    [Senate Hearing 115-427]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]

                                                            S. Hrg. 115-427

                       NOMINATION OF MARGARET M. WEICHERT

    =======================================================================

                                    HEARING

                                   BEFORE THE

                                  COMMITTEE ON
                   HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
                              UNITED STATES SENATE

                         ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS

                                 FIRST SESSION

                                   __________

         NOMINATION OF MARGARET M. WEICHERT TO BE DEPUTY DIRECTOR FOR
                  MANAGEMENT, OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET

                                   __________

                               DECEMBER 14, 2017

           Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov/

                           Printed for the use of the
            Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

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            COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS

                        RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin, Chairman
    JOHN McCAIN, Arizona                 CLAIRE McCASKILL, Missouri
    ROB PORTMAN, Ohio                    THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware
    RAND PAUL, Kentucky                  JON TESTER, Montana
    JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma             HEIDI HEITKAMP, North Dakota
    MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming             GARY C. PETERS, Michigan
    JOHN HOEVEN, North Dakota            MAGGIE HASSAN, New Hampshire
    STEVE DAINES, Montana                KAMALA D. HARRIS, California

                      Christopher R. Hixon, Staff Director
                    Gabrielle D'Adamo Singer, Chief Counsel
                  David N. Brewer, Chief Investigative Counsel
               John D. Cuaderes, Staff Director, Subcommittee on
                   Regulatory Affairs and Federal Management
                   Margaret E. Daum, Minority Staff Director
                      Phylicia L. Woods, Minority Counsel
                     Claudine J. Brenner, Minority Counsel
      Joseph L. Lindblad, Minority Professional Staff Member, Subcommittee
             on Federal Spending Oversight and Emergency Management
                         Laura W. Kilbride, Chief Clerk
                       Bonni E. Dinerstein, Hearing Clerk

                                C O N T E N T S

                                     ------
    Opening statements:
                                                                       Page
        Senator Lankford.............................................     1
        Senator Peters...............................................     2
        Senator Hassan...............................................     8
        Senator Carper...............................................    10
        Senator Heitkamp.............................................    13
    Prepared statement:
        Senator Peters...............................................    21

                                   WITNESSES
                          Thursday, December 14, 2017

    Margaret M. Weichert to be Deputy Director for Management, Office
      of Management and Budget
        Testimony....................................................     3
        Prepared statement...........................................    23
        Biographical and financial information.......................    26
        Letter from the Office of Government Ethics..................    45
        Responses to pre-hearing questions...........................    48
        Responses to post-hearing questions..........................    73
        Letter of support............................................    99

                       NOMINATION OF MARGARET M. WEICHERT

                                  ----------

                          THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2017

                                         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. James Lankford
    presiding.
        Present: Senators Lankford, Daines, McCaskill, Carper,
    Tester, Heitkamp, Peters, Hassan, and Harris.

                 OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR LANKFORD

        Senator Lankford. Good morning, everyone. Today we are
    considering the nomination of Margaret Weichert to be the
    Deputy Director for Management at the Office of Management and
    Budget (OMB).
        The Committee takes these nominations very seriously and we
    are pleased to have a strong nominee before us today for this
    critical leadership role. As Chairman of the Subcommittee on
    Regulatory Affairs and Federal Management (RAFM), I can tell
    you I am particularly interested in the work of the Office of
    Management and Budget.
        Ms. Weichert comes to government service after a highly
    successful career in the private sector, where she was a leader
    in the financial and electronic payment technologies, an
    entrepreneur, a proven executive. Throughout her career she has
    demonstrated particular skill at strategic planning and policy
    implementation, as well as leading large departments of people.
        Ms. Weichert received her bachelor of science from
    Georgetown School of Foreign Service in 1989. She then went on
    to study economics as a Rotary Scholar at the University of
    Sussex, and later earned her MBA from the University of
    California, Berkeley in 1995.
        Ms. Weichert began her career at Accenture in 1995, her
    work there focusing on the fast-changing world of e-commerce,
    which has changed quite a bit since 1995. Ms. Weichert took
    this experience and used it to launch her first of her own
    companies, Achex.
        Ms. Weichert. Achex.
        Senator Lankford [continuing]. Achex; got it--an
    alternative electronic payment company, which she later
    successfully sold to First Data Corporation. After time at
    First Data Corporation, Ms. Weichert continued her prestigious
    career at Bank of America, before leaving to found her own
    consulting group, the Morgan Weichert Group, while also serving
    as a principal at two other consultancies, Market Platform
    Dynamics and the Global Economics Group. Most recently, Ms.
    Weichert was a principal at Ernst & Young.
        Ms. Weichert, thank you for being here today, for bringing
    your business acumen to the Federal Government service. I look
    forward to hearing more about you and your plan to bring these
    successes and these experiences, and the wisdom that you bring
    with it to bear for the support of the mission of the Office of
    Management and Budget.
        Committee staff reached out to a variety of your colleagues
    and affiliates, as you know well, because they probably called
    you right after committee staff talked to them. All of those
    individuals that we talked to spoke very highly of you.
    Committee staff also had the opportunity to be able to
    interview Ms. Weichert on an array of issues. Ms. Weichert has
    thoughtfully and competently answered each question put to her
    as part of the vetting process.
        To date, the Committee has found you to be qualified for
    the position to which you have been nominated so we are moving
    on to this level and this layer of the process.
        Again, we look forward to hearing more from you during this
    hearing, and I will recognize Ranking Member Peters for his
    opening statement.

