Hearing Of The Subcommittee On Investigations And Oversight Of The House Committee On Science And Technology - Independent Audit Of The National Aeronautics And Space Administration

Statement

Good afternoon. I want to join Chairman Miller in welcoming our witnesses to this afternoon's hearing. In the interest of getting to our witnesses as soon as possible, I will be brief in my opening remarks. I am a strong supporter of NASA, because I believe that it is one of the "crown jewels" of the nation's R&D enterprise. Moreover, it can inspire, educate, and improve our society through its activities. I want to ensure that NASA receives the resources that it will need to carry out the many tasks that we have given it. At the same time, I feel the equal responsibility of ensuring that NASA is a good steward of those resources--resources which ultimately come from the American taxpayers. I take that responsibility seriously, as I know my colleagues do. That is why Chairman Miller and I called today's hearing.

As many of you already know, NASA recently received the results of its annual independent financial audit. It once again received a "disclaimed" opinion. That is not what we want to see from NASA. At the same time, it was not totally a surprise, since NASA has been receiving disclaimed opinions for most of this decade. That's the bad news, and one of the reasons we are holding today's hearing.

We need to know why NASA got a disclaimed opinion, how NASA can get a clean opinion, and what NASA intends to do to ensure that it won't get another disclaimer next year. However, I also wanted to hold this hearing because it is clear that there is a lot of good news to report on the financial management front at NASA.

It is clear from the auditor's report and the NASA IG's findings that NASA has made truly significant improvements in its financial management systems and practices. In short, after almost a decade of serious shortcomings in its approach to financial management, NASA is now very close to closing the books on those problems. That is very good news, and I hope that it will not get lost sight of today as we discuss what remains to be done.

Before I close, I would note that the dramatic improvement we have seen in NASA's financial management didn't just happen. It was the result of a lot of hard work by a dedicated team under the leadership of the former CFO, the Honorable Ronald Spoehel. He persevered in a thankless but ultimately very significant task, and he should take great pride in what he was able to accomplish. We often overlook the important role that individuals can play in making our government work better. Mr. Spoehel and his team were such individuals, and we owe them our gratitude. Dr. Robinson, I hope that you will build on the progress made to date as you assume the duties of CFO, and I am confident that you will do so effectively and efficiently.

With that, I again want to welcome our witnesses and I look forward to your testimony.

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