[Senate Hearing 112-334]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office]
S. Hrg. 112-334
NOMINATION OF ROSLYN A. MAZER
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
COMMITTEE ON
HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
NOMINATION OF ROSLYN A. MAZER TO BE INSPECTOR GENERAL, U.S. DEPARTMENT
OF HOMELAND SECURITY
__________
NOVEMBER 15, 2011
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COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN, Connecticut, Chairman
CARL LEVIN, Michigan SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine
DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii TOM COBURN, Oklahoma
THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware SCOTT P. BROWN, Massachusetts
MARK L. PRYOR, Arkansas JOHN McCAIN, Arizona
MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin
CLAIRE McCASKILL, Missouri ROB PORTMAN, Ohio
JON TESTER, Montana RAND PAUL, Kentucky
MARK BEGICH, Alaska JERRY MORAN, Kansas
Michael L. Alexander, Staff Director
Christian J. Beckner, Associate Staff Director for Homeland
Security Prevention and Protection
Kristine V. Lam, Professional Staff Member
Nicholas A. Rossi, Minority Staff Director
Jennifer L. Tarr, Minority Counsel
Trina Driessnack Tyrer, Chief Clerk
Patricia R. Hogan, Publications Clerk
Laura W. Kilbride, Hearing Clerk
C O N T E N T S
------
Opening statements:
Page
Senator Lieberman............................................ 3
Senator Collins.............................................. 4
Senator Akaka................................................ 11
Senator Carper............................................... 14
Prepared statements:
Senator Lieberman............................................ 25
Senator Collins.............................................. 26
WITNESSES
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Hon. Benjamin L. Cardin, a U.S. Senator from the State of
Maryland:
Testimony.................................................... 1
Prepared statement........................................... 28
Roslyn A. Mazer to be Inspector General, U.S. Department of
Homeland Security:
Testimony.................................................... 5
Prepared statement........................................... 30
Biographical and financial information....................... 34
Responses to pre-hearing questions........................... 45
Letter from the Office of Government Ethics.................. 75
Response to post-hearing questions for the Record............ 78
APPENDIX
Ed Haugland, Assistant Inspector General for Inspections, Office
of the Director of National Intelligence, prepared statement... 108
Kimberley A. Caprio, Former Assistant Inspector General for
Audits in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence,
prepared statement............................................. 111
Letters of support from:
Charlene Barshefsky, WilmerHale.............................. 118
Dennis C. Blair, Former Director of National Intelligence.... 120
Kermit S. Eck, Partner, Cooke & Bieler....................... 122
Mark Ewing, Chief Management Officer, Office of the Director
of National Intelligence................................... 124
Fred F. Fielding, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius.................... 126
Glenn A. Fine, Former Inspector General of the U.S.
Department of Justice...................................... 127
Jamie S. Gorelick, WilmerHale................................ 129
Mary S. Jones, Vice President and Treasurer, Union Pacific
Corporation................................................ 131
Peter D. Keisler, Sidley Austin.............................. 133
John F. Kimmons, Lieutenant General, U.S. Army (Retired)..... 135
Christopher A. Kojm, Chairman, National Intelligence Council. 137
Robert S. Litt, Office of General Council, Office of the
Director of National Intelligence.......................... 138
Lloyd Raines, Principal, Integral Focus...................... 140
Eric M. Thorson, Inspector General, U.S. Department of the
Treasury................................................... 141
NOMINATION OF ROSLYN A. MAZER
----------
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2011
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Homeland Security
and Governmental Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 3:19 p.m., in
room SD-342, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Joseph I.
Lieberman, Chairman of the Committee, presiding.
Present: Senators Lieberman, Akaka, Carper, Collins, and
Coburn.
Chairman Lieberman. The Committee will come to order. Good
afternoon and welcome to the hearing. I apologize for being
late, but Senator Collins and I were both in the Armed Services
Committee, and we had a special meeting called by Chairman
Levin and Senator McCain.
Senator Cardin, unless you really have some deep desire to
hear the opening statements by Senator Collins and me, we would
be happy to have you do your introduction now.
Senator Cardin. I assume you will have that emailed to me.
Chairman Lieberman. We may have it embossed and engraved.
We will send it to you in some suitable fashion.
INTRODUCTION OF NOMINEE BY HON. BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, A U.S.
SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF MARYLAND
Senator Cardin. Thank you, Senator Lieberman and Senator
Collins. I really appreciate that courtesy. It is a pleasure to
be back before this Committee for a really enjoyable thing for
me to do and that is to introduce a person whom I have known
for a long time. I have known her family for a long time.
It is a real pleasure for me to introduce Roslyn Mazer to
this Committee, a nominee to be the Inspector General (IG) for
the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). I have known her
family. I know her commitment to community service, and I
strongly endorse her nomination for confirmation.
Roslyn Mazer, I believe, is ideally qualified for the
position. Almost her entire professional life has been spent in
public service, nearly a decade in the Inspector General
community.
She received her B.A. from Syracuse University, Phi Beta
Kappa, and her J.D. from Columbus School of Law at Catholic
University. Between 1993 and 2009, she held senior positions at
the Department of Justice (DOJ), including 7 years in the
Office of the Inspector General's Oversight and Review
Division.
In that capacity, she led reviews of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation's (FBI) abuses of national security letter
authorities, leading to two reports mandated by Congress in the
USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005.
I must tell you that, as a former chairman of the Terrorism
and Homeland Security Subcommittee on the Judiciary Committee,
I found these reports to be very useful in our committee's
deliberations and briefings and on the reauthorization of the
expiring Patriot Act authorities.
I know that Senator Coburn served on that committee, and I
know that we all found those reports to be helpful in the work
that we did.
At the Justice Department, she also conducted
investigations of high-level misconduct by officials and
employees. She also led a review team on the FBI's
implementation of the Attorney General's guidelines. She also
held several specialized positions at the Department of
Justice, including that of Associate Deputy Attorney General
and the President's Chair of the Interagency Security
Classification Appeals Panel.
I would also note that she received the Attorney General's
Award for Distinguished Service, the Award for Excellence by
the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency in
Government, and the Department of Justice Office of Inspector
General's Award of Merit.
Mr. Chairman, Roslyn Mazer already had a list of
significant accomplishments before taking her current position
in 2009, which is the Inspector General of the Office of the
Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). Ms. Mazer serves
concurrently as the Chair of the Intelligence Community
Inspectors General (ICIG) Forum, working with all intelligence
community (IC) elements to fulfill community-wide objectives
established by Congress.
Roslyn Mazer was involved in both unclassified and
classified reviews of the President's Surveillance Program,
which again I found useful as a former member of the Judiciary
Committee as we considered how to overhaul the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to provide for greater
oversight by Congress and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
Court.
In her current position, Ms. Mazer has been instrumental in
helping the Office of Inspector General (OIG) prepare to
transition the office to become the Inspector General for the
intelligence community.