                 OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR PETERS\1\

        Senator Peters. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank
    you, Ms. Weichert, for being here today and for your
    willingness to serve as well.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        \1\ The prepared statement of Senator Peters appears in the
    Appendix on page 21.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        In reviewing your qualifications, I noticed your particular
    expertise and interest in payments technology and
    modernization. That is something that I have actually been
    personally working on here in the Senate, and I hope that it is
    something that we can work on together in the future, should
    you be confirmed.
        As we consider your nomination, I want to acknowledge the
    widespread agreement in this room today that we should always
    be finding ways to work together in a bipartisan way to make
    government more efficient and more effective for the American
    people. This Committee has a strong record of bipartisanship
    accomplishment and holding government officials accountable,
    protecting whistleblowers, empowering the inspector general
    community, cutting unnecessary red tape, and conducting
    diligent oversight to root out instances of waste, fraud, and
    abuse.
        That is what I am looking out for, as the Ranking Member of
    the Federal Spending Oversight (FSO) Subcommittee of this
    Committee, and I know the Deputy Director for Management
    position at OMB plays a very important role in this effort as
    well.
        We need to make sure that we empower Federal Agencies with
    the resources, the talent, and the expertise that they need to
    carry out their critical missions instead of undermining them
    or making blunt policy choices, while also looking out for
    opportunities to reduce inefficiencies, streamline government
    operations, and avoid duplications of effort.
        Ms. Weichert, I hope you share these goals and I look
    forward to hearing more about your management agenda and your
    specific plans for improving the Federal Government procurement
    policies, the information technology (IT) systems, and
    financial and personal management practices. We should approach
    these issues remembering that we have been entrusted as
    stewards of the taxpayer dollars and that we should work
    together so that government works for everyone.
        Again, I look forward to your testimony.
        Senator Lankford. Ms. Weichert, it is the custom of the
    Committee to swear in all witnesses that appear before us, so
    if you would not mind, please stand and raise your right hand.
        Do you swear that the testimony that you will give before
    this Committee will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing
    but the truth, so help you, God?
        Ms. Weichert. I do.
        Senator Lankford. Thank you. You may be seated. Let the
    record reflect that the witness answered in the affirmative.
        Ms. Weichert, we would like to recognize you for your
    opening statement and then we would like to be able to just ask
    some follow up questions from there. If you do not mind, during
    your opening statement, to also introduce any family or friends
    that have joined you, so this Committee can get a chance to see
    some of those folks, and you can recognize some people that
    have traveled a long way to be able to be here with you.
        Ms. Weichert. Sure.
        Senator Lankford. Thank you.

    TESTIMONY OF MARGARET H. WEICHERT\1\ TO BE DEPUTY DIRECTOR FOR
              MANAGEMENT, OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET

