<DOC>
[109 Senate Hearings]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access]
[DOCID: f:29505.wais]
S. Hrg. 109-873
NOMINATION OF PAUL A. DENETT
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
COMMITTEE ON
HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED NINTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
ON THE
NOMINATION OF PAUL A. DENETT TO BE ADMINISTRATOR OF THE OFFICE OF
FEDERAL PROCUREMENT POLICY, OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET
__________
JUNE 20, 2006
__________
Available via http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/senate
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29-505 PDF WASHINGTON : 2007
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COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine, Chairman
TED STEVENS, Alaska JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN, Connecticut
GEORGE V. VOINOVICH, Ohio CARL LEVIN, Michigan
NORM COLEMAN, Minnesota DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii
TOM COBURN, Oklahoma THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware
LINCOLN D. CHAFEE, Rhode Island MARK DAYTON, Minnesota
ROBERT F. BENNETT, Utah FRANK LAUTENBERG, New Jersey
PETE V. DOMENICI, New Mexico MARK PRYOR, Arkansas
JOHN W. WARNER, Virginia
Michael D. Bopp, Staff Director and Chief Counsel
Jennifer A. Hemingway, Professional Staff Member
Michael L. Alexander, Minority Staff Director
Adam R. Sedgewick, Minority Professional Staff Member
Trina Driessnack Tyrer, Chief Clerk
C O N T E N T S
------
Opening statements:
Page
Senator Collins.............................................. 1
Senator Warner............................................... 1
Senator Coburn............................................... 6
Prepared statements:
Senator Allen................................................ 7
Senator Lieberman............................................ 19
WITNESS
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Paul A. Denett to be Administrator of the Office of Federal
Procurement Policy, Office of Management and Budget:
Testimony.................................................... 8
Prepared statement........................................... 21
Biographical and professional information.................... 23
Responses to pre-hearing questions........................... 29
Letter from U.S. Office of Government Ethics................. 50
Responses to post-hearing questions.......................... 51
NOMINATION OF PAUL A. DENETT
----------
TUESDAY, JUNE 20, 2006
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Homeland Security
and Governmental Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 a.m., in room
342, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Susan M. Collins,
Chairman of the Committee, presiding.
Present: Senators Collins, Coburn, and Warner.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR COLLINS
Chairman Collins. The Committee will come to order. Good
morning. Today the Committee will consider the nomination of
Paul Denett to be the Administrator of the Office of Federal
Procurement Policy. I am going to withhold on my opening
statement in order to recognize our distinguished colleague, a
Member of this Committee and the Chairman of the Armed Services
Committee, Senator Warner.
Senator Warner is, of course, managing the Defense
Authorization Bill on the Senate floor, and I know that they
are waiting for him so that they can resume the debate. So,
without further delay, Senator Warner, we would recognize you
for the purpose of introducing the nominee.
TESTIMONY OF THE HON. JOHN WARNER, U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE
OF VIRGINIA
Senator Warner. Madam Chairman, I appreciate your courtesy
as always, and the bill comes up momentarily, and I am anxious
to get there. I wanted to be here because this is one of the
most important posts in our overall Executive Branch, and I
think the President has chosen very wisely. Mr. Denett is an
absolutely outstanding individual.
So, I am pleased to introduce to you, and other Members of
the Committee, Paul Denett, a fellow Virginian, nominated to
serve as the Administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement
Policy. He is joined today by his family, and I would ask that,
at this time, he introduce his family.
Chairman Collins. Thank you. Mr. Denett.
Mr. Denett. Thank you. With me today is my mother, Irene
Denett, from Biddeford, Maine, which I like to tack on. My
wife, Lucy Denett. My son, Michael Denett. And my brother-in-
law, Howard Morton. And his wife, my sister, Lucille Morton.
Chairman Collins. We welcome all of your family members
this morning.
Mr. Denett. Thank you.
Senator Warner. I thank the Chairman.
The job of the Administrator of the Office of Federal
Procurement Policy is a critical one, tasked with the
responsibility of overseeing the development and enforcement of
sound policies and practices Federal agencies use to acquire
goods and services. The Administrator is responsibility for
ensuring that the Federal acquisition system provides the best
possible value to the taxpayer.
As you know, as a member of the Armed Services Committee on
which you and I serve, that Committee, next year, presumably
under the Chairmanship of Senator McCain, will spend an
extensive period of time on the review of procurement policy
and working with you, Mr. Denett.
This nominee has extensive procurement experience in the
Federal Government and the private industry. He reminded me
this morning that his first job was with the Department of the
Navy when I was Secretary. I asked him if I treated him well,
and he said, fortunately, he never met me the whole time I was
there.
[Laughter.]
Senator Warner. He kept out of my way.
Subsequent to earning his Bachelor of Arts at Nasson
College in 1968, the nominee dedicated 33 years to the Federal
Procurement, serving in a variety of contracting positions at
five cabinet-level agencies. One of the many highlights from
his public service record is his work with the Department of
the Interior. From 1993 to 2001, he served as Director of
Administration and Senior Procurement Executive in the Office
of the Secretary for the Department of the Interior. In these
positions, he managed over 900 employees in the areas of
acquisition, grants, and property management.
While a senior executive at the Interior, the nominee was
the recipient of the Presidential Rank Award for his
outstanding leadership and strong commitment to public service
In addition to Federal Government experience, he has
considerable experience in the private sector. Since 2003, he
has served as Vice President of Contracting Programs at ESI
International in Arlington, Virginia. Having worked in the
Federal Government and the private industry, the nominee has a
solid understanding of all sides of the procurement issues.
We are very fortunate, Madam Chairman, to have this fine
individual offer again his services as a public servant. I wish
him well.
You are on your own. [Laughter.]
[The prepared statement of Senator Warner follows:
PREPARED STATEMENT OF SENATOR JOHN WARNER
Madam Chairman and my other distinguished colleagues on the
Senate's Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, I thank
you for holding this confirmation hearing today.
Today, I am pleased to introduce to you Paul Denett, a fellow
Virginian, who has been nominated to serve as the Administrator of the
Office of Federal Procurement Policy. He is joined today by his family,
including his wife, Lucy, his son, Michael, his sister, Lucille, and
his brother-in-law, Howard Morton.