In my view, Mr. Chairman, Ms. Mazer serves as a shining
example of public service and doing what is best for our
country.
I would just add on a personal note that I am very proud of
her connections to the State of Maryland. Ms. Mazer grew up in
Baltimore and is a proud graduate of Pimlico Junior High
School. She is also a proud graduate of Western High School,
which is the oldest public all-girls school in the United
States, founded in 1844. She is a product of the Baltimore city
public school system, and we are proud of that.
I also take great pride in the Mazer family. I particularly
want to acknowledge Ms. Mazer's father, William Mazer, who is a
close personal friend and is a great person in our community.
Just a little sidebar on that, Mr. Chairman. William Mazer
is well known for his politics in our local synagogues. He is
well prepared for those types of challenges. I also want to
acknowledge her husband, David Holzworth. Public service is a
family sacrifice, and we thank them for their willingness to
continue to serve our country.
Chairman Lieberman. Thanks very much, Senator Cardin. That
was very thoughtful and obviously a personally supportive
statement. I appreciate it.
My own experience is that synagogue politics can be much
more intense than regular politics, and so that is quite a
statement on behalf of Mr. Mazer.
Thank you very much. You are obviously free to stay but I
know you have a busy schedule. We appreciate very much your
coming by.
OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN LIEBERMAN
Chairman Lieberman. It is a pleasure to welcome everyone to
this hearing. Today, as Senator Cardin made clear, we are
considering the nomination of Roslyn Mazer to serve as
Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security,
which, of course, is the focus of the activities of this
Committee; and therefore, the nomination is an important one to
us.
The DHS Inspector General is responsible for overseeing
more than $55 billion in annual spending by the department and
investigating suspected waste, fraud, and abuse of those funds.
The IG at DHS carries out audits and inspections of
departmental activities that provide important insight into the
department's effectiveness and helps inform our oversight and
that of the relevant House committees.
The IG is also charged with investigating misconduct among
DHS employees, including the significant, unfortunately, and
growing problem of drug trafficking organizations attempting to
corrupt employees of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection
(CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agencies.
In nominating Ms. Mazer to be the IG at DHS, I think
President Obama has chosen someone with a really impressive
record, a long and distinguished career as a lawyer in private
practice and at the Department of Justice, including 7 years at
the DOJ Office of Inspector General where she led important
reviews of the FBI's use of national security letters and its
compliance with the Attorney General's investigative
guidelines.
In recognition of her work on the FBI's use of national
security letters, she received the Department of Justice's
Distinguished Service Award and the President's Council on
Integrity and Efficiency Award for Excellence.
In 2009, a former Director of National Intelligence (DNI),
Dennis Blair, selected her to serve as DNI Inspector General;
and she has served in that position for the last 2\1/2\ years.
The record of the Committee has very strong statements of
support from people with whom Ms. Mazer has worked, including
the former IG at the Department of Justice, Glenn Fine, and the
current Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper.
So, we look forward to hearing from you today and learning
more about your vision and priorities for the Office of
Inspector General at DHS. Senator Collins.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR COLLINS
Senator Collins. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
We convene today to consider the nomination of Roslyn Mazer
to become the next Inspector General of the Department of
Homeland Security.
This Committee's jurisdiction includes not only oversight
of the department, but also the work of Inspectors General
government-wide. Inspectors General are a vital part of the
Federal Government. They conduct oversight of Federal agencies,
identify program vulnerabilities, expose fraud and improper
payments, and promote effective government.
Most recently, Ms. Mazer served as the Inspector General
for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. She
also served as the Chair of the Intelligence Community
Inspectors General Forum, working with all intelligence
community elements, including DHS.
The ODNI Inspector General's Office employs only
approximately 35 people and produces several reports annually.
In contrast, the DHS Office of Inspector General employs more
than 670 employees, making it the fifth largest IG office in
the Federal Government.
The DHS OIG issues about 120 reports each year. My point is
that there is an enormous difference in the scope, activity
level, and management challenges of the two offices.
Given the mission of DHS and the size of its IG office, it
is imperative that we have an Inspector General who not only
has extensive experience, but also is a skillful manager. The
IG must empower employees to do their jobs and ensure timely,
high-quality products.
The nominee's background is, in many ways, impressive and
includes considerable experience in the IG community. Notably,
in addition to her most recent role, Ms. Mazer served for 7
years in the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General
where, as the Chairman has noted, she led reviews of the FBI's
use of national security letters. The Committee has also
received several endorsement letters.
At the same time, 1 year into Ms. Mazer's tenure as IG and
after hearing concerns from some of her employees, the Director
of National Intelligence commissioned a climate survey of the
OIG staff.
The results of that survey raise many questions about the
nominees effectiveness as a manager and her impact on the
office's productivity.
Given these concerns, I asked the Committee staff to review
the reports issued by the office during Ms. Mazer's tenure. The
staff found a significant drop, by over half, in the number of
substantial reports issued by the IG's office.
The Committee also has received an on-the-record statement
from the current Assistant Inspector General for Inspections at
the Office of the Director of National Intelligence reiterating
concerns about Ms. Mazer's management abilities.
I approach this hearing and this nomination with both an
open mind and many questions. Has the experience of managing a
small IG office prepared the nominee for the challenge of
managing one of the largest in the Federal Government?
Is the nominee able to generate high-quality reports and
audits quickly enough to be relevant and to lead to policy
changes in time to fix problems? And what has she done to
overcome the management challenges that were identified in the
climate survey?
I look forward to discussing these issues today with our
witness.
Let me end my opening statement by saying that I have no
doubt that Ms. Mazer is an excellent attorney. That is not,
however, the question before us.
This Committee must determine if she has the ability to
lead one of the largest and most important Inspector General
offices in the entire government.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Lieberman. Thank you, Senator Collins.
We will go now to the witness. Ms. Mazer has filed
responses to a biographical and financial questionnaire,
answered pre-hearing questions submitted by the Committee, and
had her financial statements reviewed by the Office of
Government Ethics.
Without objection, this information will be made part of
the hearing record with the exception of the financial data,
which are on file and available for public inspection at the
Committee's offices.
Ms. Mazer, as I think you know, our Committee rules require
that all witnesses at nomination hearings give their testimony
under oath. So I would ask you to please stand and raise your
right hand.
Do you swear that the testimony you are about to give to
this Committee will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing
but the truth, so help you, God?
Ms. Mazer. I do.
Chairman Lieberman. Thank you. Please be seated. We would
welcome your statement now, and you are also free to introduce
any family or friends who are with you.
TESTIMONY OF ROSLYN A. MAZER \1\ TO BE INSPECTOR GENERAL, U.S.
DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
Ms. Mazer. Chairman Lieberman, Ranking Member Collins, and
Members of the Committee, thank you for the honor of appearing
before you today as you consider my nomination to serve as the
Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ The prepared statement of Ms. Mazer appears in the Appendix on
page 30.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am deeply honored to have been nominated by the
President, and I wish to thank Senator Cardin for taking the
time from his busy schedule to be here today in support of my
nomination.
I appreciate the opportunity, Mr. Chairman, to introduce my
family: My father, William Mazer; my husband, David Holzworth;
my stepson, Jeremy Holzworth; and my godson, Paul Swerdlow.
I am also fortunate to have other friends and colleagues
from the Department of Justice and other places I have served
attending the hearing today.
DHS faces numerous challenges in achieving its vital
mission to protect the homeland, as this Committee has well
documented, particularly through its hearings. If confirmed, I
believe that my progressive experience working in the
Department of Justice and in the Office of the Director of
National Intelligence, including over 9 years in the Inspector
General community, and my earlier career in private law
practice have prepared me to serve the Congress, the Secretary,
and the public as the DHS Inspector General.
At the Department of Justice, I participated as a senior
leader in three large successful organizational elements, the
Office of the Inspector General with about 450 personnel, the
Criminal Division with over 600 personnel, and the DOJ's
leadership offices.
When serving in the DOJ OIG, I led many significant
reviews, including two congressionally mandated reviews of the
FBI's use of national security letters, which found serious
abuses in the FBI's use of these authorities. The FBI has
accepted the findings and acted promptly to remedy these
abuses.
At the ODNI, I managed the Inspector General organization
and concurrently chaired the Intelligence Community Inspectors
General Forum whose members include the DHS Inspector General.
During my tenure at the ODNI IG, the office completed many
hard-hitting, meaty financial audits, inspections,
investigative reports, and evaluations on a variety of topics,
including the use of national intelligence program funds by DHS
intelligence community elements, acquisition and contractor
oversight, the status of intelligence community integration,
stewardship of appropriated funds, and a review of the IC
civilian joint duty program.
If confirmed, my familiarity with DHS and my experience
leading cross-component and enterprise-wide reviews will serve
me well.
I began my tenure at the ODNI with a clear mission from the
Director of National Intelligence to build and sustain the
credibility of the relatively new Office of the Inspector
General.
In support of my efforts, the current Director of National
Intelligence commissioned an office-wide assessment of a number
of ODNI components, including the Inspector General's office.
That assessment provided two valuable insights.
First, it showed that change can be difficult for employees
as well as leadership. Second, it demonstrated how valuable
feedback is to successful change management.
The survey gave voice to legitimate employee concerns about
the way I was trying to improve the office, and I took those
concerns to heart. I acted promptly with my senior leadership
team to implement the recommendations, including
recommendations to better support employees who had no previous
training in the IG community.
As recommended, I also availed myself of leadership
development training. I believe the lessons learned from this
exercise helped position me both for the success I enjoyed as
ODNI Inspector General and, if confirmed, to be a successful
leader at DHS.
My dedication to the mission of the Inspector General
community is borne out in my accomplishments in both offices.
At the Department of Justice and the ODNI, all of my reports
were relevant, were factually accurate and fair, were conducted
independently and thoroughly, were concise and well-written,
and contained targeted recommendations that were accepted by
agency management.
Moreover, at the ODNI, I established repeatable processes
to mature and sustain the office, including a formal process to
ensure that IG recommendations in cooperation with management
are timely implemented and also the first office-wide standard
operating procedures to guide our work.
In conclusion, I know that DHS faces major challenges in
addressing new, complex threats. Issues such as border
corruption, DHS's cyber security mission, and the Federal
Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) capacity respond to
disasters and manage its grants are enduring challenges.
As DHS confronts these challenges, the Office of the
Inspector General must be innovative, adaptive, and responsive.
If confirmed, I pledge to protect the independence of the
Office of the Inspector General; to be tenacious; to produce
fair, accurate, relevant, and timely reports; to drive
implementation of the recommendations; and to continue the
effective dialogue between this Committee and the Office of the
Inspector General.
If I am confirmed, I am confident we can work together in
collaboration in pursuit of DHS's vital mission to protect the
homeland.
Thank you once again, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Collins,
for the opportunity to appear before you today. I look forward
to your questions.
Chairman Lieberman. Thanks very much, Ms. Mazer, for that
statement.
Let me begin with the standard three questions that we ask
of all nominees. First, is there anything you are aware of in
your background that might present a conflict of interest with
the duties of the office to which you have been nominated?
Ms. Mazer. No.
Chairman Lieberman. Second, do you know anything personal
or otherwise that would, in any way, prevent you from fully and
honorably discharging the responsibilities of the office to
which you have been nominated?
Ms. Mazer. I do not.
Chairman Lieberman. And finally, do you agree without
reservation to respond to any reasonable summons to appear and
testify before any duly constituted committee of Congress, if
you are confirmed?
Ms. Mazer. I do.
Chairman Lieberman. Thank you very much. We will start the
first round of questions, limited to 7 minutes for each member.
There is no question that, based on your record, you come
to us with a very impressive record of service to our
government and to our Nation; and obviously based on that
record and its various expressions, the President has nominated
you for this position.
But I think you know, as Senator Collins indicated in her
opening statement, that there have been concerns expressed
about whether you are prepared to do this job, and I want to
give you an opportunity right up front to respond to those
concerns.
These come in a different form than we very often have.
Frankly, sometimes when people come before us, there are
allegations of ethical wrongdoing or personal wrongdoing. This
is not at all the case with you.
The fact is that most everybody we spoke to said that not
only were you honorable, but they thought you were intelligent
and capable.
So, the concerns expressed when they were expressed by
people were really about your management abilities. It is
awkward to get into this in public, but I think we have to, and
I want to give you an opportunity to respond.
Some people have gone on record, as you know, with the
Committee saying that you are a ``micro-manager'' who was
unable to set clear priorities for the office and communicated
ineffectively with the staff.
This was not a large number of people, and in contrast, I
want to hasten to say, with some really extraordinarily
positive statements filed. I mentioned the former IG, Glenn
Fine. Your former boss, Dennis Blair, former DNI, sent a very
strong statement of support for you. He said you were the best
IG that he had worked with in his 35-plus years.
But there are these critiques. Others said that your
management of the office had a serious impact on the
performance of the IG's office at the Office of Director of
National Intelligence, including delay in a number of reports
and some attrition at the higher levels of the staff.
So, let me see if I can break this down a little bit and
ask you to respond to the micromanagement charge. I have a
voice in my head. I can hear my wife speaking to me. We
regularly accuse each other of being micromanagers. Perhaps in
that relationship, it is acceptable.
But some who have worked for you think that it has had an
adverse affect on what you have done, and I wanted to give you
a chance to respond to that and other critiques about your
management style and frankly the relevant question about
whether you can handle an IG office that is so much larger than
the one that you oversaw at the DNI.
Ms. Mazer. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for the
opportunity to address both questions.