        Ms. Weichert. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I would like to
    thank you, the Ranking Member, and the Members of the Committee
    for your gracious welcome.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        \1\ The prepared statement of Ms. Weichert appears in the Appendix
    on page 23.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        It is an honor to appear today before this Committee as the
    nominee for Deputy Director for Management at the Office of
    Management and Budget. I would also like to thank my family for
    joining today. My two boys, James and Andrew are here getting a
    real-life civics lesson, and my parents, Ed and Mary Alice
    Morgan, are here from wintry upstate New York to support me. It
    is even more special because today is my mother's birthday, so
    happy birthday, Mom.
        Senator Carper. You know that means we are going to have to
    ask really tough questions. No softballs on her birthday.
    [Laughter.]
        Ms. Weichert. I really appreciate their support and
    encouragement, in spite of long hours and much time spent away
    from home.
        My motivation to leave our home in Georgia and the private
    sector for a role in Washington is rooted in a long family
    tradition of public service. I am following in the footsteps of
    family members who served the country through military service,
    elected office, in State government, and in the Postal Service.
        I would also like to thank the Members of this Committee
    and their staffs for meeting with me and sharing perspectives
    on key management issues facing our country. If confirmed, I
    look forward to working with you to identify and implement
    innovative management solutions. Finally, I would like to thank
    the President and OMB Director Mulvaney for inviting me to
    serve. I feel humbled and honored as I embark on my first
    experience in public service.
        The Deputy Director for Management is an important role
    charged with leading a broad range of disciplines that provide
    the management foundation for the core missions of government.
    In and of themselves, functions like IT, information security,
    human capital management, finance, accounting, performance
    management, and procurement may not be inherently exciting, but
    these functions provide necessary and essential capabilities
    needed to support the work of government agencies.
        The management function at OMB is challenged to use a fact-
    based approach to balance financial stewardship and efficiency
    with effectiveness and transparency. Government agency missions
    vary widely, but all rely on management capabilities. Whether
    rescuing families and their dogs, cats, and livestock from
    fires in California or floodwaters in Texas, helping small
    businesses compete for government contracts, or allowing
    farmers to efficiently get loans or crop insurance, or
    supporting the health care needs of our veterans, the business
    of government in every case relies on mission-critical
    management services.
        Twenty-plus years in the private sector should position me
    well to drive transformational change and better align Federal
    Government management capabilities to the realities and needs
    of the 21st Century. Building on an academic background in
    economics, management, and finance, I have spent the last 20-
    plus years driving customer and shareholder value in publicly
    traded companies and as an entrepreneur. I have direct
    experience with P&L management, budgeting, capital allocation,
    new product development, innovation, risk and compliance,
    financial reporting and analytics, and business development. I
    have done these activities as an employee of two large publicly
    traded companies, Bank of America and First Data, and as a
    consultant to large publicly traded companies in the financial
    services, financial technology, and retail industries.
        In these private sector roles, I have been privileged to
    use a wide range of leading practices, including Six Sigma,
    Design for Six Sigma, Agile development, business process
    automation, and user-centered design to create and implement
    complex transformational change agendas with strong positive
    financial and customer experience impacts.
        In all my private sector roles, I have sought to bring a
    spirit of innovation and a passion for doing the right thing,
    to drive breakthrough results and thinking. I have led large
    teams of diverse talent to achieve results that even they did
    not believe possible. And I have been as excited about
    innovating and support areas, like payments, accounts payable,
    and commercial cash management, as I have been about
    innovations in mobile banking or online payments. Many of these
    innovations, even in non-customer-facing areas, were innovative
    enough to result in 14 successful U.S. patents.
        My hope, if confirmed, is to bring this spirit of
    innovation, combined with private sector practices, to driver
    greater efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency in Federal
    management functions. Moreover, I would like to build on
    existing management successes to create and implement a
    transformational vision for the 21st Century management.
        Through the President's Management Agenda and the
    President's Management Council, if confirmed, I would focus on
    three transformation areas. The first would be IT
    modernization; the second, data accountability and
    transparency; the third, people and the workforce for the 21st
    Century.
        In conclusion, I would like to thank you for your input and
    consideration. If confirmed as Deputy Director for Management,
    I look forward to working with you to improve the efficiency,
    effectiveness, and transparency of the Federal Government
    through improvements in management competencies.
        Thank you again. I look forward to answering your
    questions.
        Senator Lankford. Thank you. Ms. Weichert, I need to ask
    three mandatory questions that we ask of all nominees before
    they come before this Committee and then I am going to defer
    questions to the end, and the Ranking Member Peters will then
    ask questions.
        The first question, is there anything that you are aware of
    in your background that might present a conflict of interest
    with the duties of the office to which you have been nominated?
        Ms. Weichert. No.
        Senator Lankford. Do you know of anything personal or
    otherwise that would in any way prevent you from fully and
    honorably discharging the responsibilities of the office to
    which you have been nominated?
        Ms. Weichert. No.
        Senator Lankford. Last question, do you agree, without
    reservation, to comply with any request or summons to appear
    and testify before any duly constituted committee of Congress
    if you are confirmed?
        Ms. Weichert. Yes.
        Senator Lankford. Thank you very much. Ranking Member
    Peters.
        Senator Peters. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        Ms. Weichert, I would like to confirm that a few of the
    answers in your questionnaire remain the same today as you
    appear before us.
