Congressman Pocan Statement at FSGG Hearing on Deferred Maintenance Across the Federal Government

Congressman Mark Pocan (D-WI-02) delivered the following remarks at the Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee's hearing on the Government Accountability Office's (GAO) Assessment of the Costs of Deferred Maintenance Across the Federal Government:

-As Prepared For Delivery-

Thank you to Mr. Marroni for testifying today on deferred maintenance across the federal government. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on how the federal government can address these issues.

Unfortunately, I do not think that a discussion on deferred building maintenance is the most relevant topic for one of this subcommittee’s first public hearings of the year.

I’ve recently hosted several town halls throughout my district and heard from people across Wisconsin. In each of these town halls, my constituents have raised serious objections to what the Trump/Musk administration is doing. I’m not sure how many of my colleagues in the Majority have held these in-person town halls, but the message at each has been clear.
People are rightfully worried about an Administration that is causing chaos both at home and abroad. They’re worried about an Administration that is run by and for billionaires, not working families. We have corruption when the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, in charge of cutting federal agencies and services, and then receiving another $6 billion in federal contracts, on top of the over $20 billion he’s already received. 

Without any idea of what they are doing, DOGE has canceled numerous grants, contracts, and awards, negatively affecting all of our constituents. They have directed the mass firing of federal employees, often later realizing they shouldn’t have. It doesn’t inspire confidence in their work when we are firing the people who secure our nuclear weapons, or the scientists working to combat avian flu. Even now, HHS has to bring back 20 percent of the people mistakenly laid off last week, all a part of DOGE’s gross April Fools Day firings. 

They are seeing this Administration, and Republicans in Congress, roll back policies meant to cut costs and protect consumers. Just this week we are voting to UNDO a rule that saves Americans up to $5 billion dollars a year in excessive bank overdraft fees. Who exactly are we trying to help with that? This week, the majority is also attempting to take another step to advance a budget reconciliation process that will cut hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicaid, SNAP, and public education. The House has a stated goal of cutting a minimum of 1.5 trillion dollars, and for what? To give the wealthy another 4.5 trillion dollars in tax cuts. 

But let’s focus on the work of this Subcommittee. At this chaotic moment, our Subcommittee has an exceptionally relevant jurisdiction. I already talked about DOGE quite a bit, but that is housed under the Executive Office of the President, which we fund. We can and should have a hearing with Musk and others at DOGE to hear directly about what they are doing and what authority they believe they have to inflict so much destruction on the federal government. 

We should have a public hearing with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget. We routinely had the former OMB Director testify, I can’t imagine any reason why we should treat this administration differently. Will we hear from him before we mark up our Appropriations bills? He’s happily played a big role in the chaos we’re all witnessing.

Will we have the Small Business Administration in a public hearing? I’m still trying to square exactly how firing nearly half of the agency dedicated to supporting small businesses is helping the economy. Also, I hear they are now going to be responsible for administering 1.6 trillion in student loans? I expect that this Subcommittee would be interested in learning more about this. 

Will we have OPM testify publicly about their role in the massive layoffs across the government? How are those decisions being made?

What about the IRS, where there are plans to cut a quarter of the workforce there. Who stands to benefit from that, how much will that cut ADD to the deficit? 

And what about the removal of two of the FTC’s Independent Commissioners? Just a couple of years ago the Majority was really interested in federal employee morale at the FTC, not sure if anyone here remembers how much time was spent on that. 

I could go on and on, but I think I’ve made my point.

Again, thank you to Mr. Marroni for being here today, but given the jurisdiction of this subcommittee and the unprecedented dismantlement of the federal government that we are witnessing in real time, building maintenance is not at all what we should be discussing here today. 

With that, I yield back.

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