First, if I may, I would like to put the so-called climate
survey in context.
Chairman Lieberman. Yes.
Ms. Mazer. As I mentioned, the former Director of National
Intelligence recruited me to come to the ODNI Inspector
General's Office to bring credibility and maturity to the
office.
He sought me out because he wanted me to bring the mature
and successful practices from what is widely regarded, I
believe, as one of the most successful IG offices, the
Department of Justice, to the relatively new ODNI Inspector
General's Office.
The climate survey revealed and gave voice to genuine
concerns on the part of my staff about how I was bringing about
the change I was asked to accomplish, not the goals----
Chairman Lieberman. Right.
Ms. Mazer [continuing]. Not the objectives, but how I was
going about it.
As you know, the Inspectors General pride themselves on and
their currency is their credibility. In order to sign out on
any report, I had to ensure that the work was done objectively
and independently, that it was done fairly, that management was
given an adequate opportunity to comment on the statements in
the report and to help tailor the recommendations.
And all that said, the climate survey revealed that the way
in which I was going about bringing these changes and
accomplishing the maturation of the office created frustration.
Many members of the staff that I inherited had no Inspector
General background. So, as I said in my opening remarks, IGs
are all about telling others how to improve themselves.
That is what they do. They identify fraud, waste, and
abuse. They identify efficiencies. They identify ways to
improve agency performance.
Well, here the spotlight was on me, and I took it very
seriously. I embraced the recommendations. My senior leadership
team set about to make changes immediately in conformity with
those recommendations. And I personally availed myself of
leadership development training. And I am a better manager for
it.
If I can turn to the scalability question.
Chairman Lieberman. Yes.
Ms. Mazer. Prior to joining the intelligence community in
2009, I was part of the senior leadership in the Department of
Justice, including 2 years in the 600-plus employee Criminal
Division.
There I led a very important initiative that involved
multiple stakeholders across the Federal Government, the
private sector, and international alliances to boost our
protection of intellectual property rights.
This was the first-ever initiative by the Department of
Justice. It entailed employing and leveraging the resources of
Customs, the State Department, the Patent and Trademark Office,
the FBI, all of our intellectual property alliances, and even
the G-8 and other international alliances. It was a very
successful initiative, which has been built upon to this day.
Likewise in the ODNI OIG, as you mentioned, Mr. Chairman,
in your opening remarks, I had a duel mission, and this duel
mission is highly relevant to the office for which I have been
nominated. Not only did I manage a small IG office but
concurrently chaired the Intelligence Community Inspectors
General Forum, which, like the Department of Homeland Security,
has a cross-enterprise and cross-mission role.
In serving as chair of the ICIG Forum, we produced joint
reports. We sponsored professional training. We shared best
practices. We were able to energize that cross-enterprise forum
to achieve and work to achieve the vision of this Committee and
the Congress when it passed the Intelligence Reform and
Terrorism Prevention Act.
Those skills, working successfully cross-enterprise and
cross-component, are the very skills that have been used and
need to be used in the DHS Inspector General's office.
Chairman Lieberman. My time is up in this round. I thank
you. Senator Collins.
Senator Collins. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, let me start by asking unanimous consent that
the statement of Ed Haugland, who is the Assistant Inspector
General for Inspections with the Office of Director of National
Intelligence, be put in the record.\1\
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\1\ The prepared statement of Mr. Haugland appears in the Appendix
on page 108.
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Chairman Lieberman. Without objection, so ordered.
Senator Collins. Ms. Mazer, I want to ask you a series of
questions based on the prepared statement that we have received
from Mr. Haugland.
First of all, I think it is important to put this in some
context. It is extremely unusual in my experience in my 15
years in the Senate for a civil servant to go on record
expressing concerns about a nominee.
For this reason and given the senior position that Mr.
Haugland has within the ODNI, I am concerned about his
comments. I would start by noting that you hired him for his
position, is that correct?
Ms. Mazer. It is.
Senator Collins. So, he was your choice for a senior
position in the office. I would like to read some of his
testimony and have you respond to it.
``Ms. Mazer's management led to such significant negative
impacts on the personnel, mission, and morale of the ODNI OIG
that I found it necessary to take action despite significant
risks to my career and despite being on probation for 1 year as
a new senior executive.''
He goes on to say, ``Her actions were the major issue that
resulted in minimized efficiency, effectiveness of the office's
mission, significant morale issues, a large attrition of staff,
and not one inspection being initiated during my tenure with
her.''
What is your response to these concerns?
Ms. Mazer. First, I want to say, Senator Collins, that when
I learned that Mr. Haugland had approached the Committee with
views that, of course, are fully appropriate for him to
express, I recused myself from any personnel action in relation
to him because I did not want there to be any question that I,
in any way, discouraged or acted in response to whatever
information he provided to the Committee.
Senator Collins. Well, you are no longer his supervisor,
are you?
Ms. Mazer. That is correct. But I think it is important
that the Committee understand that when I learned that he had
approached the Committee, I recused myself from his personnel
review this year.
I also declined to review that statement because I did not
want there to be any question because I was still in the
position when I learned he had provided this to the Committee.
This is the first I am hearing about the content of it, but I
am very happy to respond to it.
But I wanted the Committee to understand that I took myself
out of any review of his activities so there would be no
question about any action I have taken in relation to his
statements.
Senator Collins. Well, I would like for you to respond to
his statements. They are very serious and they echo many of the
concerns that the independent consultant found when the
consultant conducted the climate survey, and I would note that
the concerns reflected in that survey were widespread among the
staff. They did not originate with this one individual.
So, what is your response?
Ms. Mazer. I reject his conclusions. But as I said earlier,
the climate survey revealed legitimate employee concerns, such
as those expressed by Mr. Haugland, about the way I was going
about achieving the objectives I was hired to achieve.
Senator Collins. Well, I guess I would like to hear more
specifics from you. For example, Mr. Haugland says that not one
inspection was initiated during his tenure with you.
Why is that?
Ms. Mazer. Well, a number of inspections were underway when
he joined the office, several very significant inspections, one
of which has been completed, several of which are under way,
and one of which was suspended for reasons that Mr. Haugland
supported.
So, the inspection that was recently completed is one that
I believe is related to the topic of this Committee's hearing
tomorrow, which is the ODNI's oversight of its contractor
workforce.
I know that this Committee is very interested in aggressive
oversight of the contractor workforce across the intelligence
community and the ODNI. During Mr. Haugland's tenure, that
inspection was conducted and completed.
In addition, there are several other inspections underway,
and one inspection that was largely completed by the time Mr.
Haugland joined my office has been suspended on the
recommendation of Mr. Haugland because of certain dynamic
circumstances going on with Director Clapper assuming duty in
the ODNI. So, I do not believe that is fully accurate.