The job of Administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement
Policy is a critical one, tasked with the responsibility of overseeing
the development and enforcement of sound policies and practices Federal
agencies use to acquire goods and services. Thus, the Administrator is
responsible for ensuring that the Federal acquisition system provides
the best possible value to the taxpayer.
The nominee has extensive procurement experience in the Federal
Government and the private industry. Subsequent to earning his Bachelor
of Arts at Nasson College in 1968, Mr. Denett has dedicated 33 years to
the Federal Government, serving in a variety of contracting positions
at five cabinet-level agencies, including senior procurement positions.
One of the many highlights from his public service record is his
work at the Department of the Interior. From 1993 to 2001, Mr. Denett
served as the Director of Administration and Senior Procurement
Executive in the Office of the Secretary for the Department of the
Interior. In these positions, he managed over 900 employees in the
areas of acquisition, grants, and property management. While a senior
executive at Interior, he was the recipient of the Presidential Rank
Award for his outstanding leadership and strong commitment to public
service.
In addition to Federal Government experience, he has considerable
experience in the private sector with contracting. Since 2003, he has
served as Vice President of Contracting Programs at ESI International
in Arlington, Virginia. Having worked in the government and private
industry, Mr. Denett has a solid understanding of all sides of the
procurement issue.
Madam Chairman, obviously, Mr. Denett is highly qualified to serve
as the Administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy. I
support his nomination and look forward to the Committee reporting out
his nomination favorably.
Chairman Collins. Thank you, Senator. I look forward to
joining you on the Senate floor, and I very much appreciate
your taking the time to be here this morning.
We will now resume with the regular order of this hearing
and I will resume my opening statement.
The Federal Government spends approximately $350 billion
annually for a wide range of goods and services purchased from
the private sector. The Office of Federal Procurement Policy,
known as OFPP, plays a central role in shaping the policies and
practices Federal agencies use to acquire goods and services.
In doing so, the OFPP has an obligation to ensure that the
Federal acquisition process promotes the economy, efficiency,
and effectiveness that provide the best value to taxpayers.
Fulfilling that role and meeting that obligation present a
challenge that grows ever more complex. It requires an
administrator dedicated to the broad principles of sustaining a
skilled acquisition workforce, making consistent and effective
use of competition to harness market forces, developing
contracts that reflect the government's buying power, and
improving our data systems so that Federal managers have the
information they need to evaluate results and to plan
effectively.
There are specific issues that I want to highlight this
morning. First, although progress has been made, we must
continue to look for ways to make Federal contracting more
accessible to smaller businesses. Right now many small business
owners find it to be a daunting prospect to try to do business
with the Federal Government. We must do this not merely for the
sake of small business, although the continued growth of this
sector is vital to our Nation's economy, we must do this
because it is in the Federal Government's interest to ensure
that a large pool of contractors exists for any given item or
service to ensure robust competition.
If many small businesses are excluded from this process,
then the government is losing out on potentially higher quality
and lower cost goods and services. Greater competition leads to
lower prices and higher quality for the American taxpayer.
Simply choosing the same proven contractors over and over again
may be a good short-term strategy for a beleaguered contract
officer, but failing to take into account the impact of such a
practice on the pool of businesses willing and capable of doing
business with the Federal Government can lead to a smaller
contractor base undisciplined by market forces.
The second concern is maintaining a highly trained and
motivated acquisition workforce. This is a challenge as the
procurement workforce ages. Those who make the purchasing
decisions for the Federal Government have considerable power
and responsibility. They are on the front lines of guarding
against waste, fraud, and abuse. As many of this Committee's
and Senator Coburn's oversight Subcommittee's hearings have
made clear, the taxpayer pays the price when front-line defense
fails.
Our investigation into the misuse of government purchase
cards also revealed weaknesses in the acquisition workforce.
Whether outright fraud or merely failure to make purchases at
the best previously negotiated price, the lack of effective
financial controls squanders precious financial resources and
damages the public confidence in government.
The Purchase Card Waste Elimination Act that I introduced
and that the Senate passed 2 weeks ago mandates that the Office
of Management and Budget create guidelines to assist agencies
in improving their management in government-wide purchase cards
for making micro-purchases. The OFPP will be the entity
responsible for seeing that these internal controls are in
place.
Third, I am concerned that the most recent update of the
Government Accountability Office's high-risk list includes
interagency contracting, largely because of unclear lines of
responsibility between customer agencies and servicing
agencies. If government agencies cannot do business with one
another in a way that is effective and efficient, the prospects
for doing business properly and efficiently with the private
sector are hardly encouraging.
Fourth, the Committee's investigation into Hurricane
Katrina exposed an urgent need to reform the emergency
procurement process. What we found, and what Senator Coburn has
found, as well, are numerous examples of layering of contracts
where the prime contractors receive one price from the Federal
Government and the person actually doing the work is receiving
only a fraction of that price. That either means that we are
paying way too much for the service or that the person that is
ultimately doing the work is not getting a fair price. Either
is not an acceptable outcome.
The lack of coordination during Hurricane Katrina both
prolonged the suffering of the storm's victims and contributed
to unacceptable and massive waste, and it continues to impede
the recovery today. I am very interested in hearing the
nominee's views on how OFPP can better coordinate efforts in
this area and improve the effectiveness of procurement in times
of emergency.
And finally, throughout government, there needs to be much
more emphasis on full and open competition to procure goods and
services. This is an issue that I have worked on for many
years. When I was a young staffer for this Committee, decades
ago, we wrote the Competition and Contracting Act. Senator Bill
Cohen was the sponsor of that bill. I see that Act being
circumvented or curtailed far too often.
Senator Warner has already gone through the nominee's
significant private and public sector experience, so I am going
to submit that final part of my statement for the record. I do
want to emphasize that his mother, who is here today, is from
Biddeford, Maine, so I want to commend Mr. Denett for his wise
choice in mothers----
[Laughter.]
As well as welcome him to the Committee today.
[The prepared statement of Senator Collins follows:]
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR SUSAN M. COLLINS
Today the Committee will consider the nomination of Paul Denett to
be Administrator for Federal Procurement Policy.