        As you know, conducting oversight of the Executive Branch
    is one of the most critical functions of this Committee, and so
    I am going to read you a few questions from your questionnaire
    and just to ask whether you would respond yes or no in public
    today.
        If confirmed, do you agree, without reservation, to reply
    to any reasonable request for information from the Ranking
    Member of any duly constituted committee of Congress?
        Ms. Weichert. Yes.
        Senator Peters. If confirmed, do you agree, without
    reservation, to reply to any reasonable request for information
    from Members of Congress, generally, regardless of party
    affiliation?
        Ms. Weichert. So I look forward to working with Congress on
    all of the issues that are relevant to this Committee and to
    others, and I seek to be as open and proactive in sharing
    responses and working with those Members.
        Senator Peters. The question said reasonable requests, so
    are you open to working----
        Ms. Weichert. Yes.
        Senator Peters [continuing]. On reasonable requests?
        Ms. Weichert. Yes.
        Senator Peters. Thank you. If confirmed, do you commit to
    take all reasonable steps to ensure that you and your agency
    comply with deadlines established by Members of Congress for a
    request of information?
        Ms. Weichert. Yes.
        Senator Peters. Well thank you.
        Ms. Weichert, the position you are nominated for is the
    third-highest ranking position at OMB, and you have indicated
    in your questionnaire that you expect Director Mulvaney to
    delegate responsibility for much of OMB's management agenda to
    you?
        Ms. Weichert. Yes.
        Senator Peters. So that being said, since the time you have
    completed your questionnaire, Director Mulvaney has chosen to
    accept another role, as also the acting Director at the
    Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). As far as we know,
    for the time being, he is only planning to be around the OMB
    maybe a couple of days, maybe three. We are not sure how much
    time he is actually going to be at OMB. And I certainly did not
    realize that the Director of the Office of Management Budget as
    a part-time job, but apparently it is a part-time job now.
        But Ms. Weichert, do you believe that the position of OMB
    Director should be a full-time job or a part-time job?
        Ms. Weichert. I believe it is a full-time job and I believe
    the Director is operating two full-time jobs. He has experience
    doing that in the private sector as well, when he was running a
    small business. So, absolutely, I believe it is a full-time
    job.
        Senator Peters. So a 40-hour work week?
        Ms. Weichert. Yes. The Director is working two full, all-
    day, every-day jobs.
        Senator Peters. OK. Although you expect to become the point
    person for key management functions at OMB, if confirmed, what
    do you intend to do if the Director is just not there and you
    need to have a face-to-face conversation with the Director, and
    he is on his day working, or maybe not there?
        Ms. Weichert. So business as usual is continuing at OMB
    since the announcement a couple of weeks back, and I have not,
    in my role as senior advisor, had any challenges being in touch
    with the Director. He is highly responsive to all the requests
    that the Management Office has had. So, he is responding to
    emails, and his actual physical location is literally across
    the street, so there has not been any challenges in that
    regard.
        Senator Peters. To what extent have you discussed this dual
    hat arrangement with the Director, and how would you expect, as
    your role as Deputy Director for Management to change if he
    remains at the CFPB, if this part-time job continues for the
    long time?
        Ms. Weichert. So I have not had a private conversation with
    the Director on this topic, but in sharing with the staff
    broadly at the OMB, he made it very clear a couple of things,
    that he takes the independence in both roles very seriously,
    and he anticipates working both jobs in full-time capacity.
    And, again, I do not foresee any challenges and have not seen
    any major shifts in how the organization is operating.
        Senator Peters. Very well. To be effective and secure in
    cyberspace, every Federal department and agency requires a
    modern, defensible network architecture. Yet today, even though
    the Federal Government spends about $80 billion every year on
    IT, nearly every government agency procures and manages its own
    IT infrastructure, as I know you are aware. This means that
    each agency independently identifies and assesses possible
    vendors, which often results in significant duplication, huge
    price variances across the government, and also inconsistent
    security outcomes.
        The Obama Administration began to address this challenge by
    beginning to transition toward cloud technologies and other
    shared security services, and you have indicated in your
    testimony, both written as well as orally here today that IT
    modernization will be a major priority for you, if you are
    confirmed.
        So if confirmed, would you tell us more specifically what
    you would do to reduce the cost and achieve operational
    efficiencies needed to meet today's significant cyber security
    challenges?
        Ms. Weichert. So thank you for the question and I really
    appreciate it. It is an absolutely urgent issue facing the
    country.
        There are a couple of things that really jump to mind. I
    think a lot of the work that has already happened around moving
    to the cloud, and shared services focus heavily on improvements
    in efficiency. I also think, in reference to the point you made
    about paying different amounts across government for
    effectively the same service, there is an initiative around
    technology business management (TBM), looking at creating data
    standardization and taxonomy across government, so we really
    can compare like with like and get the best deal for the
    American people. I think that is another major initiative that
    I think is linked to the challenge that you raised there.
        Senator Peters. Are you concerned that the Federal Chief
    Information Officer (CIO) position remains unfilled?
        Ms. Weichert. One of my priorities, if confirmed, would be
    to really get all of the positions filled, and I know the
    Director is actively working on doing so. So I would absolutely
    want to see that position filled as soon as possible.
        Senator Peters. And there are many unfilled positions all
    across Federal Government, in these CIO positions. You will be
    working to fill those as well, or at least expressing the
    urgency of getting these vital positions filled?
        Ms. Weichert. Absolutely expressing the urgency. I think it
    is quite obvious, when I have met with the Chief Information
    Officer Council (CIOC) that that is a critical need, and
    actually elevating the profile of CIOs in government is
    something that I think is very important.
        Senator Peters. Great. Thank you so much.
        Ms. Weichert. Thank you.
        Senator Lankford. Senator Hassan.