Moreover, I would like to say that during Mr. Haugland's
tenure and during my tenure in the 2\1/2\ years I have had the
privilege of serving as ODNI Inspector General, we have
completed many meaty, significant reports that go to the core
mission of the ODNI--reports on acquisition oversight,
contractor oversight, the status of integration of the
intelligence community, the joint duty program, one of the main
drivers of intelligence integration.
In addition, we have done many investigative reports--
reports of serious misconduct and other types of improper
activity. So, beyond the inspection division, our office has
produced many meaty and significant reports that my staff and I
are very proud of.
Senator Collins. Well, my time has expired and there are
additional people who are waiting to question. But I would note
that when one excludes the regularly issued reports, such as
the Federal Information Security Management Act reviews or the
one-page data summaries, there is, in fact, a substantial drop
in the number of substantial reports during your tenure.
That is data that I know we have shared with you, but I
will wait until the next round.
Chairman Lieberman. Thank you, Senator Collins. Next is
Senator Akaka.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR AKAKA
Senator Akaka. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Ms. Mazer, I want to add my welcome to you and to your
family attending this hearing and also to congratulate you on
your nomination.
Ms. Mazer. Thank you very much.
Senator Akaka. Inspectors General have a unique and
important role. IGs help agencies and Congress identify ways,
as you have mentioned, to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse. They
also protect employees from retaliation when they blow the
whistle on waste and wrongdoing.
Earlier this year, I re-introduced the bipartisan
legislation to protect whistleblowers. So, I want you to know
that, if confirmed, I hope you will continue to work with
employees, as you stated you will, who come forward to expose
waste, fraud, and abuse.
Ms. Mazer, as you know, while the DHS has made progress,
the Department still faces challenges that put it on the
Government Accountability Office (GAO) high-risk list year
after year, including human capital and contract management as
well as integration of its information and financial systems. I
look forward to working with you on these issues, and I have a
few questions to ask you.
When initiating a project, Ms. Mazer, it is important to
design it in a way that encourages optimal use by an agency or
Congress.
How do you scope projects so they will be useful and
timely?
Ms. Mazer. This is a central function, Senator, as you
know, of the IG office. The way to scope projects is to
research the topic carefully, to meet with the affected
elements, to understand what the issues are that they think
need to be addressed, to look at the relevant reports generated
by the Inspector General community on that topic if there are
any, to sit down with a team going to conduct the review to
determine how it can be done in the most efficient fashion.
This is the garden-variety work that IGs do every day. It
is also important, as the project is executed, to re-examine
the scope of the project. If it turns out that the work needed
to be done is far more significant than originally anticipated,
it is often prudent to descope the project, to push out the
project results in perhaps two or three segments so that agency
management has the benefit in a timely fashion of the initial
findings.
So, scoping of projects is a very important function, and I
appreciate, Senator, your recognizing how important that is for
an IG office to understand.
Senator Akaka. The role of an Inspector General is not only
to investigate wrongdoing and waste but also to help agencies
institute procedures to prevent those problems.
What is your approach to identifying deficiencies and
shortcomings without becoming too involved in operations and
policy?
Ms. Mazer. An effective Inspector General does not just
document waste, fraud, and abuse. An effective Inspector
General includes in his or her reports recommendations designed
to prevent those practices from happening in the future. That
is the sweet spot for an Inspector General.
In all the reports I have worked on at the Department of
Justice IG and then ODNI, we have been able to shape
recommendations designed to do just that.
Let me give you just two examples, and I believe this is
responsive to Senator Collins' probing questions.
The other judgment that IGs have to make is what to do with
the discretionary part of their portfolio. Congress mandates
IGs to perform all kinds of work. The DHS IG is under many
mandates to perform certain work.
But while serving as the ODNI Inspector General, I
initiated two very significant audits. They concern the
stewardship of appropriated funds. The first was an audit of
the ODNI's fund balance with Treasury.
As the Committee knows, a fund balance with Treasury is one
of the three requirements to achieve auditability, along with
property plans and equipment, and intergovernmental transfers.
The report contained very significant findings and
recommendations that have been fully implemented that will now
enable the ODNI chief financial officer and the agency to move
toward auditability.
The second audit I initiated at ODNI IG was for the first
time to examine DHS intelligence elements use of National
Intelligence Program (NIP) funds. This was something we did on
our own because the National Intelligence Program, of course,
has funds distributed throughout many agencies in the
government.
We looked at DHS first. Our findings were very significant.
The recommendations have been fully implemented, and those
recommendations are well serving the ODNI Chief Financial
Officer in providing better oversight of the use of NIP funds
by other elements in our Federal Government.
So, these are examples of the proactive approach that I
have used successfully.
Senator Akaka. Thank you very much.
As an Inspector General, effectively communicating
performance expectations and mutual trust with the workforce
are critical to success. Please give specific examples of how
you will accomplish these objectives with your Assistant
Inspectors General and the rest of the IG workforce.
Ms. Mazer. Thank you, Senator.
Fortunately, I am very familiar with the DHS Office of the
Inspector General. I have been exposed to that office, have
worked with that office, and have been a hungry consumer of
their reports.
Because the DHS IG is a member of the ICIG Forum, the DHS
IG and the current Acting IG have participated in the IC-wide
work that I have led as chair of the ICIG Forum.
By the same token, I am a member of the DHS IG's Homeland
Security Round Table. This roundtable is under the auspices of
the Council of the Inspectors General for Integrity and
Efficiency and performs very important work for the homeland
security enterprise.
For example, I believe this Committee will hear tomorrow
from the National Science Foundation Inspector General, Allison
Lerner, who co-chaired a very significant report on the under
utilization of suspension and debarment tools by Offices of
Inspector General.
So, I am very familiar with the DHS mission, the excellent
work product, and most significantly the excellent relations
that the DHS IG office has with this Committee, and I am
confident that, if I am fortunate to be confirmed, I will be
able to sustain and continue that excellent collaboration.
Senator Akaka. Thank you very much for your responses.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Lieberman. Thank you, Senator Akaka. Senator
Carper.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR CARPER
Senator Carper. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Ms. Mazer, welcome to you, and I understand I got here
after the introductions were made, but I understand you are
joined here by several members of your family including your
husband, your father, and maybe a child or two. I am not sure,
and maybe your extended family.
I read over your background, and I came across the fact
that you, in the earlier part of your career, wrote extensively
on baseball. And if you ask anybody in the audience what
happens almost 3 months to the day from today, they would tell
you that pitchers and catchers report to spring training camps
all over America.
To what do you attribute your love for baseball?
Ms. Mazer. Well, growing up with my wonderful father. He
was actually more of a football fan than a baseball fan. But I
grew up in the heyday of the Baltimore Orioles. I was a student
at Western High School when the 1966 World Series team paraded
down the street, the glory days of Brooks Robinson and Frank
Robinson----
Senator Carper. Those were great days.
Ms. Mazer [continuing]. And Luis Aparicio. And oh, I wish
they were back.