The Federal Government spends approximately $350 billion annually
for a wide range of goods and services purchased from the private
sector. The Office of Federal Procurement Policy plays a central role
in shaping the policies and practices Federal agencies use to acquire
the goods and services they need to carry out their responsibilities.
In doing so, the OFPP has an obligation to ensure that the Federal
acquisition system promotes the economy, efficiency, and effectiveness
that provide the best value to taxpayers.
Fulfilling that role and meeting that obligation present a
challenge that grows ever more complex. It requires an administrator
dedicated to the broad principles of sustaining a skilled acquisition
workforce, making consistent and effective use of competition,
developing contracts that reflect the government's buying power, and
improving our data systems so that Federal managers have the
information they need to evaluate results and to plan effectively.
There are specific issues that continue to concern me. First,
although progress is being made, we must continue to look for ways to
make Federal contracting more accessible to small businesses. We must
do this not merely for the sake of small business, although the
continued growth of this sector is vital to our Nation's economy. It is
also in the Federal Government's best interest to ensure that a large
pool of contractors exists for any given item or service to ensure
robust competition.
Greater competition leads to lower prices and higher quality for
the American taxpayer. Simply choosing the same proven contractors over
and over may be a good short-term strategy for a beleaguered contract
officer, but failing to take into account the impact of such a practice
on the pool of businesses willing and capable of doing business with
the Federal Government can lead to a smaller contractor base,
undisciplined by market forces.
Second, maintaining a highly trained and motivated acquisition
workforce remains a challenge as the procurement workforce ages. Those
who make the purchasing decisions for the Federal Government have
considerable power and responsibility. They are on the front lines of
guarding against waste, fraud, and abuse. As many of the Committee's
oversight hearings have made clear, the taxpayers pay the price when
the front-line defense fails.
Our investigation into the misuse of government purchase cards also
revealed weaknesses within the acquisition workforce. Whether outright
fraud or merely failure to make purchases at the best, previously
negotiated price, the lack of effective financial controls squanders
precious financial resources and damages the public's confidence in
government. The Purchase Card Waste Elimination Act that I introduced,
and which the Senate passed two weeks ago, mandates that the Office of
Management and Budget create guidelines to assist executive agencies in
improving the management of government-wide commercial purchase cards
for making micro-purchases. The OFPP will be responsible for seeing
that the necessary internal controls are in place to ensure that those
guidelines are followed.
Third, I am concerned that the most recent update of the Government
Accountability Office's high-risk list includes interagency
contracting, largely because of unclear lines of responsibility between
customer agencies and servicing agencies. If government agencies cannot
do business with one another in a way that is effective and efficient,
the prospects for doing business properly with the private sector are
hardly encouraging.
Fourth, the Committee's investigation of Hurricane Katrina exposed
an urgent need to reform the emergency procurement process. The lack of
such coordination during Hurricane Katrina both prolonged the suffering
of the storm's victims and contributed to massive and unacceptable
waste. I am very interested in hearing Mr. Denett's views on how the
OFPP can better coordinate efforts to develop interagency contracting
plans that reduce duplication of effort and improve the effectiveness
of procurement in times of emergency.
And, finally, throughout government, there needs to be more
emphasis on the use of full and open competition to procure goods and
services.
Paul Denett brings significant private- and public-sector
experience to this nomination. Since 2003, he has served as Vice
President of Contracting Programs at ESI International, where he has
focused on providing training to Federal employees and their private
sector counterparts in contract and project management. Mr. Denett
previously held several senior contract management positions at the
Departments of Interior, Treasury, Agriculture, and Defense. He has
also served as vice chairman of the government-wide Procurement
Executives Council, a precursor to the Federal Acquisition Council. Mr.
Denett received several awards during his government career, including
a Presidential Rank Award in 1995.
Mr. Denett earned a Master of Science in Administration degree with
an emphasis in procurement and contracts from The George Washington
University. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Nasson College in
Maine. In addition, his mother is from Biddeford, Maine. I commend Mr.
Denett for his wise choice in mothers and welcome him to the Committee.
Chairman Collins. Senator Coburn.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR COBURN
Senator Coburn. Thank you, Madam Chairman.
This is an issue--and the responsibility Mr. Denett is
going to have is tremendous. We are having our 38th hearing
today in terms of looking at spending and waste. There are some
things that I think the American people have no idea that are
going on.
First of all, the Federal Government is not getting the
best price. Most of the time we are not getting the best price,
but we cannot really know that because we do not follow it to
see if we got the best price. Nobody is checking to see if we
got the best price. GSA does not know, the contracting agencies
do not know.
Second, too often there are no specific performance
requirements in the contracts. And if there are, they are not
available and they are not measured.
Third, there is very poor contract oversight by us, as a
body, as well as within the agencies, which ends up creating
opportunities for mischief.
Fourth, performance bonuses. The above two problems that I
talked about, lacking performance indicators and poor
oversight, lead to the problem of non-performing contracts. We
end up paying performance bonuses on contracts that did not
meet the performance requirements because we cannot measure it
or we do not measure it.
Also, as you alluded to, there are sole source contracts,
both in terms of Iraq reconstruction and Hurricanes Katrina and
Rita. And many of these are cost plus. The motivation behind
those contracts are: The more money you spend, the more money
you make. It is not about the objective of securing the end
result.
Finally, there is minimal transparency in this country. We
are going to have a hearing this afternoon, asking why the
United Nations does not have transparency in their contracting,
but we really have to ask those questions of the United Nations
with one arm tied behind our back because we do not have
transparency. Myself and Senator Obama and a large group of--a
bipartisan bill is the Federal Funding Accountability and
Transparency Act, where all these contracts go online to where
the American people get oversight of them, as well as us. What
are we buying, what are we paying for it, and who are we paying
it to, and what are the requirements and performance on that?
I value the contracting officers and procurement officers
we have in this country. I know they are stretched in a great
many details. And, to a great extent, I think we have to give
them the resources, one, but we also have to set up the systems
that are necessary so that we can truly measure performance. We
can know that we are getting the best price. We eliminate cost
plus and no bid contracts. And we get down to preserving the
moneys that we have.
