Rosa DeLauro Catches Russ Vought Red-Handed During House Hearing

[0:00] uh the distinguished lady from connecticut our ranking member [0:04] is delora thank you so much mr chairman um [0:07] director i mentioned the proposed rule to overhaul grant making in my opening [0:12] which seeks to virtually uh subject virtually all federal funding to the [0:16] whims of the president's policy priorities [0:19] uh substitutes the current standard of evidence and science in favor of [0:23] political tests based on ideology uh i've talked to a number of groups [0:28] um and many of the groups have asked for and i think they may have requested [0:32] more time uh to be able to read it's a 412-page document [0:37] um and so that they can participate in the public comment period [0:40] can you commit to granting a 45-day extension of the comment period [0:44] no but i will say this uh the number of comments that is [0:48] that are coming in that we have to respond to is going to take us some time [0:52] the no the answer is no um i think one of the striking aspects of the proposal [0:57] um uh is attempts to put the onb director at the center of all decision making [1:03] here not true and why are you a better judge of an nih clinical trial than a [1:07] panel of medical doctors and researchers [1:11] um how will you ensure the grants will be based on [1:14] merit and individuals and communities served by the federal grants will receive [1:18] the highest level of service possible [1:22] um i i i don't is there a listing um if you could get to us [1:31] the agency's priorities the president's priorities what is the set of criteria [1:36] you are using to judge these grants what precludes you from changing the criteria [1:42] in the middle of a grant period because i as i understand it um you you you can um [1:48] not only can political appointees take control of grant awards um active grants can be terminated [1:55] at any time for any reason um uh and i i went through some of them uh these efforts but you can [2:02] cancel it at at at any moment is there a set of criteria that we could have that demonstrates to us [2:09] why these uh these uh grants are being cancelled congress you're you're misconstruing the proposal [2:18] to seem to make it seem as if it is omb centric omb will not be making these determinations [2:24] we don't have a formal review in reviewing every nofo uh that is not something that uh we intend to [2:30] take on these are the policy officials at the agency of which the president has put these [2:37] let me just reclaim my time but the fact of the matter is is understand it and this is uh the probably [2:44] the most consequential change in the role senior political appointees rather than career scientists [2:50] and program officers would now be required to conduct a quote pre-issuance review of every [2:57] discretionary grant before it is awarded these appointees are explicitly forbidden from deferring to [3:04] peer reviewers or routinely ratifying their recommendations this is in the 412 page document [3:12] and maybe you think that people weren't going to read it uh so and then there is no longer peer [3:17] review peer review is no longer binding a political appointee can simply override the scientific community's [3:27] judgment with finding uh with no finding of cause that is what is a part of this of this rule which is it [3:36] dismantles what we established after world war ii for the national institutes of health for the ns uh for [3:45] the national science foundation uh for department of energy for nasa it really reverses how we have awarded [3:53] grants in the future are you shaking your head no but that in fact which is uh which is but the fact of [4:01] what you are trying to do with a political lens and someone's politically political ideology i have [4:08] one more question for you have you released all appropriately um appropriated funding to each uh [4:14] intended agency um uh through the apportionment process uh we were working through the apportionment [4:21] process uh expeditiously uh we can't say we've done every single one of them but if you have one that [4:27] you're particularly interested no but i'm just saying it is your responsibility to get the money [4:31] out of the door in a timely fashion and if you can't do this we need to take a look because congress [4:37] provides this would be a full year full year apportionment how much funding has been available [4:42] how much funding has been made available uh how much funding have you made unavailable to agencies as [4:48] of today if you can't answer that now i would like an answer to that happy to but again there's no [4:53] concerted effort not to apportion funding for the agency it's not going out in a timely way i can [4:57] i just go through because we're trying to assess what it's being spent right no i i get it will [5:02] you commit to us here today that you will carry out our spending laws as congress intended through [5:10] appropriations and reconciliations as they were enacted or not obviously we will take and make sure [5:18] that we're spending money where you intend us to spend money at the same time i'm not that is where [5:24] no the answer to that then is no i'm not going to you you are not going to spend the money that [5:31] congress in a bipartisan way and acts yes you did i yield my time back