'You Are Inaccurate': Rosa DeLauro Grills Secretary 'You Are Inaccurate': Rosa DeLauro Grills Sec. Howard Lutnick About Government Spending About Government Spending

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At a House Appropriations Committee hearing on Thursday, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) questioned Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick about how his department is spending money.

Transcript

00:00Mr. Laurel.

00:05Thanks very much, Mr. Chairman.

00:06My apologies.

00:07There are a lot of appropriations, markups, and hearings today, so I apologize for being

00:14late.

00:15With that, I would like to ask unanimous consent to put my opening remarks in the record.

00:22And good morning to you all.

00:23It's good afternoon now, Mr. Secretary.

00:25Let me just follow up on something that my colleague, Mr. Mervan, was asking about.

00:30And that was the International Trade Administration, which helps to increase our exports of American

00:35products and services, protects American producers against trade cheating by China and others.

00:40I think it's important to note to my colleague, Mr. Mervan, that there has been almost a 30%

00:48cut to the ITA, $183 million.

00:53That's below what was proposed for 2025.

00:59So it's going to cost American jobs, decimates ITA's U.S. commercial service, operates out

01:07of U.S. export assistance centers and U.S. embassies abroad, works to maintain and increase

01:13the exports of U.S. products and services.

01:16So the agency, which is meant to protect, if you will, our exporters, et cetera, is now

01:25being decimated.

01:26I think one has to look at what has been cut.

01:31There's the MEP program that I believe has been eliminated.

01:35Everyone needs to go carefully through each of these areas and get a sense of, in fact,

01:40what is being cut back and, you know, facts are funny.

01:50You got to deal with the details and with the facts.

01:53Just can't speak about it and make general statements.

01:56And when you cut back on agencies in the way that you have and slash and burn, if you will,

02:02then we're not going to get to where we want to go.

02:04I want to focus a second on two quick areas.

02:08One is transparency in government because it's critical.

02:15Americans need to see where their tax dollars are going.

02:19And since 2022, we've had in place, I say that and maybe self-serving, I worked hard on

02:27this issue and we got bipartisan, bicameral agreement to make sure that the executive branch,

02:34and I made sure that wasn't with the Democratic administration.

02:38They are legally required to publicly post budget documents.

02:43That is how and when, how and where taxpayers' dollars are being spent.

02:49They're called apportionments.

02:50Put that aside.

02:51It's about saying how the money is going to be spent.

02:56And that is online.

02:58Now, this information is legally required.

03:02It's binding on a federal agency.

03:04The Office of Management Budget uses the information to tell agencies how and when they can spend

03:11the funds that Congress has appropriated.

03:13Beginning in March, OMB stopped posting these documents.

03:18This is illegal, and it's a slap in the face to the principle of transparency, accountability,

03:25in government spending, which this administration claims to champion.

03:29Mr. Secretary, I'm going to ask for your commitment to once again making the amount specific budget

03:37documents, apportionments, how and where U.S. tax dollars are being spent by the Department

03:44of Commerce and its bureaus publicly accessible.

03:48Will you commit to doing that?

03:50It's my understanding that my department is following the CR with precision as is required.

03:56No, you are, and you are inaccurate because I'll get to spend plans.

04:02We do not have details on the spend plans, which the CR requires, and it hasn't happened.

04:08We have a lack of specificity on this is at more than five weeks after the legal due date.

04:16We do not have a detailed span plan as required by the law.

04:21Let me go back.

04:22Will you commit to getting online how and where the American taxpayers dollars with regard to

04:32the Department of Commerce are being spent as is required by the law?

04:38I will, of course, follow the law, but it is my understanding as I've been advised that we

04:45have filed precisely according to the CR's requirement.

04:49I do not know who you got your advice from, but this is the Appropriations Committee.

04:54We're looking at every span plan, and let me just tell you, the bare bones spend plan was three weeks late.

05:02Surely in that time, you must have had time to put together a more detailed spend plan.

05:06And this is this is false.

05:09The law sets out the timeline and the level of detail.

05:13You are.

05:14This is what is happening is illegal and in contravention of what this committee does and it puts together.

05:21And if you can't make a commitment, I take that as no, you will not commit so that the public has no idea,

05:28no idea what any agency in this administration is, how they're spending the taxpayers dollars

05:35and where those dollars are going.

05:36I yield back and wait for a second round.

05:38Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for your indulgence.

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