We are running out of money. The budget crunch that we are
going to be under--in 9 short years, 81 percent of the budget
will be Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and interest. That
means 19 percent of the budget is for everything else that we
do. That is an untenable position, and we have to start now by
making sure that we make wise choices.
First of all, let me congratulate you on your nomination.
We had a good visit in my office, and I look forward to your
testimony today.
Thank you, Madam Chairman.
Chairman Collins. Thank you, Senator.
I want to note for the record that Senator Allen has also
submitted a statement in support of Mr. Denett, and I would ask
it that be made part of the hearing record at this point.
[The prepared statement of Senator Allen follows:]
STATEMENT OF SENATOR GEORGE ALLEN
Madam Chairman and Members of the Committee, it gives me great
pleasure to introduce Paul A. Denett, the President's nominee to serve
as the Administrator for Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) in the
Office of Management and Budget. I think you will quickly discover that
Paul's distinguished background in acquisition makes him a perfect
choice to serve as Administrator.
Congress established OFPP in 1974 to ensure the policies and
practices our Federal agencies use for buying goods and services to
meet their varied missions are efficient and effective. This
responsibility is of considerable consequence. Last year, the Federal
Government spent more than $340 billion on goods and services,
including major weapon systems to support the war on terrorism and
basic humanitarian assistance to help our citizens recover from natural
disasters. We must have a solid acquisition system to deliver the cost-
effective, quality service taxpayers expect and deserve from our
government.
I am confident that Paul will provide the type of leadership that
is required to serve as head of OFPP. A longtime career procurement
professional, Paul possesses the insight and determination to help our
agencies meet the many acquisition challenges of the 21st Century. He
is widely recognized as an expert in Federal contracting, having spent
more than 35 years in the Federal acquisition community, including
senior level positions at four cabinet agencies and the private sector.
For many years, Paul served as the Director of Administration in the
Office of the Secretary for the Department of the Interior (DOI), where
he managed 900 employees in the areas of acquisition, grants, and
property management. He also served as a Vice Chairman of the
Procurement Executives Council, a high-level body of senior agency
acquisition officials that was a predecessor to the Chief Acquisition
Officers Council. Over the years, Paul has received many prestigious
awards to recognize his accomplishments as an acquisition executive.
It is no surprise that Paul is highly regarded by the acquisition
workforce. Throughout his career, he has taken a strong personal
interest in making sure our contracting professionals have the skills
and resources they need to perform at their best. He laid the
foundation for the first government-wide acquisition intern program to
attract talented young professionals to contracting. In addition, he
established a nationwide university at DOI that more than doubled the
amount of training provided to the Department's acquisition employees.
I am proud to call Paul Denett a fellow Virginian. The acquisition
community and our taxpayers need the wisdom and leadership Paul would
provide as Administrator. They will also be well served by his high
levels of personal integrity and honesty--qualities that lie at the
heart of our acquisition system. I urge you to act quickly and
favorably on Paul's nomination.
Chairman Collins. Mr. Denett has filed responses to the
biographical and financial questionnaire, answered pre-hearing
questions submitted by this Committee, and had his financial
statements reviewed by the Office of Government Ethics.
Without objection, this information will also be made part
of the hearing record, with the exception of the financial
data, which are on file and available for public inspection in
the Committee's office.
Our Committee's rules require that all witnesses at
nomination hearings give their testimony under oath. Mr.
Denett, would you please stand and raise your right hand?
Do you swear the testimony you are about to give the
Committee will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but
the truth, so help you, God?
Mr. Denett. I do.
Chairman Collins. Please be seated. I would ask that you
proceed with your statement at this time.
TESTIMONY OF PAUL A. DENETT,\1\ TO BE ADMINISTRATOR FOR FEDERAL
PROCUREMENT POLICY, OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET
Mr. Denett. Thank you. I would like to thank John Warner
for coming in and introducing me. I know his schedule is busy,
and I really appreciate it and admire Senator Warner.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ The prepared statement of Mr. Denett appears in the Appendix on
page 21.
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I also thank Senator Allen, for getting his remarks into
the record.
Thank you, Madam Chairman. And thank you to Ranking Member
Lieberman, who cannot be with us today, and Members of the
Committee.
I am honored to appear before you today as the President's
nominee to serve as Administrator for Federal Procurement
Policy at the Office of Management and Budget. I am excited to
be considered for this position and by the opportunity to help
the Federal acquisition workforce deliver the best value and
results for our taxpayers.
I also want to thank the Members of the Committee who met
with me in advance of today's hearing. Our meetings allowed me
to gain a better appreciation of their priorities and thoughts
for improving the acquisition system.
Thank you to my mother, Irene Denett, from Biddeford,
Maine, who provided me with some Maine common sense.
A special thank you to my wife, Lucy, an Italian-born New
Jersey girl whose constant love and support enable me to make
this commitment to public service if confirmed.
Over the years, I have developed a great appreciation for
the broad and important statutory responsibility assigned to
the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, the Executive
Branch's office for government-wide acquisition policy. I have
devoted my entire career, which spans more than 35 years, to
Federal acquisition matters. Most of these years were spent in
Federal service as a career official at four different cabinet
agencies in both operations and policy positions.
After leaving Federal service several years ago, I spent
time in the private sector to learn about the procurement
process from a vendor's perspective. These first-hand
experiences have helped me understand on many levels the
importance of having effective acquisition policies and
practices.
If confirmed, I welcome the opportunity to return to
Federal service as OFPP Administrator, where I would leverage
my experience to shape policies and practices that facilitate
the efficient and effective delivery of goods and services on
behalf of our taxpayers. Our acquisition workforce has faced
unprecedented challenges over the last several years, due in
large part to the ongoing War on Terror and recovery from the
largest natural disaster in our Nation's history. These
challenges provide important reminders of the close connection
between an effective acquisition system and an agency's ability
to deliver effective results.
If confirmed as Administrator, I would work with Congress
and the agencies to ensure that the acquisition workforce is
well equipped. Agencies must identify short and long-term
skills requirements and hiring needs. Training must be tailored
to the acquisition skills demanded in today's environment and
supplemented with development programs, including mentoring and
rotational assignments that help employees obtain the
competencies required to meet the increasingly complex
acquisition challenges.