                  OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR HASSAN

        Senator Hassan. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and
    Ranking Member, and good morning and congratulations on your
    nomination, and congratulations and thank you to your family as
    well. This is a family commitment and affair, and thank you for
    sharing, and particularly to your sons, thank you for sharing
    your mom with us.
        Ms. Weichert, if you are confirmed as Deputy Director, you
    will be responsible for overseeing program evaluation
    activities. This evaluation of programs net effects, their
    successes and failures, and improvement strategies is
    absolutely critical to ensuring that we are putting Federal
    dollars to their best possible use, on scaling back or
    eliminating ones that do not work. As you said earlier, most of
    your experience has been in the private sector where I am sure
    you evaluated programs and procedure regularly, and you have
    now also spent some time as a senior advisor at OMB.
        Based on your experience in and out of government, how do
    you think we should be evaluating government programs? What
    metrics should we be using, and do our existing evaluation
    tools capture the right information?
        Ms. Weichert. So thank you, Senator. I appreciate the
    question. I think it is a very important question. In my role
    as senior advisor, I have gotten familiarity with some of the
    metrics that are in place and some of the tools that are used
    for oversight and accountability around our programs. There are
    a number of websites that share data with the public. There is
    spending.gov. There is paymentaccuracy.gov.
        And one of my priorities in the second sort of pillar I
    mentioned around data accountability and transparency would
    really be to understand and get a baseline of all of those
    metrics, all of the elements of data that we are sharing, both
    internal to government and externally, and get a taxonomy and a
    framework so that we can efficiently and effectively report
    without creating undue burden on agencies----
        Senator Hassan. Right.
        Ms. Weichert [continuing]. But actually get to actionable
    intelligence. And I think that is maybe the most important
    thing. I see a lot of reporting. I am not yet clear on exactly
    which things are most effective----
        Senator Hassan. Right.
        Ms. Weichert [continuing]. And that would be a priority for
    me.
        Senator Hassan. OK. That makes sense. There have been some
    proposals to devote a portion of every program's funding to
    actually evaluating the program. Do you support that kind of
    proposal?
        Ms. Weichert. I have not seen the specific proposal so I do
    not know in detail. What I can say is it is a leading practice
    to have evaluation and QA capabilities built into programs
    broadly.
        Senator Hassan. Yes.
        Ms. Weichert. But I would want to see what the proposal
    looked like.
        Senator Hassan. Yes. I mean, one of the things that strikes
    me is we really do not necessarily go through an evaluation
    process with so many of our programs in a meaningful way,
    partly because coordination and evaluation takes resources----
        Ms. Weichert. Absolutely.
        Senator Hassan [continuing]. And it takes focus. And so you
    have to figure out a way to devote those kind of resources up
    front, and that what might be one way to do it.
        I wanted to turn now to another priority you talked about
    broadly. We know that we are going through rapid change in this
    economy, and automation poses some challenges for us in the
    Federal Government. As a member of both this Committee and the
    Health, Education, Labor, and Pension (HELP) Committee, I am
    cognizant of the need for both the Federal and private
    workforces to address the challenges that automation may cause
    for workers in the coming decades, from putting formerly paper
    forms online to digitizing parts of the customs process in
    international airports. We can already see the impact of
    automation on many areas of Federal Government.
        Given your background in online transactions, a field that
    has changed dramatically in the past decade due to advanced
    technology, I expect this is something you have given some
    thought to as well. So what do you see as the biggest
    challenges facing the Federal Government when it comes to
    automation?
        Ms. Weichert. So I think this is actually a pivotal piece
    of making progress, because I have heard, anecdotally, as
    senior advisor, many instances where we have actually, in
    government, shied away from the right technology solution or
    efficiency solution or customer experience solution because we
    did not have an easy way to deal with the people who are
    currently performing that function.
        I actually believe that is a linchpin to moving forward on
    both the efficiency and the customer experience agenda. So re-
    skilling----
        Senator Hassan. Right.
        Ms. Weichert [continuing]. Is critical----
        Senator Hassan. Yes.
        Ms. Weichert [continuing]. And there are a number of places
    in government, cyber being one of the ones that Senator Peters
    mentioned, customer experience is another one, data science is
    another, where if we have great Federal employees doing a
    function that was really about what was, status quo in the
    1950s----
        Senator Hassan. Yes.
        Ms. Weichert [continuing]. How do we bring those people
    into jobs that are relevant in the 21st Century?
        Senator Hassan. Well, and that is music to my ears, because
    I think there is a win-win here. Often people see this as a
    binary choice. You either automate or you keep your employees.
    And, in fact, we know we need skilled employees in so many
    growing areas, and you kind of brought me to my last area of
    concern, which is cyber security, and following up on what you
    and Senator Peters were talking about.
        It is one thing to understand it as a priority and to
    understand, perhaps, that the separate purchasing activities of
    various agencies means we have decentralized and inconsistent
    levels of cyber security throughout Federal Government. I would
    suggest that that may be true in business and in State
    government as well.
        But how do we not only prioritize cyber security, putting
    in the right platforms to improve it, but how do we go about
    engaging in cyber security, really in the ongoing way that we
    know it has to happen? There are daily attacks on systems
    everywhere. We have ongoing technology that we need to
    understand, to practice the kind of cyber hygiene that is so
    important.
        So how do we change our culture around cyber security and
    then make sure we have the skill sets on board that will really
    allow us to be at the forefront?
        Ms. Weichert. So thank you for that question. Absolutely a
    critical element of the IT modernization strategy that I
    believe we need to pursue, and if confirmed, I would very
    proactively pursue. I think using some of the new authorities
    that Congress has included in the Modernizing Government
    Technology (MGT) bill that hopefully will be signed into law
    soon, as well as the IT Modernization Fund, hopefully will be
    appropriated, will allow us to hopefully shine the light on key
    projects that will help make it easier for agencies to
    prioritize these activities.
        And I think what was in the MGT, allowing working capital
    funds to be used and reinvested in key technology priorities,
    is another area. Obviously, I think it is a large area and it
    is one that deserves deeper, richer study, both leveraging
    learnings from the private sector but also leveraging what have
    been those barriers to that in government. And I would look
    forward to working with this Committee and others in Congress
    to get that fact base so we can really move from kind of
    contemplation into action.
        Senator Hassan. Well thank you very much, and thank you,
    Mr. Chair, for your indulgence. I am a bit over.
        Senator Lankford. Senator Carper.