Senator Carper. Well, they may be.
One of the great things about the Orioles system was they
had a terrific farm system. They grew their own talent, and the
people who started off in Single-A, played Double-A, played
Triple-A, and eventually did great things in the major leagues
for the Orioles.
Using a baseball metaphor, describe how you have been
prepared for this job?
Ms. Mazer. Well, I have been in the major leagues for many
years. I started out in the minors, but I have grown with
progressively greater experience and success in each position I
have been fortunate to serve in.
Senator Carper. Talk about your growth. As you came up from
the minors to the majors, what helped aid and abet your growth
and prepared you for these challenges?
Ms. Mazer. Excellent mentors, big challenges. I worked
under the leadership and mentorship of Glenn Fine. There was no
finer Inspector General. I also have enjoyed the collaboration
with fellow Inspectors General; and in preparation for possibly
serving as DHS IG, I have called upon the Inspector General
community to talk about the challenges of coming into a large
IG office.
So, I have spent a lot of time thinking about, studying
for, preparing for, and doing the work of an Inspector General,
and I look forward to the opportunity, if confirmed, to serve
well.
Senator Carper. Well, we need a major league Inspector
General at DHS. Before my colleague Senator Coburn left, you
had just testified and were responding to questions from our
Chairman and Senator Collins, I leaned over to him and said,
``She is very impressive, really conveys a sense of calmness
and a lot of smarts.''
In fact, I said to the Chairman, ``She really exudes the
calm confidence of a Christian holding four aces,'' is the way
I would describe it.
Senator Coburn is gone. He left the room, not the building.
He is like me, rabid about identifying wasteful spending. In
fact, we all are on this Committee, and it is a big part of
what we do, not just homeland security. We try to figure out
how to spend money more cost effectively, figure out what
works, and do more of that. Find out what does not work, and do
less of that.
We need partners at GAO. We need partners at the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB). We need partners within the IGs
across the Federal Government, and we need to work outside of
the Federal Government with all sorts of groups that are
focused on waste.
One of the things that I think he is interested in,
certainly I am interested in, is an assurance that you are
going to be that kind of partner, not somebody who is working
for us. That is not your job. But someone who is going to be
out there working day in and day out with us in partnership to
identify improper payments or another kind of wasteful
spending, contractual arrangements that are going on or
payments to vendors that we should not be making at all because
they are on a do-not-pay list, and information technology (IT)
projects that are behind budget and frankly not delivering.
What we really need is to know that we are going to have
somebody at the helm who is as passionate about this stuff as
we are and will be a terrific partner with us in going after
that kind of wasteful spending.
He is not here right now to hear from you, but I would like
for you just to take a minute or two and convey a sense of
passion about this, if you will.
Ms. Mazer. I am passionately committed to that mission and
to working collaboratively with this Committee in furtherance
of it. And I will say just for a moment the aspects of my
record that ready me for that responsibility.
In my private practice years, I worked on dozens of Federal
criminal investigations--investigations of false claims,
bribery, official corruption, many of the types of crimes that
unfortunately the DHS OIG encounters.
In the DOJ Inspector General's Office, I conducted many
investigations of high-level misconduct, which led to
suspension, removal, and discipline.
In the ODNI IG Office, of course, I oversaw many
investigations of serious misconduct and also investigations of
waste, fraud, and abuse.
From time to time, our findings were so significant that we
did not wait until the reports were completed, but we did what
Inspectors General are trained to do, which is to brief the
findings to agency management so that they could swiftly employ
measures to remedy those abuses.
And finally, as the chair of the ICIG Forum, I sponsored
professional training of IGs in the best practices of forensic
auditing and other anti-fraud tools that arm the IGs to
identify fraud at the front-end.
I sponsored and attended that professional training; and if
confirmed, I look forward to leveraging those experiences and
bringing it to the DHS IG's Office.
Senator Carper. I do not know if you will have a chance to
meet with some of our colleagues, including Senator Coburn, who
is not here. He and I have taken turns chairing a subcommittee
that deals with Federal financial management. He is rabid about
the things that I have mentioned. To the extent that you have
the chance to meet with him personally, I urge you to do that.
And last, I just want to wish you well. I appreciate your
father for preparing you for a life of not just baseball, but a
life of public service.
And if I could use a baseball metaphor, I think one of the
pieces that you wrote was called ``The Triple, Rounding Third
Base,'' and we know that third base is not like getting home
and scoring a run. We want you to make it to home plate.
Mr. Chairman, when will we have the markup on this
nomination? Do you know?
Chairman Lieberman. It is not set yet. But obviously, we
are not going to have it before Thanksgiving. So, perhaps the
first or second week after the recess.
Senator Carper. Take full advantage of whatever time lies
between now and when we actually have a chance to vote on your
nomination.
I am very encouraged by what you had to say here. I just
think it is important for some of our other colleagues who may
have questions about you to have a chance to meet you
personally, spend time with you, and get a sense of not only
your gravitas, but your passion for some of these issues.
Thank you for your willingness to serve and our thanks for
your father and mother for preparing you and for some of these
men behind you for being willing to share you with the people
of our country. Thank you.
Ms. Mazer. Thank you, Senator. My husband and I had a
wonderful evening in Wilmington a few days ago.
Senator Carper. Did you really. Well, we will talk about
that later. Thank you. Come back and come to the beaches. We
have great beaches, too. Thank you.
Ms. Mazer. Thank you.
Chairman Lieberman. Thank you, Senator Carper. I always
look forward to Senator Carper's questioning because it is like
a force of nature. We are not sure exactly where it is going.
I will say that your father was quite serious throughout
this hearing until the word baseball was mentioned. [Laughter.]
And then a big smile.
Senator Carper. And then he knew he was at a home game.
This is a home game for him. Right?
Chairman Lieberman. Thanks.
Let me see if I can summarize your reaction because again
this is kind of a perplexing and unusual situation. Nobody
questions your honor. Nobody questions your intellect.
So, there are some people who worked with you exclusively
at the DNI IG office who are questioning your management
abilities, and the Human Resources Research Organization
(HumRRO) report made some critiques of your management style.
Am I right that your response to that is to say that you
accepted those critiques, you learned from them, and in fact,
you went through some, is it fair to say, training in
management skills and that, as a result, from a purely
management point of view, you are prepared to take on this
assignment for which the President has nominated you?
Ms. Mazer. That is correct, and I will just add one
additional point, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Lieberman. Please.
Ms. Mazer. I did not just take the recommendations to
heart, I implemented them. Some of them were already on track
to be implemented because my then deputy had recommended them
before the climate survey was conducted.
But I did not just internalize them, though I did, I took
steps with my senior leadership team to implement the
recommendations. So, it was a useful exercise. The exercise
validated legitimate concerns, and I believe Director Clapper
and others have informed the Chairman and the Committee that I
am a better manager for it.