We must promote programs, such as procurement professional
interns, that attract and top talent, not just at the entry
level, but at mid-level career positions, as well. Agencies
must plan and operate more effectively in emergency situations.
We must improve interagency communications and information
available on pre-positioned contracts to reduce duplication of
effort and improve the effectiveness of agency emergency
preparedness.
Agencies need to be aware of existing emergency procurement
flexibilities, situation-specific authorities, and best
practices for mitigating risk throughout the acquisition
process. Increased attention should be given to contract
management. We must ensure contractors make good on their
commitments and are held accountable for results. Contracts
must have clear performance standards and agencies must
dedicate sufficient resources to contract administration to
evaluate if contract work is meeting agency needs.
We need greater clarity, transparency, and accountability
throughout the contract management process, as well as a timely
and accurate procurement data system. Competitive sourcing
should be used in a reasonable and responsible manner. A
public-private competition that is carefully planned and
tailored to the needs of the agency can serve as a catalyst to
implement better business processes and cost savings measures.
Competition must be applied in a fair and transparent manner,
and agencies must track implementation of completed
competitions to evaluate results.
It has been a privilege to meet many of you and your staffs
over the past several weeks. If confirmed as Administrator, I
will look forward to working with you and other Members of
Congress to build a world-class acquisition system that garners
the confidence of our taxpayers by consistently delivering
effective, efficient, and ethical contracting service.
Thank you again for allowing me to appear before you today
and for considering my nomination to serve as OFPP
Administrator. This concludes my prepared remarks. I look
forward to hearing your input, and I am pleased to answer any
questions you may have.
Chairman Collins. Thank you, Mr. Denett. We will begin with
three standard questions that we ask of all nominees for the
record.
First, is there anything that you are aware of in your
background which might present a conflict of interest with the
duties of the Office to which you have been nominated?
Mr. Denett. No.
Chairman Collins. Second, do you know of anything personal
or otherwise that would, in any way, prevent you from fully and
honorably discharging the responsibilities of this office?
Mr. Denett. No.
Chairman Collins. And third, 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?
Mr. Denett. Yes. I do.
Chairman Collins. Thank you. I am now going to begin our
first round of questions, limited to 7 minutes each. We will do
a second round, as well.
Mr. Denett, I mentioned in my opening remarks my concern
about the Federal Government's excessive use of very large sole
source contracts. We saw it in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina
and Rita, and we have seen it in Iraq with the reconstruction
funding. I want to focus particularly on the FEMA contracts.
In the aftermath of the hurricanes, FEMA awarded four large
sole source contracts to provide temporary housing. Originally,
these big four contracts were valued at $100 million each.
Then, in the fall of 2005, FEMA raised the ceilings of each of
these four contracts to $500 million. In testimony before this
Committee, where I and several other Members expressed concern
about it, the then-acting Director of FEMA, who has since been
confirmed, promised to this Committee that FEMA would re-
compete the requirements covered by these contracts, but
unfortunately, that is not what happened.
Instead, some of the peripheral requirements covered by the
contracts were stripped off and awarded competitively to small
and locally owned businesses, while the main portion of the
work continued to be done by those four large firms. Then, in
February of this year, the value of two of these big four
contracts was again raised. The largest is now valued at $1.2
billion.
So, a contract that was originally for $100 million and was
awarded without competition now has a ceiling of $1.2 billion.
I think we all ought to be able to agree that awarding nearly
$3 billion in sole source contracts is not the right model for
the Federal Government, even during a catastrophe.
I do not accept the concepts that either we get essential
goods and services out quickly to those in dire need or we do
competitive contracting. You can negotiate on the shelf
contracts that you can use in the event of an emergency. There
are lots of other ways around this problem.
What are your comments on the use of sole source
contracting, which is really a misnomer because these are not
sole source? They really are noncompetitive contracts, when
there were alternative sources available. What are your
comments with regard to this specific case, and what will you
do to promote the use of full and open competition, even in
dealing with disasters?
Mr. Denett. Well, for the disasters that you had mentioned,
Senator Cohen, earlier, and when I was a practicing contracting
person, we set very aggressive competitive goals and were
required to submit annual reports on competition. And I always
managed to exceed those goals. But competition is the bedrock
of everything that contracting does.
As you have already eloquently stated, if we do not have
competition, we get short changed. We do not get the right
prices. We do not get more companies engaged in the market.
That is a disservice to all of us.
I would work with FEMA to try to minimize that happening. I
understand everybody is working now to get contingency
contracts in place so that when a disaster happens in the
future, we will be better prepared and will not have to do any
emergency, last minute procurements for things that we know,
with slight planning, that we are going to need. We are going
to need food, water, housing, and those sorts of things.
In the unfortunate circumstances where those are not set up
and we are compelled to do some noncompetitive contracting, we
have to strongly commit to reverting them back to full and open
competition at the earliest possible moment.
I do not know the particulars of why FEMA has not done that
on these housing ones, but I would be pleased to work with them
and the Committee to get to the bottom of it, if confirmed.
Chairman Collins. Thank you.
I would like to see OFPP take a far stronger leadership
role in this area. It seems to me that when an agency relies
excessively on unnecessary noncompetitive contracts, that OFPP
ought to perhaps be doing audits of their procedures, providing
them with recommendations. I think OFPP is often too passive in
its role, and I would like to see a more aggressive approach,
and I hope that you will undertake that.
The second issue that I want to turn to this morning before
yielding to my colleagues is another issue that I raised in my
opening statement, and that is the accessibility of the
procurement process to smaller businesses. I know in my State
that there are a number of small businesses that could provide
high quality, affordable goods and services to the Federal
Government, but they have no idea how to get started and they
find it a daunting prospect. It just seems too difficult to
even get your toe in the water. Now, one way that we have
worked with small businesses is to put on Federal procurement
conferences, and I have sponsored some of them myself. I am
going to sponsor another one in October, but oftentimes I have
found that smaller companies that attend these procurement
conferences come away without any tangible results.
There is not much coordination among Federal agencies on
marketing and outreach. I think if there were, these
conferences could translate into real value for a small
business.
What are your thoughts on making small businesses more
aware of how to do business with the Federal Government and
making the Federal procurement process more open to smaller
companies?