                  OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR CARPER

        Senator Carper. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To our
    witness, to our nominee, welcome and congratulations. Thank you
    for spending some time with my staff and me in the past week.
        I just want to say to your sons, James and Andrew--what are
    they, 17 and 14?
        Ms. Weichert. 17 and 13, yes.
        Senator Carper. 17 and 13. And they go to school where, in
    Georgia?
        Ms. Weichert. No. They go to school in Falls Church.
        Senator Carper. Oh, OK. Good. I just want to thank you for
    your willingness to miss school today.
        Ms. Weichert. [Laughs.]
        Senator Carper. Being here with your mom, to have her back.
    That is good. And to be with your grandmother on her birthday.
    I always called my mom on her birthday, for years and years.
    And she passed away about a decade ago at the tender age of 83.
    And I would also call her every year on my birthday, to thank
    her for bringing me into the world. Those were very special
    conversations. So I know you are especially proud of your
    daughter, Ms. Morgan, and Mr. Morgan.
        When we talked the other day, I think I mentioned I once
    had the pleasure of being Governor of Delaware for about 8
    years and was very active in the National Governors Association
    (NGA). One of the things we did at the National Governors
    Association, every 2 years, right after the election, within 2
    weeks after the election, the current Governors and spouses
    would host the new Governors, the Governors-elect, and their
    spouses, at new Governor school, at some place around the
    country. And it was just three full days of the old guys and
    gals sort of bearing their souls and explaining to the new
    folks all the mistakes we had made, and what we had learned
    from those mistakes, in hope that the new folks would not make
    the same mistakes.
        You have the opportunity--we do not have a new OMB Deputy
    Director of Management school for newbies, but you do have a
    good bench to draw from, and Beth Cobert is one of the names I
    have mentioned to you. I think you may have spoken with her.
    Another fellow, Brian Deese. They are both back in the private
    sector. Beth used to run McKinsey & Company's operations out on
    the West Coast and she is back in the private sector now. She
    is just brilliant. And Brian Deese is as well.
        Another source--and I think I have mentioned this to you,
    and I think you have already reached out to the Government
    Accountability Office (GAO)--you will not find a better public
    servant than Gene Dodaro, and the leadership that he provides
    there is, I think, incredible.
        One of the things that a fellow named Coburn, we used to
    have a Republican on this Committee. His name was Tom Coburn
    from Oklahoma. And he was always interested in doing the right
    thing. He did not like to waste money, and I think certainly
    the three of us sitting here feel the same way.
        And one of the things that Tom and I would do, along with
    our colleagues, is we realized that we are just one oversight
    committee, but to the extent that we could partner with GAO, to
    the extent that we could partner with OMB, to the extent we
    could partner with inspectors general (IGs) around the Federal
    Government, we could get a lot more done.
        And you mentioned that you have a passion. What would you
    bring to this job? A spirit of innovation and passion for doing
    the right thing. We need to do the right thing. We need to find
    fiscally responsible ways to do the right thing. And in meeting
    with you, my sense is that is what you would like to do, and we
    want to be helpful and supportive of that.
        You have a position, a CIO position, is that right, that it
    has not been filled, or you will?
        Ms. Weichert. Right.
        Senator Carper. Yes. And there is a woman named Phyllis
    Schneck that my colleagues may or may not remember. She came
    out of the private sector. She worked in cyber for Homeland
    Security. I will meet actually meet with her, talk with her
    later today. And she is back in the private sector. She is
    brilliant, and I think somebody who would contribute a huge
    amount, in the short time she was with the Federal Government,
    and I think could do more so. Those are a couple of names that
    I would just bring to your attention.
        One of the things that we have worked on in this committee
    forever is improper payments. We focus a lot on the high-risk
    list. And Tom Coburn and I used to take the high-risk list as
    our to-do list. One of the things on the high-risk list forever
    has been property, real property management, and that is an
    area where we have made pretty good progress. Rob Portman and
    others on this Committee, along with me, have focused a whole
    lot on property management and making sure that we are doing a
    better job.
        You will inherit, I think, a better plan in place, a better
    system in place to deal with the property management, and I
    would just ask you to take it to the next level. And I think it
    is sort of teed up for you to do that.
        I do not know if we mentioned when we met, we have
    jurisdiction, this Committee, on Homeland Security Department.
    The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), I will just say to
    James and Andrew, it was created right after September 11,
    2001. It has about 240,000 people who are part of the
    Department of Homeland Security, but they are spread all over
    the world. They are also spread all over the greater
    metropolitan Washington area. It is a terribly inefficient way,
    a very hard way--John Kelly would tell you, as the former
    Secretary. Jeh Johnson would tell you, as the former Secretary.
    Tom Ridge would tell you. Janet Napolitano would tell you. It
    is an impossible management situation, to manage that many
    people, just spread all over hell's half acre.
        And there is a property called St. Elizabeths which is here
    and actually in Washington, D.C. Old property. And the last
    administration, actually, suggested that it would be a good
    place to create a headquarters for Department of Homeland
    Security. I first heard about it--I saw this as a crazy idea.
    As it turns out it is not. The General Services Administration
    (GSA) figured out a way to save a lot of money, putting a lot
    of people in that large space, that large campus. And we have
    invested a couple billion dollars, and we basically--it is now
    like dead in the water, almost dead in the water, which is, I
    think, just a shame.
        And you are going to hear a little bit more a little later
    on about St. Elizabeths, and DHS, they need a home. They need a
    way. Whoever was the Secretary there, Kirstjen is just
    confirmed, they are going to need some attention to this. So I
    just bring it to your attention.
        Talk to us about improper payments, just a little bit if
    you would. Every year, for every 2 years, for years, we have
    heard about improper payments. We have done a lot to deal with
    improper payments. Any thoughts that you would share with us on
    how to approach that?
        Ms. Weichert. Sure. Thank you, Senator. I appreciate your
    thoughts and your thoughtfulness.
        Senator Carper. Sorry to ramble so much.
        Ms. Weichert. No. I appreciated the thought.
        As it happens, payments is something I care a lot about. My
    observations about what are termed ``improper payments'' here
    in government really constitutes three major categories. One is
    the actual fraud and abuse, the second are errors, so payments
    that are in the wrong amount or to the wrong address, things of
    that nature, and then the third are payments that do not have
    sufficient documentation. And I think the solutions to those
    three distinct categories are somewhat different.
        The Do Not Pay database, I think, has been a really useful
    tool, from my observation, and I think extending that more
    broadly in government and also to State and local governments,
    and that is in the works, that seems like a really great idea
    to address specific issues around the fraud and abuse piece.
        I think the two other pieces have a lot to do with process
    improvement activities, and, frankly, I have not seen a lot of
    the root cause issues, and they seem to vary a lot agency to
    agency. So, if confirmed, I would welcome the opportunity to
    dig deeper and look for solutions in those areas.
        Senator Carper. All right. Thank you. If I could have maybe
    30 more seconds, Mr. Chairman, could I?
        Senator Lankford. I will have to bring that up with Senator
    Heitkamp. We will have to decide together.
        Senator Heitkamp. Go for it.
        Senator Carper. We just learned this past week the
    Department of Defense (DOD), after years of being badgered by
    us, this Committee, is going to try to achieve a full audit.
    They have not done that ever, since 1947. And you may want to
    keep an eye on them, make sure they are doing what they are
    supposed to be doing.
        The other thing is we are looking at a request for defense
    spending increase over the next 10 years of, I do not know,
    $600 billion or more, and we spend more than the next 10
    nations combined on defense. Is not that amazing? The United
    States spends more on defense than the next 10 nations
    combined, and we have a request for another $600-plus billion.
    DOD has never achieved an audit, an unqualified audit, and they
    have huge cost overruns for major weapons systems, spare parts,
    all kinds of problems. I would just ask you to keep an eye on
    them. I am a retired Navy captain, love the Navy, love the
    military, but in a day and age when we are trying to do things
    more efficiently, DOD has to be a big part of that as well.
        Thank you. Good luck. We look forward to working with you.
    And again to your family, a special thanks for being with us
    today, and having her back, raising her the way that you have
    done that, and for her kids, continuing to raise you. All
    right. Thank you.
        Senator Lankford. Senator Heitkamp.

