Hearings
- April 17: The U.S. Is This Any Way to Treat Our Troops? - Part II: Follow-Up on Corrective Measures Taken at Walter Reed
Witnesses:
This hearing was a follow-up to the initial March 5th hearing at Walter Reed. At this one, the Committee heard from the Independent Review Group (IRG), which was set up by Defense Secretary Gates to provide recommendations to fix the problems at Walter Reed and other Defense Department medical facilities. Senior Defense Department and Army officials discussed the IRG report and how to implement the report’s findings. See Independent Review Group Report: Rebuilding the Trust (PDF)
- April 17: The U.S. Postal Service 101
Witnesses:
- John E. Potter, Postmaster General/CEO, U.S. Postal Service
- James C. Miller, III, Chairman, Board of Governors, U.S. Postal Service
- Dan G. Blair, Chairman, Postal Regulatory Commission
- David C. Williams, Inspector General, U.S. Postal Service
- Katherine A. Siggerud, Director, Physical Infrastructure Issues, U.S. General Accountability Office
- William Burrus, President, American Postal Workers Union
- William H. Young, President, National Association of Letter Carriers
- Donnie Pitts, President, National Rural Letter Carriers' Association
- John F. Hegarty, National President, National Postal Mail Handlers Union
- Oscar Dale Goff, Jr., President, National Association of Postmasters of the United States
- Charles W. Mapa, President, National League of Postmasters
- Ted Keating, President, National Association of Postal Supervisors
Postmaster general, John Potter, and other postal officials discussed Bush's new law overhauling postal operations. One of the main issues is using contractors to deliver mail.
Contractors may save money for the Postal Service, but their use could lower public trust in the mail and harms employee morale, Donnie Pitts, president of the National Rural Letter Carriers' Association, and John F. Hegarty, president of the National Postal Mail Handlers Union, told the subcommittee."
WaPo: "A Large Load to Sort in USPS overhaul"
- April 18: Ensuring Fairness and Accuracy in Elections Involving Electronic Voting Systems
Witnesses:
- Hon. Gracia Hillman, Commissioner, U.S. Election Assistance Commission
- Mr. Randolph Hite, Director, Information Technology Architecture and Systems, U.S. Government Accountability Office
- Hon. Robin Carnahan, Secretary of State, State of Missouri
- Avi D. Rubin, Ph.D., Technical Director, Information Security Institute, Department of Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University
- Mr. John S. Groh, Vice President, Election Systems & Software International, and Chairman, Election Technology Council
- Diane Golden, Ph.D., Director, Missouri Assistive Technology Council (on behalf of the National Association of Assistive Technology Act Programs)
From Subcommittee Chair Wm. Lacy Clay’s opening statement (YouTube)... The Election Assistance Commission (EAC) has failed to carry out responsibilities as dictated by HAVA. The bipartisan EAC may be improperly politicizing their work and have strayed from their mandate to develop and disseminate vital information on election related topics in an objective manner. He mentioned a New York Times article which found that the EAC edited the findings of a government funded report to mislead the public on the pervasiveness of voter fraud. Quote from the article below.
The original report said most experts believe that "false registration forms have not resulted in polling place fraud," but the final report cites "registration drives by nongovernmental groups as a source of fraud."
Although Democrats accused the board of caving to political pressure, Donetta L. Davidson, the chairwoman of the commission, said that when the original report was submitted, the board's legal and research staff decided there was not enough supporting data behind some of the claims. So, she said, the staff members revised the report and presented a final version in December for a vote by the commissioners.
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