Mr. Denett. I agree with you that we need to do more
outreach. In fact, when I was at the Department of the
Treasury, we would sponsor conferences like the one that you
described. My experience was that the first one that we did,
the feedback from the small businesses that attended, they were
very disappointed because they did not walk away with any
actual business. They had to do a lot of follow-up work to get
even a modicum of business to make it worth their effort.
So, we worked hard with the SBA and within the Treasury
Department, and I would try to do this on a broader scale,
working closely with the Small Business Administration to try
to bring some actual business to these, where they have work
that needs to be done, and in some instances, they can actually
leave the conferences with purchase orders for actual business
to get them started. Nothing breeds success like a little bit
of success in the beginning. And some of these companies have
grown to become major contributors to the Federal Government
from getting that little start from that little order in the
beginning. I would work with the SBA to try to duplicate that,
if confirmed.
Chairman Collins. Thank you. Senator Coburn.
Senator Coburn. Thank you.
The task in front of you, Mr. Denett, is certainly
amazingly complex. I wonder, what tools do you see out there
now to measure, whatever you want to accomplish in your
position, what are the tools you are going to use to measure
whether you have accomplished it?
Mr. Denett. Well, one would be the accuracy of our Federal
procurement data system that you and I spoke of when we had our
pre-chat. It is a major concern that we do not have, currently,
an accurate count on the number of contracts and related
information that we need to have. So, one measurement would be
to have that next-generation one up and working with accurate
data so that we can measure accurately how much is competed,
how much goes to small business. We need information on how
often we use incentive contracts, cost plus contracts, all of
the ones that we know are more vulnerable to potential abuse
and are awkward. We need to get a handle on what those numbers
are. And I need to talk with the Chief Acquisition Officer
Council to get feedback from them on how to attack these
problems and how can we minimize their use and improve the
system.
Senator Coburn. So do you have a plan that you want to
institute so that there is a true metric to measure performance
in contracting?
Mr. Denett. I have worked with some throughout my career on
trying to measure difficult things like that. I have used
balanced scorecards that have been a combination of customer
satisfaction, prudent spending, and a variety of other metrics.
I think we would have to explore those and whatever is
currently being attempted to see what might work best, and I
would look forward to working with the Committee to try to
agree on what the best metrics would be.
Senator Coburn. Out of the $360 billion that we contracted
for last year, how much of that do you think is wasteful?
Mr. Denett. I think that we can do a better job of
contracting. I think that if we increase competition, surely we
would get better prices. I think if we did a better job of what
is called strategic sourcing where we combine our buying power,
we could certainly get significant discounts off of a lot of
commonly used items that we buy.
In fact, we have an initiative now in strategic sourcing
where we are trying to buy cell phones, copiers, and some other
common office supplies, combining them all within departments.
I expect we will get significant discounts and save money on
what we are spending now.
Senator Coburn. OK. But I am going to bring you back to my
question, how much do you think is wasted now?
Mr. Denett. I do not have a handle on what an exact
percentage is, but I am sure that we could save more money by
better contracting and using some of these things that I
described earlier, but I do not have an exact percentage.
Senator Coburn. Well, let me just review some things. Let
us say that we spent $6 billion on contracts to contractors
that did not meet performance requirements in the Defense
Department last year. That is $6 billion. We had no competitive
contract in the majority of the Hurricane Katrina stuff, which
we know we have at least $6 to $8 billion. You know, there are
just two areas. So, we have $14 billion--you would not care to
think that we could use Wal-Mart-type thinking in our
purchasing and say, we set a goal, we spent $360 billion, we
are going to get the same thing for $325 billion this next
year?
That is what I am looking for. I am looking to secure the
future for this next generation by setting a metric out there
and saying, here is what we have spent, here is what we are
going to spend next year. We are going to spend it wiser.
And we are going to put into place a measurement to do
that, and that is the kind of leadership we need in this
position. The way we have been doing it does not work. It works
for the people who are supplying to the Federal Government. You
know, there are some real gravy trains out there. And there is
the expectation that it is going to continue. And what I am
looking for you to say is, yes, there is a lot of waste, first.
Second, is that there are ways to attack that waste. And third,
I am going to be in there and going after the waste.
Mr. Denett. Well, contracting officers should be measured
by what prices they get. And using competition and market
research, they should be held accountable to get the best price
possible. Those instances where they do not, they should be
held accountable and we should pressure them to get better
prices.
Senator Coburn. Is not the GSA supposed to set us up to get
the best possible prices on phones and paper clips and
everything else? Was that not the design of the GSA? I mean,
was not the General Services Administration, the goal behind it
is to be the person that sets up the way where we get the best
price?
Mr. Denett. Historically, that was one of their set ups.
Under the current schedule program, they allow a large number
of people to get schedules to offer a variety of those types of
items, and then through further negotiations, by the various
departments, they usually get better discounts than what are
usually awarded on the schedules.
Senator Coburn. Would you think that the American people
should expect that if we are the largest purchaser of almost
everything in this country that we ought to get the best price,
every time, bar none?
Mr. Denett. Yes.
Senator Coburn. Is that happening?
Mr. Denett. No. It is not happening often enough. In many
instances, I think that we are getting very good prices, but
there is certainly vast room for improvement.
Senator Coburn. Would it be your goal that we get the best
price every time?
Mr. Denett. Absolutely.
Senator Coburn. All right. One of the problems that we see
in Hurricane Katrina, and we see it with different agencies, is
that we hire another government agency to be a supposed
contracting manager, or project manager, who then hires a true
project manager. And so, what we did was--I am not talking
specifically about the Army Corps of Engineers--FEMA hired the
Corps to do a lot of stuff, and they did not do it. They just
hired somebody else, but yet they took a couple hundred million
dollars off of the top for their agency.
Is there something that can be done, in terms of
contracting, to bypass that? Or, say we are going to be the
contracting agency in certain of these different agencies that
are contracting these large amounts, rather than paying
somebody else to be the contract manager?
Mr. Denett. I think that is a workforce issue that we
really do need to pay a lot of attention to. We have to figure
out what the right mix is. How many contract people we need.
What training they need. What competencies they need so that
they can do as much of the contracting themselves as possible.