                 OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR HEITKAMP

        Senator Heitkamp. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you
    for coming and thanks to your family for providing you with the
    support.
        I am always amazed that one of the biggest challenges we
    have in the Federal Government is improving efficiency,
    convincing the taxpayers that we are, in fact, serious about
    making sure that every dime that is spent is spent in the right
    direction, and that we do have their best fiscal interest at
    heart. But yet, these sometimes are lonely meetings for me and
    the Chairman, as we work through a lot of these issues. And so
    we care deeply, especially on our subcommittee, about the role
    you will play in improving efficiency, responding to GAO,
    responding to IGs, really pushing, as the former Ranking Member
    Carper said, really pushing to make sure that the to-do list
    actually gets accomplished.
        I have a concern. Ever since OMB has announced that they
    are, in fact, looking at reorganization, and every Cabinet
    position is doing this--we have been doing oversight but yet we
    have not been able to get anyone from OMB to give us a status
    report. And, they are the people who are on point on this, and
    I think if we are going to be successful doing our oversight,
    we definitely need cooperation from OMB. And I am little
    concerned that we are not getting it right now.
        So, I am going to ask you a series of questions, and just
    yes or no. You do not have to expound on them, but I think they
    would be pretty easy.
        Do you believe it is important for the talent, mission, and
    morale of our Federal workforce to accomplish the goals of the
    Federal Government, to have high morale?
        Ms. Weichert. Yes.
        Senator Heitkamp. Do you believe it is OK to sacrifice
    talent, mission, and morale for the sake of reducing workforce
    through attrition?
        Ms. Weichert. I am sorry. Could you restate the question?
        Senator Heitkamp. Attrition is typically, we are not going
    to hire anyone. A lot of times what you see in attrition is
    that the most valuable employee is the one who walks out the
    door, and that is a role we desperately need to fill. So if we
    are going to reduce workforce it should be more strategic.
    Would you agree with that----
        Ms. Weichert. I agree. Absolutely.
        Senator Heitkamp [continuing]. That attrition is not
    necessarily the way to reduce Federal workforce?
        Ms. Weichert. If you lose your best talent, absolutely not.
        Senator Heitkamp. Will the reorganization process be
    stronger if OMB gives Federal employees and stakeholders a
    voice in the process and ensures that they understand the goals
    of the effort, as well as how it will be executed?
        Ms. Weichert. So as senior advisor, I have not been
    involved directly in the reorganization process, so I am not
    super informed on the specifics of who is involved.
        Senator Heitkamp. Yes. I will tell you this. I have gone
    through, in my role in State government I managed several
    agencies. I was never successful without involving the people
    who actually do the work. And there is a concern that this is
    going to be top-down without actually getting folks who do the
    work day to day involved. And so I would strongly recommend
    that it is important that you do things with employees and not
    to them. And so just a little bit of advice there.
        Will the reorganization process be stronger if OMB works to
    make sure Congress understands its goals?
        Ms. Weichert. Yes.
        Senator Heitkamp. Yes. So I think when we go through kind
    of these lists of questions, it is important that you
    understand, from my perspective, why I am concerned about this
    reorganization and why I need to have more information. So, if
    confirmed, will you commit to getting up to speed on the
    reorganization and to providing testimony or input back to this
    Committee or the Subcommittee?
        Ms. Weichert. So if confirmed I expect I would be getting
    more involved and getting up to speed to it, and I would look
    to work collaboratively with this Committee and relevant other
    committees on an open exchange.
        Senator Heitkamp. I hope we can expedite your confirmation.
    I find you perfectly well qualified. There is a larger role of
    oversight that OMB plays with this Committee and when we do not
    get the information back from OMB I do not think we can perform
    the responsibility that we have on the other half of the
    Committee's name, which is government affairs.
        So another issue that I have worked on has been the Program
    Management Improvement and Accountability Act, which is
    something I penned and co-authored with my colleague, Senator
    Ernst. It was signed into law. We are now in that process of
    seeing implementation, and definitely believe that this was an
    important piece of legislation, needs to be implemented
    correctly.
        And so I just want to ask you a series of questions. The
    law had many one year deadlines, and some of those have slipped
    and we have not seen the level of attention. So, if confirmed,
    how will you take leadership on and execute your
    responsibilities under the Program Management Improvement and
    Accountability Act?
        Ms. Weichert. So thank you, Senator. As senior advisor, I
    have not been involved in any of the issues around that
    particular legislation. If confirmed, I would seek to get a
    baseline on where we are and what, if any, roadblocks there are
    to effectively complying with the law and also really ensuring
    that the spirit of what was intended is being achieved.
        Senator Heitkamp. I think the Chairman has talked about his
    visits to Federal agencies and his oversight that he does day
    to day, and, we cannot underestimate what a bad manager does to
    efficiency, what a bad manager does to morale, and that this is
    intended not to be a blunt instrument but intended to be very
    strategic. And if we do not have buy-in and enforcement and a
    commitment at OMB, we will not realize the benefit of this kind
    of focus.
        And so I really would appreciate this becoming a higher
    priority over at OMB once you get over there, or once you are
    confirmed into this position.
        Ms. Weichert. Yes. I look forward to working with you on
    this, if confirmed.
        Senator Heitkamp. OK. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        Senator Lankford. Thank you, Senator Heitkamp.
        Ms. Weichert, as I have mentioned before, this should be a
    familiar spot for you in conversation with Senator Heitkamp and
    I, because we have a long stack of questions. And as I visited
    with Mick Mulvaney in the days before, and have said how can we
    learn more about the restructuring process--we have already
    done two hearings on it. And, by the way, in both hearings we
    had very good input from the agencies saying that it seems OMB
    is listening, they are getting feedback from the individuals
    that work in the agency. I think that is exceptionally
    important. I learn more about an agency walking around through
    the cubicle farm, visiting with everyone there, than I learn by
    talking to the managers, most of the time. So getting that
    input is exceptionally important to be able to make sure any
    structural changes are made with wisdom in it.
        But as I have asked Mick Mulvaney, point blank, and said,
    ``Who will be the point person to help us walk through that?''
    he has said to me, ``The person that still needs to be
    confirmed. Ms. Weichert is going to be the one that will be the
    point person for this in the days ahead.''
        So I know you have been separated out from that, but we are
    looking forward to you getting up to speed on it and so we can
    find ways to be able to help in this. Any lasting positive
    change does not happen with just administrative actions. It
    happens when it functions through Congress.
        So we look forward to not only seeing the reports, your
    counsel on it, your advice once you see it, but then actually
    bringing it here and so we can have the opportunity to be able
    to have input and to start trying to be able to implement this
    from a congressional level.
        Stability in government is both a friend and an enemy. It
    is an enemy in times when we are stuck. It is a friend in the