Chairman Lieberman. That is correct. I am going to leave
that for now. Let me go onto another matter entirely.
As I am sure you know, allegations of criminal misconduct
by DHS employees, specifically those that work for CBP on the
southwest border, as I mentioned earlier, continue to grow in
quantity and seriousness.
That is partly due to the rapid increase in staffing along
the border, I presume, and perhaps partly due to the concerted
effort by the drug cartels to target border officials to turn a
blind eye as they bring drugs into the United States.
I know that the DHS OIG has primary responsibility for
reviewing allegations and determining whether to conduct
investigations independently or seek assistance from ICE or CBP
integrity offices but that there has been some tension among
the different agencies on this matter.
I also understand that the FBI currently leads
approximately 20 border corruption task forces that focus on
combating corruption along our border but that the DHS OIG does
not participate in those task forces.
I must say that I am disappointed that interagency
rivalries appear to be hindering efforts to effectively combat
corruption at these constituent units at DHS. I wanted to ask
you if you are familiar with that, and if you are, or having
heard it now from me, what steps you might take to address this
issue if you are confirmed.
Ms. Mazer. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Border corruption, as this Committee has revealed in
multiple hearings, is a very serious and growing challenge for
the Department of Homeland Security.
With the increase in Customs and Border Protection
personnel has sorrowfully come a significant increase in border
corruption cases. These cases are often big. They are ugly.
They involve drugs. They involve human trafficking. It is one
of the most serious challenges confronting the DHS enterprise.
I have studied the DHS IG's reports to date. I have been
heartened to read the transcript of this Committee's June 9,
2011, hearing at which Acting DHS Inspector General Charles
Edwards described, along with CBP Commissioner Alan Bersin, the
memorandum of understanding (MOU) that has been entered into
that will leverage the resources of the Customs and Border
Protection personnel and the Office of the Inspector General.
If confirmed, this will be a very high priority to see what
the details are of the implementation of that MOU and to meet
with the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Offices, something I have done
successfully in my past tenure at the Department of Justice, to
see what the opportunities and options are for participating in
the border corruption task forces.
Chairman Lieberman. Good. So, you would say that your goal
would be to see that the DHS OIG be a participant on those task
forces?
Ms. Mazer. It would be premature to give you that
commitment, Mr. Chairman, but I commit to you that I will study
this as a matter of high priority and understand the options
and the opportunities.
Chairman Lieberman. On another subject in DHS, which has
been a focus of this Committee, in your opening statement, you
noted that as ODNI Inspector General, you led reviews that
assessed the status of integration of two intelligence elements
of DHS, the Office of Intelligence and Analysis (INA) and the
Coast Guard's National Intelligence Element.
Based on what you learned in those reviews, what would you
say are the key challenges facing the Department of Homeland
Security with respect to its intelligence activities?
Ms. Mazer. Well, the DHS IG's office has already done
significant unclassified reports on these topics, and the
reports that I generated were classified, and of course, I am
prepared to talk about them in a classified setting.
But the DHS IG's office has already determined and studied
the great opportunities and challenges for the Department of
Intelligence and Analysis. The INA stands at the crossroads
between the enormous amount of information that we collect at
our borders, that the Transportation Security Administration
collects, and fusing that information with the intelligence
community's resources.
The fusion centers have been the topic of many IG reviews,
and I think the report card is somewhat uneven. Some fusion
centers have been remarkably successful. Others have had
shortfalls.
So, I think the INA is a work in progress. From my own
assessments, I think it is on a path toward achieving a very
robust role in the intelligence community.
Similarly, the Coast Guard National Intelligence Element
has very unique expertise and capabilities that we were able to
document in our recent assessment that was completed this year.
So, I think the trajectory for both is positive, but
challenges, including information technology, collection of
U.S. person information, making sure that is done properly and
in accordance with Executive Orders, remain.
Chairman Lieberman. Well, I agree with you that the
intelligence activities within the department are a work in
progress. They are getting better.
If you are confirmed, based on the experience you have had
with intelligence, I hope you will take an active interest in
this and make it a subject of oversight because I think you can
help this function reach the potential and be a value-added
component of DHS, not just a repetition of what exists
elsewhere in the intelligence community. Senator Collins.
Senator Collins. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I want to return to Mr. Haugland's testimony. At one point
he was talking about the difficulty in getting reports
completed, and he gives an example in which he says that ``Ms.
Mazer continued to edit and change the scope and contents of
the report so that by the time it was released for review, it
was no longer timely, relevant, or accurate.''
That is a troubling charge because one of the advantages
that we had at DHS when Richard Skinner was the IG is he very
quickly turned around reports--they issued over 120 in a year's
time--so that we in Congress could react either legislatively
or by putting pressure on the Secretary to implement findings
and recommendations.
So, I am concerned about language in Mr. Haugland's
testimony saying that you so delayed reports, they no longer
were timely, relevant, or accurate and similar criticisms of
the over-editing and micromanaging that are also found in the
climate study.
What have you done specifically to respond to those
criticisms?
Ms. Mazer. I do not agree with those conclusions, Senator.
I signed out every report that met established, professional IG
standards for accuracy, fairness, relevance, and actionable
recommendations.
There were many reports that were issued and finalized
under my tenure. My record speaks for itself. But better than
that, Senator, I think you have available to you and the
Committee, the letters of support that have come from the chief
management officers of the ODNI.
They have documented in detail, I believe, the success of
my tenure and the quality, timeliness, and relevance of my
reports. Both DNI Blair and DNI Clapper have said I was among
the best IGs they had ever worked with, if not the best.
So, I think one measure of my effectiveness would be the
views of agency management, and they regarded my tenure as a
success. I believe Inspector General Fine is widely regarded as
one of the most distinguished Inspectors General in the IG
community, and I believe he has also offered a letter of
support about the management of very complex, congressionally
mandated reviews with statutory deadlines. We met every
deadline.
Senator Collins. You say you have met every deadline. But
it is my understanding that there was a statutory deadline of
October 8, 2011, for a study on e-waste that was mandated by
the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010.
I am told that the study was not completed on time. So, how
can you say that, unless our information is wrong, you met
every statutory deadline when that report was not completed?
Ms. Mazer. I very much appreciate, Senator, the opportunity
to respond to that.
As the Committee knows, the Fiscal Year 2010 Intelligence
Authorization Act directed three reviews to the Intelligence
Community Inspector General.
The Office of General Counsel at the ODNI provided a formal
legal opinion to us that the obligation to produce those
reports was not triggered until the Office of the Inspector
General of the Intelligence Community was stood up.
Nonetheless, I directed my staff to do baseline work, and
we did very important work to position the ICIG, which is now
in place as of last week, to undertake that congressionally
directed action.
So, in conformity with the legal advice given to my office
by the Office of General Counsel, we did not regard that
October 8 date as a date that ran to my office as the ODNI IG.