Certainly, the fewer middlemen there are, the more
efficient the system is in general. But there are instances
where government agencies have better skills at a particular
thing where government agencies help one another. Now, in the
case that you have cited, it looks like they just turned around
and gave it off to someone else. I am not familiar with that
particular case, but I would be glad to look into it.
Senator Coburn. Would you think, and this will be my last
question, Madam Chairman, if you would allow me to----
Chairman Collins. Absolutely.
Senator Coburn. Do you think it would be beneficial for
both the government, the contractors, and the people of this
country to know where we spend our money, and who is getting
it, and what the conditions are in those contracts, and what
the performance is for those contracts?
Mr. Denett. Yes. I do.
Senator Coburn. So, you would not have any opposition as
OMB is working with us--by the way, very greatly. They are
supportive of our effort to have all this online so that
everybody can see it in America. You would not have any
objection to that?
Mr. Denett. No. I would not.
Senator Coburn. And would you think that would help you
accomplish some of the goals that you have set out as head of
this agency?
Mr. Denett. Absolutely. I think that transparency and
people seeing what we are doing would assure that we are honest
brokers and that we would welcome any observations from people
seeing what we are doing.
Senator Coburn. As a matter of fact, if in fact I am going
to contract with the Federal Government, I know it is going to
be online, it is going to change some of my expectations, is it
not? It is going to change the expectations of some of the
Federal contractors.
Mr. Denett. It easily could. Yes, sir.
Senator Coburn. Thank you, Madam Chairman.
Chairman Collins. Nice job, Senator Coburn, getting the
witness on record in favor of your proposal. Artfully done. I
am sure that swept away the last remaining vestiges of
opposition within OMB and the Administration.
Mr. Denett, I want to return to the issue of contingency
contracting. The GAO recently released a report on this issue
and found that without effective acquisition planning,
management, and communication processes and sufficient numbers
of capable people, poor acquisition outcomes often result. I do
not think that is an earth-shattering finding, not really a
very surprising one. But what is surprising is that the Federal
Acquisition Regulation (FAR) does not now contain a single easy
to use compendium of provisions related to contingency
contracting that could be used in emergency situations to
ensure legal compliance.
That seems to me to be a simple, common sense step that is
long overdue. I understand that work is under way to complete a
revision to the FAR, and as I said, I am shocked that it is not
there already. We are in the midst of the hurricane season. Can
you give us a good estimate on when the revision to the FAR
will be completed?
Mr. Denett. Yes. As you have stated, they are combining all
of their contingency contracting rules that are sprinkled
throughout the Federal acquisition regulations into one
section. My understanding is that it is going to be complete
and published within the next few weeks. That is what I was
told very recently. So, they are very close. They have done all
the work. They are now getting all of the necessary signoffs
and administrative things, but that should be issued shortly.
Chairman Collins. I hope that you will keep the Committee
informed on that issue.
Mr. Denett. We will.
Chairman Collins. GAO also found that a lack of adequately
trained personnel contributed to the waste of government
resources in the contracting area in the aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina. I mentioned in my opening statement that I am also
concerned, and I know Senator Voinovich shares this concern,
that we have an aging procurement workforce. Many of our
contracting officers, including our most experienced
contracting officers, qualify for retirement, and we are
expected to see an exodus in the coming years.
What role do you believe OFPP should play in preparing the
acquisition workforce, both in terms of helping to ensure that
we have qualified, trained, experienced contracting officers,
but also making sure that they have the training necessary to
respond to emergency contracting?
Mr. Denett. I believe OFPP and myself, if confirmed, should
play a very active role. I have always been a very strong
proponent of recruiting and retraining talented contracting
people.
I had the privilege of setting up a contract intern program
at the Department of Treasury. I set one up also at the
Department of the Interior and then actually expanded that to
be a government-wide intern program. The people that we have
recruited in that have grown to be real stars in the
acquisition community and now hold senior positions sprinkled
throughout the Federal Government.
We just have to do a better job of selling to people that
it is a good career opportunity. Where else can you get a job
that you are exposed to virtually everything that the Federal
Government does? Whether it is assisting the Coast Guard, going
out on cutters, helping the Interior and Forest Service fight
forest fires, just a wide variety of programs.
So, it is really exciting, and if you invest the time to
let young people, college graduates, know about it and spend
some time, we will get our share of them. But it does not
happen without a lot of effort. And we have the Federal
Acquisition Institute, which, fortunately, there has been a lot
of cooperation on the Hill to get some funding for that, and
that is in the point position of giving adequate training and
reliance on private sectors.
One of the companies I came from and many others provide
outstanding training. We just have to make sure that our people
get it on time, that we recruit enough people, and that we make
it exciting for them, where they do not get too bogged down on
regulations and are allowed to blossom as business managers.
Chairman Collins. As far as specific training on how you
handle contracting in the aftermath of the disaster, is that an
area that you see OFPP taking a leadership role on?
Mr. Denett. Yes. I think that we have to make sure that FAI
and Defense Acquisition University have available all the
appropriate agencies, FEMA, the Corps, the Coast Guard, to make
sure that we have actual classes available that will assist
them in doing a good job.
Chairman Collins. Thank you. In April 2006, just 2 months
ago, OMB released its report on competitive sourcing results
for fiscal year 2005. The report found that Federal employees
who had formed what is referred to as the most efficient
organizations have won approximately 80 percent of the
competitions during the last 3 years. I appreciated your
statement in the pre-hearing questions against the use of
arbitrary quotas or targets in competitive sourcing decisions.
In light of your statement, what would be your general
approach to ensuring that future competitions are conducted in
a fair and transparent manner and that Federal employees have
access to the information and the training necessary to win
these competitions?
Mr. Denett. Yes. We have to make sure that they have some
good people assigned to put together their most efficient
organization, make available to them training so that their
presentation is every bit as professional as the companies that
they will be competing against, and making sure that we do not
get into areas that are not commercial areas, that can clearly
be done by either the private sector or government employees.
Chairman Collins. Thank you. Mr. Denett, we have covered a
lot of issues here this morning, and there are many more that
will come before you. I do have a few more questions that I
will submit for the record.
