Gus Bilirakis Blasts Consumer Product Safety Commission Over 'Lost Money, Missed Deadlines'

3 months ago

During a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) questioned witnesses about the Consumer Product Safety Commission's budget and spending record.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you, Commissioner. Now I'll begin the questioning, so I'll recognize myself for

00:07five minutes. Chair, Sarah, I'm sorry if I mispronounced. Thank you again for being here

00:16before us. The Commission's Inspector General does great work. I believe you could better

00:23utilize appropriated funds by following recommendations the IG provides in recent

00:30reports sent to Congress. Are you familiar with the fiscal year 23 financial statement audit?

00:37I am. Okay, thank you. In that report, outside independent auditors identified many troubling

00:45findings. This report painted a picture of lost money, missed deadlines, and other troubling

00:52issues. I'm also aware that FISMA assessment from fiscal year 2023 found that the Commission

01:00failed to meet deadlines for IT security improvements. It certainly seems that you

01:06might be able to have more funds on hand if there was a better handle on the use of taxpayer dollars.

01:14Are you, as the Chair, giving the IG all the cooperation he requires to identify and reduce

01:22waste at the Commission, sir? Yes, sir, we are. We're working with the IG. I think he's doing

01:29important work. I would note with our financial statement, there was no allegations of waste,

01:34fraud, and abuse. It was focused on depreciation and accruals, which is we changed auditors and

01:42they had a different perspective than our prior auditor. That actually has no effect on the budget

01:46side of things for the federal government because we don't deal with accruals and depreciation like

01:52a private sector company does. With respect to the IG, I know that he is looking to hire. We're

01:59supporting that, and actually in our FY25 budget, we have allocated an increase of three people for

02:05his offices. I think an increase in our funding would go across the agency to include the IGs as

02:12well. I want to discuss the cost of the Commission's real estate next. I know CPSC has continued to

02:24authorize staff to work from home in a hybrid manner multiple days a week. While I think it is

02:31important for staff to be in the building, most of all, in my opinion, they should be in the building

02:40in most days. Anyway, I'm open to remote flexibilities, as I said, if it does not

02:46negatively impact productivity and could save taxpayer money. In fact, the Commission's

02:54fiscal year 23 capital plan called for returning just over half of the current office space

03:01to GSA, which could have resulted in a projected savings of 2.4 million dollars, taxpayer dollars.

03:10However, in the fiscal year 24 capital plan, that number shrunk to returning only 12 percent

03:20of the space and without a cost saving estimate, notably absent from the fiscal year 24 plan.

03:27So the Chair, I ask the Chair again, can you tell us why that number shrank from the previous year?

03:34And also, can you tell us what current occupancy utilization rate, what it is, the current rate,

03:42please? Sure, we're returning about 15,000 square feet to the process, which will result

03:48in savings for the agency. The analysis was done consistent with GAO's analysis, how many

03:55square feet are appropriate per employee. That will take us to the GSA's criteria.

04:06In that, we are working consistent. We are open to looking at more ways to be able to

04:14examine whether there's additional space that we can give back. There are complications always with

04:20that, both in terms of the labs that we have. We need those labs and it's not a matter of giving

04:24space back in those labs. With respect to things like, you know, it's been suggested that we give

04:30up conference rooms. Unfortunately, we can't give up individual conference rooms within our building

04:34because you can't rent out space within the middle. So suggestions like those, obviously, we can't

04:41look at. But overall, we are looking to squeeze wherever we can and that is a process that takes

04:48months on end working with GSA to return those properties. So we will look to see if there are

04:53other ways to get an extra dollar out. But we can only do what we can do.

05:00I encourage you to do so, obviously. In my opening, I guess I got to yield back. I'll

05:06submit the questions. I want to be fair to everyone. So I'll recognize the ranking member

05:11of the subcommittee, Ms. Schakowsky, for five minutes of questioning.

05:15Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have some things I want to talk to you about.

05:18The CPSC is already one of the very smallest agencies.

Gus Bilirakis Blasts Consumer Product Safety Commission Over 'Lost Money, Missed Deadlines'

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