'Shocking Misuse Of Federal Funds': Ryan Mackenzie Presses Kari Lake Over VOA's $250 Million Office

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During a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (R-PA) asked USAGM Kari Lake about Voice Of America.

Transcript

00:00Investigation. Chair now recognizes Representative McKenzie. Thank you, Mr.

00:04Chairman, and thank you, Ms. Lake, for joining us today. I think it is imperative

00:09that we recognize the challenge that VOA faces in terms of the infiltration that

00:15we've been talking about during this hearing of the anti-American information

00:19that has been put out, whether it's pro-Russia, pro-China. All of this is

00:24problematic, and I think it's also a problem that members on this committee

00:29aren't willing to recognize that problem. If we can't all come together and

00:34recognize the fact that this organization and this agency is conflicted in many

00:40ways, I don't know how we're going to address the problem. So I appreciate the

00:43fact that you've recognized that, and your reform efforts are critical. If we

00:48want to actually advance America's interest around the world, get out this

00:52truthful information, we need to make sure that we are then going to be in a

00:57position to spend the dollars that we're appropriating for this program

01:00effectively. So the question that I have relates to two, I think, misuses of public

01:06funds. The first is about a lease. So we have a video that has been provided that

01:12shows a facility that was leased for 15 years, $250 million, $250 million of taxpayer money to

01:23lease this lavish building in downtown Washington, D.C. on Pennsylvania Avenue.

01:27Nice. Yet at the same time, they are still occupying the Cohen Building. So tell me about

01:34this new lease and what we know about it at this point. Well, their plan was to take this operation

01:39and move it into this building, a quarter of a billion dollar boondoggle that Amanda Bennett,

01:45the former CEO under Joe Biden's administration, the former CEO of USAGM, signed in this lease

01:50right before, in the fall, right before the election, to make the American taxpayers pay

01:56for this gorgeous facility. Have you ever seen a federal facility this beautiful, by the way?

02:01And there you go, you've got waterfalls, you've got Italian marble, glass, and they were going to

02:07move everybody over into this building. One slight problem, it's not set up or equipped to do any

02:13broadcasting. And this is a broadcasting agency. So we canceled that. We canceled that and tore up the

02:21lease and said we're not going to pay for that lease. Thank you for doing that, because that is

02:24just a shocking misuse of federal funds. And if we do want to actually carry out the good work that VOA

02:31possibly could do, we need to make sure that American tax dollars are being spent appropriately and not on

02:36wasteful leases like this one. So appreciate your effort to cancel that lease. The second thing that I

02:41like to talk about is relating to some really egregious settlements that were carried out previously

02:50for former employees of the agency. And you referenced it in your opening testimony. So I would

02:57like to hear a little bit more about this. Again, it sounds like a misuse of federal funds. And if you

03:02could share some more information on that. I think a lot of DC lawyers figured out a quick way to make

03:07money is to sue this agency. This agency will roll over and pay off any settlement. As a matter of fact,

03:13one of our former attorneys at the agency, upon seeing how many settlements were made there,

03:20said that she's never seen so many large settlements go out in any agency. I have in this binder 19

03:27settlements. We only picked the big ones over $250,000 settlements. 19 $250,000 settlements were

03:37made out of USAGM in the last five years. A couple of them were for folks, a man named David Kligerman,

03:45who used to work for the agency. Now he works, I believe, over at Middle East Broadcasting.

03:51He left the agency after the McGuire Woods report came out showing misspending, abuse of the agency,

04:00abuse of the federal tax dollar. And then he came back when Biden and put Amanda Bennett in,

04:07hired him back and paid him a $650,000 settlement. His attorneys made a fortune as well. I think they

04:14figured out that they've got a compliant legal office at USAGM that will settle anything. All you got to do

04:20is sue the agency and they'll throw tons of money your way. And that's another way they pilfered tax

04:25dollars of the American people. Well, I appreciate your work to highlight the waste and misuse from

04:31the last administration. When our country is trillions of dollars in debt, running multi-trillion

04:37dollar deficits every single year, we have to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars. It's finally time

04:42to do that. I'm glad this administration is taking on that effort, attacking waste and abuse of federal

04:48funds like I just talked about here. And if we actually want to get back to the mission of

04:53promoting American interests around the world, we need to do that with the tax dollars that we have

04:58available. And so these reform efforts that we're talking about today are so critically important.

05:02And I again want to thank you for our efforts and work with you hand in hand as we actually get back

05:08to the critical missions that this agency could provide for America and American interests around

05:13the world. Thank you. And I yield back. Chair now recognizes Representative Titus. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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