I want to end this hearing by emphasizing how important I
think the OFPP Administrator's job is. You have a real
opportunity to put in place the reforms, the training, the
policies, and practices necessary to save taxpayers literally
hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars. The waste,
fraud, and abuse in contracting that this Committee has been
able to document is absolutely inexcusable.
In Hurricane Katrina alone, we were able to document more
than a billion dollars of wasteful and fraudulent spending. I
am very concerned that no one seems to be taking charge to
ensure that these same mistakes do not happen again, that we do
not purchase $750 million worth of manufactured housing that
cannot be installed in a flood plain that is unsuitable for
other reasons and is sitting now in a farmer's field in Hope,
Arkansas. That kind of waste is just inexcusable.
The American taxpayers just are not going to stand for it.
I think the taxpayers are compassionate. They want to help the
people who need help, but they want to be assured that their
money is not frittered away on wasteful spending, unnecessary
supplies, sloppy contracts, high prices, and uncompetitive
contracts.
You are in a pivotal position to really make a difference
in that area. I think OFPP has been too passive in the past as
far as exerting the kind of leadership that is necessary. I
hope your vast experience in both the public and private
sector, as well as that Maine common sense that you inherited
from your mother, will lead to a real change, a sea change. I
look forward to working very closely with you.
I do not want you to think that the absence of Members this
morning indicates a lack of interest in this issue by this
Committee. Instead, it reflects confidence in you and your
background, which is to your credit. It also reflects very busy
schedules and a Defense Authorization bill that is on the
floor. But, believe me, this Committee will be watching you
closely and working with you closely. We need, and expect,
leadership.
I would invite you to make any final comments, and then I
will go through the procedure for adjourning the hearing.
Mr. Denett. Well, I agree with everything you say, and I
hope I am given the opportunity and really do look forward to
working with you and other Committee Members to provide the
leadership that is needed by our country.
Chairman Collins. Thank you. Without objection, the hearing
record will be kept open until 5 p.m. tomorrow for the
submission of any written questions, any statements from the
Committee, and any additional information.
It is my hope that we can proceed quickly to report you
favorably to the full Senate. This is a vital position at a
critical time, and I am very pleased that the President has
nominated such a well-qualified nominee. I look forward to
supporting and advancing your nomination to the full Senate.
This hearing is now adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 10:52 a.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
----------
STATEMENT OF SENATOR JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN
Mr. Denett, we welcome you before the Committee as the President's
nominee for a position that is extremely important to the U.S.
taxpayer, the Administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy
(OFPP) at the Office of Management and Budget. Federal agencies spend
approximately $375 billion each year on the purchase of goods and
services, ranging from simple products such as office furniture to
complicated systems such as secure information technology that supports
our military and homeland security operations. When agencies fail to
practice sound procurement policies, waste, fraud, and abuse ensues at
an enormous cost to taxpayers.
Mr. Denett, your nomination comes at a time when discipline on
Federal contracting seems to have broken down. Our Committee's
investigation of the response to Hurricane Katrina found that the
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) failed to put in place
contingency contracts before hurricane season that would have allowed
FEMA to move disaster supplies into the Gulf region quickly and
efficiently. Instead, FEMA's chaotic scramble to respond led to no-bid
contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars, the purchase of over
$800 million of mobile homes, many of which are still sitting unused in
Arkansas, and frequent instances of subcontractors being paid only a
fraction of what the prime contractor received.
Wasteful contracting practices appear far too often across Federal
agencies. For example, poor planning and oversight of contracts at the
Transportation Security Administration have led to cost overruns in the
hundreds of millions of dollars. The award of Federal contracts without
full competition--a practice that undoubtedly drives up costs to U.S.
taxpayers--has skyrocketed under the Bush Administration, rising from
$67.5 billion in 2000 to $145 billion in 2005, an increase of 115
percent. I am particularly disturbed by the reports issued by the
Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction that have identified
instance after instance of waste, fraud, and corruption related to
Iraqi reconstruction projects. In many cases, reconstruction projects
have been halted or downscaled as a result of inadequate contract
planning and oversight, and in some instances the failure of
contractors to fulfill their obligations has jeopardized the health and
safety of our troops.
We need an Administrator of the OFPP who will establish clear
policies for Federal agencies that will ensure that the negotiation,
award, and oversight of contracts are conducted with the utmost
efficiency and integrity. We also need an Administrator who will
address the shortage of experienced procurement personnel in the
Federal Government. Without a strong procurement workforce, agencies
are simply unable to conduct the oversight of contractor performance
necessary to prevent wasteful spending. I am pleased to hear, Mr.
Denett, that you have an expertise and a strong interest in helping
agencies attract and retain skilled personnel.
The Administrator of OFPP also plays a central role in forming
Administration policy on competitive sourcing. Contractors provide
valuable services for the Federal Government in many areas, and public-
private competitions, when conducted fairly, can be an important tool
in helping agencies reduce costs and become more efficient. These so-
called ``A-76'' competitions, though, are time consuming and expensive
to administer, and the rules of competition do not always allow Federal
employees to compete fairly for their jobs. The appeals procedure is
fundamentally unfair because Federal employees or their union
representatives cannot appeal the results of competitions to GAO or the
courts, although contractors have those appeal rights.
Unfortunately, the Administration's competitive sourcing appears to
be driven not by budget savings or improvement of management, but by an
ideological pursuit of privatizing government jobs at any cost. In
fact, recent statements from OFPP personnel suggest the Administration
is considering allowing the ``direct conversion'' of work involving
less than 10 Federal employees to contractors. This policy would be
inherently unfair to Federal employees and would create the potential
for widespread abuse at the expense of U.S. taxpayers. Instead of
pursuing privatization at all costs, the Administration must turn its
focus to improving agency performance through internal re-engineerings,
strengthened financial oversight, and other alternatives that do not
carry the wasteful costs of the A-76 process. Mr. Denett, should you be
confirmed, I urge you to ensure that the rules for competitive sourcing
are fair to Federal employees and are not biased in favor of
privatization.
In closing, I want to emphasize how important sound procurement
practices are to the successful performance of any government agency.
The next Administrator of OFPP faces major challenges in improving
acquisition practices and contract oversight throughout the government.
Mr. Denett, should you be confirmed, I look forward to working with you
to meet those challenges.
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