But using appropriate Inspector General best practices, I
ensured that our office did the baseline work to position the
ICIG to begin that study.
Senator Collins. So, I want to be very clear on this point.
You are saying that you did not consider this to be a report
that your office was mandated to be completed by October 8 of
this year. Is that correct?
Ms. Mazer. That is what the General Counsel told me.
Senator Collins. Let me switch to another issue, which has
to do with the productivity of the office. I started to get
into that in the last round.
There has been concern expressed about the drop in
productivity under your leadership, and the statistics that
both the majority and the minority staff collaborated on
indicate that there were only three substantial reports that
were completed in fiscal year 2010 and fiscal year 2011, under
your tenure.
It appears, as has been said in the interviews that we
conducted, that there was a drop in the number of reports
issued by your office. Would you respond to that concern?
Ms. Mazer. Yes. Thank you for the opportunity again to
respond to that question.
In my experience in the IG community now going on 9-plus
years, there are many useful measures to assess the
productivity of an Inspector General's Office.
I do not believe the best metric is the number of reports.
I believe a better metric is the quality, relevance, and
timeliness of the reports.
Measured against that standard and considering the number
of personnel in my office who had any IG background, I am quite
proud of the number of reports issued during my tenure, and I
am quite proud of the quality of the reports.
I wish to add, Senator, that because the ODNI OIG is
relatively new, I decided to devote a considerable amount of
time to establishing repeatable processes that would make the
office more efficient.
For example, prior to my tenure, there was no established
process to ensure that IG recommendations were implemented.
Working closely with agency management, we established a formal
process so that there is now a directive from the Director of
National Intelligence that requires periodic meetings with
affected elements who have open recommendations to ensure that
those recommendations are implemented.
By any standard in the IG community, making sure that IG
recommendations are implemented is every bit as important, if
not more important, than issuing individual reports.
In addition, I served concurrently as chair of the ICIG
Forum. That responsibility required me to make decisions about
deploying my senior leadership and my staff to nourish those
efforts.
Senator Collins. Well, do you think serving as chair of
that committee prevented you from doing the kind of quantity of
reports that we would expect?
Ms. Mazer. It was part of the workload.
Senator Collins. Did you consider resigning as chairman so
that you could devote more time to the IG job?
Ms. Mazer. Absolutely not. I made choices on how to ensure
that our senior leadership team and our staff as a whole
nourished and supported the forum so that we could leverage the
resources, just as the DNI is to leverage the resources across
the intelligence community so that we work more effectively and
efficiently.
Senator Collins. Well, let me suggest to you that I do not
see quality and quantity as being enemies. I think you can
produce a quantity of reports that are all high-quality, and
again I would direct you to the experience of Richard Skinner
at DHS where the reports were almost always of very high
quality, and yet there was a huge quantity of reports both
congressionally directed but self-initiated as well.
We have a saying in shipbuilding, which I am sure the
Chairman is aware of, which is that quantity has a quality all
of its own. The fact is, if you do one fabulous report or in
your case three, let us say, top-notch, excellent reports, but
you can only do three, you are not fulfilling the mission of
the office. That means that too much is not being examined.
It is truly a shipbuilding analogy that we use all the
time. Even if you have three very capable submarines,
destroyers, or whatever metaphor we want to use, that is not
enough. That is why I am concerned about the drop in
productivity.
I want to turn to a different issue. You have talked a lot
about policy work that you have done as the IG, and you have
talked about the work you have done at the Department of
Justice and the review of national security letters--important
work to be sure.
That is policy work. Those are policy reviews. In fact, the
efforts to expose fraud, waste, mismanagement, abuse of
taxpayer dollars and to identify improper payments are among
the most important functions of an Inspector General,
particularly at the Department of Homeland Security where $55
billion is being spent.
What is your experience? Give me examples of your
experience in conducting those types of audits and
investigations.
When I asked you this in my office, you said your review of
national security letters, but that is not the kind of audit
for improper payments or fraud. That is compliance with the
law. It is important. It is a policy issue. It is entirely
different from going after overpayments to FEMA recipients, for
example.
Ms. Mazer. A number of my experiences in both private
practice and in my government service of 16 years equip me to
tackle the DHS fraud and abuse portfolio.
As a partner in private law practice, I participated in
many Federal criminal investigations, including investigations
of fraud, contract fraud, bribery, and the kinds of charges
that the DHS IG investigates.
While serving in the DOJ Office of the Inspector General, I
also led serious misconduct investigations and serious abuse
investigations of the type conducted by the DHS IG's office.
And as the ODNI IG, though our staff was relatively small,
I oversaw many investigations of fraud and abuse that led to
misconduct findings that led to discipline, which led to
improved oversight.
For example, the report I mentioned a few moments ago about
contractor oversight revealed some significant shortfalls in
the ODNI's oversight of its contractor workforce, its oversight
of contracting officers technical representatives--very similar
findings to those made by the DHS IG's office. These are the
types of reports that the DHS IG's office generates. I am very
familiar with this work. I have done this work. And I am
looking forward, if confirmed, to continuing the excellent
quantity and quality of work performed by the DHS IG's office
in this realm.
Senator Collins. Just one final question because I really
want to focus in on this. Have you ever led or directed an
audit or investigation that identified improper payments and
led to their recovery?
Ms. Mazer. No, not improper payments in the narrow sense of
the Improper Payments Act. But I have overseen investigations
in the ODNI IG's office of improper practices, including
practices that led to waste, fraud, and abuse and that led to
the termination of contracts, that led to improved oversight of
the contractor workforce. That is directly relevant to the DHS
IG's office investigative portfolio.
Senator Collins. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Lieberman. Thank you, Senator Collins.
Thank you, Ms. Mazer, for appearing before the Committee
today. As I have said now twice, you present an unusual
situation to the Committee.
I wanted to indicate for the record that I intend to
support your nomination. I think on balance, notwithstanding
some of the criticisms that have come in, you have an exemplary
record of public service, and it seems to me that you have
responded to the constructive suggestions that were in the
HumRRO report.
But I think it probably will be important because there
will be some concern among Committee Members that you take
every advantage, I know you probably sought them already, to
talk to Members of the Committee individually to allow them to
ask you whatever is on their minds before the nomination comes
to a vote.
So, we will keep the record of this hearing open for 10
days when you or Members of the Committee or others can
introduce or offer statements or questions to be answered for
the record.
Senator Collins, do you have anything you would like to
say?
Senator Collins. I do not. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I
appreciated the extra time you gave me. This is a really
important nomination.
Chairman Lieberman. I agree, and you are quite welcome. It
was more than appropriate. It was the responsibility of the
Committee to give you that time.
So, I thank you very much. I thank all your family members.
I note some friends--somebody who went to school with my
daughter. My decision to support your nomination has nothing to
do with the presence of the Swerdlow family here.
With that, the hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 4:40 p.m., the Committee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
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