Recognizing the Service of Marie A. Mak, Director of Contracting and National Security Acquisitions, Government Accountability Office
Floor Speech
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Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize the dedicated public service of Ms. Marie Mak, Director of Contracting and National Security Acquisitions at the Government Accountability Office (GAO), upon her retirement from Federal service. Ms. Mak has devoted over 36 years of service to the Federal Government, including at Naval Air Systems Command and the U.S. Coast Guard, before joining GAO in 2002.
Since entering the Senior Executive Service in 2014, Ms. Mak has skillfully led numerous GAO teams to conduct insightful analyses of acquisition programs and contracting processes within the Departments of Homeland Security and Defense, resulting in high quality reports for Congress. Her wide-ranging portfolio has also included assessing the Federal Government's response to hurricanes, wildfires, and other natural disasters, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Throughout her GAO career, Ms. Mak has taken a balanced, fact-based approach to reviewing Federal programs--a fundamental cornerstone of what Congress and the American public value about GAO. Drawing on her experience at the Coast Guard, where she helped develop strategic plans and performance measures, and allocate resources, she was able to understand the challenges that agencies often confront in their day-to- day management efforts. She coupled that experience with a critical eye to recommended actions that agencies can take to improve their acquisition processes to deliver better, timelier, and more affordable systems used to execute their missions. She has testified before Congress several times on a variety of Coast Guard acquisition and disaster response contracting issues and delivered numerous briefings on key defense acquisition programs. As a result of Ms. Mak's work, Congress is able to hold agencies accountable to first responders, warfighters, and the American public.
Ms. Mak has received numerous GAO awards throughout her career, including the Customer Service Award and John Henry Luke Mentoring Award. While Ms. Mak's work has saved taxpayer dollars, she has also positively impacted the growth and development of the people with whom she works. Ms. Mak embodies GAO's people values of ensuring others are respected, valued, and treated fairly, and has served as a trusted mentor and advocate that invests her time in coaching and developing people. Her focus on staff development will benefit the next generation of GAO leaders to the advantage of Congress and taxpayers for years to come.
I congratulate Ms. Mak on her well-deserved retirement and thank her for her distinguished service to Congress and the American public.
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