations subcommittee, congressman pete sessions of texas.
▶ 0:34:54I want to thank by start by thanking congressman sessions for his partnership on this important bill, uh, to strengthen trust and accountability in government communications. In short, the real act will would require federal agencies and officers from junior level staff to the very top to clearly label any official content distributed through official channels that has been generated or manipulated using generative artificial intelligence.
▶ 0:35:20Specifically, it would require federal agencies and officers to label ai generated images, audio, videos, and any ai generated text that is not reviewed by a human prior to publication, the office of management and budget would be tasked with developing uniform rules for labeling ai content across the agencies to ensure that labels are clear, prominently displayed, written in plain language, easily understandable to the public, each label would clearly inform the reader that content was
▶ 0:35:51Manipulated with ai, and include a brief description of how the content was changed and which tools were used. This bill includes certain exemptions that are meant to protect the internal use of low impact ai tools by federal agencies, and to protect personal communications of federal officers that are unrelated to their official responsibilities. First, agencies will not be required to label ai content that circulated internally and not intended for public release. Secondly, content that's created for classified purposes will not require labeling.
▶ 0:36:22However, agencies will be required to label classified content and any unclassified for any unclassified release of that content. Uh. Thirdly, the bill exempts basic graphics and visual elements such as text overlay or formatting, and minor visual adjustments such as brightness or cropping. If those adjustments do not materially alter the meaning or context of the underlying content.
▶ 0:36:45Fourth, the use of certain text drafting tools is exempt if, as long as the content is reviewed for accuracy and by human agency staff prior to publication. Uh. This exemption is meant to preserve internal use of ai by agencies while ensuring a robust review of ai content and requiring labeling for automated messaging systems like chatbots. Importantly, this bill does not apply to any of this.
▶ 0:37:13Bill does not apply to any of the bill's requirements for public facing content that is not related to official duties of a federal officer, as long as it is published using a personal, non-government, social media account or other unofficial medium. This bill includes clear guidelines and correct to correct communications that fail to include the appropriate disclaimer.
▶ 0:37:37If an agency determines or is found to have issued a communication in violation of this act, that agency will be required to retract the communication and publish a corrected version of the communication on their website and, to the extent possible, to the same audience that received the initial communication. This bill also includes appropriate penalties for noncompliance by agencies and contractors, including the adoption of remediation plans or potential oversight by the gao.
▶ 0:38:04In an age of disinformation, americans should be able to trust that information coming from official government sources is legitimate and based on reality. With rapid proliferation of ai generated content, there must be clear guidelines to ensure that our federal agencies are not using ai in a way that could purposefully or inadvertently mislead the american public. This legislation is about ensuring transparency and trust in federal communications.
▶ 0:38:30The real act does not prohibit the use of ai or the distribution of ai content. It simply requires official channels to clearly indicate whether the content being shared has been created or altered using ai. Well, thank you for holding this member day hearing and I thank again, congressman sessions for co-leading this effort. I encourage all members of this committee to support and advance the repeal act to ensure that ai tools are responsibly used in government communications. Thank you, Mr. chairman, I yield back.
▶ 0:39:01>> thank you. Uh, huge issue, and we certainly look forward to working with you in the in the future on, uh, on this issue. Any other member seek recognition? All right. Thank you very much. >> thank you. >> that concludes our, uh, member day. In closing, I want to thank the members for their testimony. Would you like to add anything with that?
▶ 0:39:24And without objection, all members have five legislative days within which to submit additional testimony if there's no further business. Without objection, the committee stands adjourned. I like it.