boomer generation and rising health care costs. And guess what? Even when we had surpluses, we faced large and growing structural deficits in the outyears for the same reason. Chairman LEWIS. Thank you, Mr. Tiahrt. Mr. Farr. CHALLENGES OF THE 21ST CENTURY Mr. FARR. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Walker. It is interesting, I learn, being on this Appropriations Committee, where you get to see the details of all of our agencies and how they work. It is very rare that government recognizes that it is organized among silo-like systems that need to be reexamined once in a while. I really appreciate your 21st century challenges report here, and I just want to note for the Chairman's sake that on page 49 on the Challenges for the 21st Century, on natural resources, you would think that Mr. Lewis wrote it, because it is talking about promoting sustainable management of our Nation's land and water resources. I know that is very high on his agenda, particularly for California, where we wonder whether we are at the breaking point on resource issues, especially water. I am very interested in Mr. Sabo's comment about the pressure to buy America. I was down with Chairman Kolbe a few months ago in Jamaica. We were looking at Nicaragua and Honduras for the Millenium Fund, and then we went over to Jamaica to look at money the U.S. had spent on Hurricane Ivan and repairs done there. And what was shocking to me, that just literally hundreds and thousands of dollars in needed repair for schools and rural communities, I mean really rural, no running water systems or anything like that, had gone undone because we had to go through American consultants, because there is a buy American requirement in our aid programs. I believe in buying American but we have taken this to the point of ridiculousness. We used to provide foreign aid to foreign governments and found they were corrupt. Then we put the foreign aid in foreign banks, and they were corrupt. Now we end up passing aid through international NGOs, but those international NGOs have to go through K Street in order to talk to Congress. I appreciate the GAO raising some issues about how we ought to be challenging some of these silo assumptions, but I also wonder if there is pressure on your agency to become more partisan. I note that my staff went to the roll-out on the 21st century challenges report, and understand there was criticism on it, from some of the Majority staff, suggesting that this really wasn't the appropriate thing for your office to do. So I am just wondering, do you feel that pressure? Are you able to respond to the investigative needs of Congress without responding to the political pressures of the day, whether it be Democrat or Republican? Mr. WALKER. Well, let me say for the record that I have received nothing but compliments from Members on both sides of the aisle with regard to this document, nothing but compliments. I have not received one complaint from a Member of the House or Senate Importantly, what this document is intended to do is to help you and all your colleagues. I have run two agencies in the executive branch, and now this agency in the legislative branch. It is very clear to me that the Federal Government is to a great extent today an accumulation and amalgamation of policies, programs, functions and activities that arguably made sense when they were put into place, but have not been subject to a fundamental review, reexamination, reprioritization, or reengineering since they were established. Given our fiscal challenge, we can't afford not to do that. These questions are just illustrative. There are 202 illustrative questions to demonstrate how that is the case. For example, the last time that the definition of "disability" was changed for the military was in 1947. Think about medical technologies, life spans, workforce needs, the change in the nature of the economy, all are fundamentally different. So we will continue to work with it. But I do not feel any pressure. Candidly, I always try to do what is right and to be professional, objective, fact-based, nonpartisan, nonideological, fair and balanced. Sometimes people like it; sometimes people don't. But I sleep well in knowing that I have done not only what I am supposed to do under my professional standards, but I am staying true to our core values. So I don't have a problem. Mr. FARR. Is your international network of professionals also capable of answering some of the questions you have raised? Mr. WALKER. We expect the Congress may ask us to come up with additional information, analysis, options, and pros and cons for dealing with one or more of these challenges. Quite candidly, it is probably going to take a generation to answer all these questions. But it is important that we get started now. Mr. FARR. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Chairman LEWIS. Thank you, Mr. Farr. FUTURE OF SOCIAL SECURITY Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Let me toss you another accolade. Many of us cite the GAO when we are working on newsletters, other things, for speeches. The problem is you produce so much good material, it is difficult to digest it all. I tell my staff, "Find a GAO report that is relevant to the subject matter I am going to be discussing." You raise the issue of the appearance of competition with other agencies. One thing we know about this town is that people are rushing out reports. Federal agencies are-and we have more think tanks in this town than Carter has pills. Yet you sort of intimated that you are getting into this Social Security area. This is an area which has been analyzed, reanalyzed, triple analyzed. The invocations here go back at least 25 years. Are you involved in Social Security analysis at this time. Is there going to be, quote, new news? Or maybe it is unfair to ask you that question after I complimented you. I just wondered-there so many reports out there. Mr. WALKER. Well, let me suggest this. Number one, on Wednesday, and we will make sure that you all get a copy, we are pub lishing a Social Security primer which will answer basic questions that you, other Members, and the American public want to understand about what Social Security is and what it isn't, and it includes some information that I think you will want to be aware of in making whatever decisions you are going to make on Social Security. [The GAO pamphlet on social security reform follows:] CONTENTS 1 3. How well has Social Security worked? Figure 1: Poverty Rates for Elderly Have Declined Faster than 6. What benefits does Social Security offer? 14. Why are Social Security benefits taxed? 15. What does "pay-as-you-go financing" mean? |