    times that there is predictability for the employees to be able
    to know their job and what to be able to do. So we want to help
    in that. That is not necessarily a question, but is certainly a
    sense that we are looking forward to ongoing conversation on
    this in the days ahead, as you work through this.
        Let me talk a little bit about cooperation across agencies.
    OMB has a unique responsibility that each agency head takes
    care of all the leadership there, but OMB has the
    responsibility of looking at all agencies and saying we have
    five of basically the same things happening in five different
    agencies, with slightly different titles. We have to figure out
    how to do greater efficiency here, or how to figure out how to
    get two entities that could help each other actually helping
    each other.
        You brought up one of those already, the Do Not Pay list.
    We have pounded for years on the wonderfully named Death Master
    File (DMF) that is out there. That was sequestered away in one
    entity and not shared with others, and so we have people
    sending checks out to people that another agency knows have
    been long since dead for 10 years, but no one else has shared
    the information.
        Here is my question. How can you help us break down some of
    those silos, getting agencies actually talking to each other,
    and having enough authority in your role leading management to
    be able to say, ``You and you are going to play well together
    and you have to share information''? How does that happen?
        Ms. Weichert. So thank you for the question and the
    comments, Senator. This is actually not a unique challenge to
    government, and, in fact, the Death Master File issue is an
    issue for banks, for different reasons. But if someone calls
    into a bank, like Bank of America, and tells them that someone
    is deceased, they do not want to be getting bills from another
    part of that same organization.
        So what I have done in the private sector, and I think
    works well, is rather than leading with a mandate from the top
    is using facts to help create stories about how the various
    components will win by pulling together, and also getting facts
    about what are the structural impediments. I know there are
    privacy considerations and other previous statutes put in
    place, for good reasons, to prevent untoward use of data. But
    to really understand, OK, what is the spirit of that original
    intent, and then what does it prevent that we might like to do
    today, and that is, I think, an area where proactively I would
    see, if confirmed, leading the analysis to get identification
    of those ideas, and then working with Congress to say what is
    the right way to punch through some of those ideas so we can
    make real progress.
        Senator Lankford. Yes. We have to make real progress on
    this and it has been a great frustration. For years, I have
    asked the Census Bureau why they cannot cooperate with the
    Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The IRS gathers information
    from just about every American every April. The Census does it
    once every 10 years. And for some reason the two of them cannot
    seem to talk to each other, so that every 10 years when we do
    our taxes, we are also completing our census at the same time.
    Now that does not seem like a radical concept to me, but for
    years I have worked with Census, and for years they have said
    they are studying it.
        If there is some legislative barrier there that does not
    allow the two of them to cooperate, we just need to know so we
    can get it fixed. But that is billions of dollars in the Census
    creating a structure that the IRS already has in place, and
    while we will not capture every single person, I bet we capture
    more than the original mail-in does from Census. That is one
    example of a lot of them. We just need someone looking at the
    whole structure and saying how can we work better together on
    this.
        You and I have spoken, as well, about the hiring
    authorities. There are 120 different hiring authorities in the
    Federal Government. I do not think we need 120 different hiring
    authorities, but we need great employees here. And a lot of
    those great employees are retiring in the days ahead. Every
    agency says, ``I have 120 hiring authorities but what I really
    want is direct hiring authority and I do not have that.''
        Can you help us be able to work through this maze, so we
    can try to fix some of the hiring authority issues? As I have
    mentioned to you before, it is fine for the President to say we
    need to have more people on the border with Customs and Border
    Patrol (CBP), both Southern and Northern Border. That is fine
    to say that, except it takes 450 days to hire one agent. That
    cannot be. So we have to be able to figure out how to be able
    to process that.
        Is that something that you are already working on and are
    you thinking on?
        Ms. Weichert. So thank you. Absolutely, I think that is
    critical, and the third pillar around the workforce for the
    21st Century really speaks to what are all the elements that we
    need to get in place so that we can do all of the parts of
    people management from vetting, hiring, deploying,
    adjudicating, and getting to be efficient, up to the 21st
    Century standards.
        Many of the policies that create these slow timelines today
    were established in the post-World War II era, again, for very
    good reasons, but they are not necessarily relevant in a
    digital world that is expecting you could go to Monster.com and
    hire someone in 2 days if you wanted to, and I could hire a
    nanny and get her background check online today if I wanted to.
        Senator Lankford. Or you can go to the Federal Government
    and get it in 6 months.
        Ms. Weichert. Exactly. So that is, again, I think, a
    linchpin of making progress on the broader management agenda.
        Senator Lankford. OK. There are a couple of bills that are
    in the process of moving through right now. The Federal Agency
    Customer Experience (FACE) Act that Senator McCaskill and I
    have worked on has passed through the Senate already. We sent
    it over to the House. That deals with just basically getting
    customer feedback, allowing agencies to do what basically every
    rental car company and hotel already does. If you stay at a
    hotel, they send you an email afterwards saying, ``How did we
    do?'' The Federal agencies do not typically do that, getting
    customer service feedback, because of a whole host of
    complexities, just getting customer service feedback.
        We would like to help with that, and, quite frankly, I
    think that is a good tool for you to be able to have in working
    with agencies, that they are getting customer feedback and
    getting some continuous improvement.
        The second thing is a bill called the Taxpayers Right-To-
    Know. It is creating a list that currently does not list, that
    is, every agency just saying what they do. I would expect one
    of your first questions, when you walk into this role, is to be
    able to contact agency heads and say, ``Tell me what you do in
    every program.'' Most of those agencies are going to say, ``We
    do not know.''
        Ms. Weichert. Yes.
        Senator Lankford. I think that is a problem, that we cannot
    supervise what we cannot see, and they cannot lead what they
    cannot see. So just forming a basic list of every program, how
    it is evaluated, if it is evaluated, how much money they put
    toward that program, how many full-time employees they have for
    that, and how many people they serve. It is a pretty basic
    metric that everyone in the private sector has already, for all
    of their entities, on what they commit to it.
        It is one of the things that we are trying to be able to
    work through the process. Senator McCaskill and I, again, are
    working on that particular piece. We hope to be able to get
    that done quickly, as a resource tool for you and for every
    future person at OMB, especially on the management side of it,
    to be able to help them with that management.
        So we just look forward to that cooperation together in the
    days ahead. Again, that is not designed to be a tool that is a
    punitive tool by any means. It is designed to just be a
    resource for everyone to be able to see what is actually
    happening.
        Ms. Weichert. Thank you for that input.
        Senator Lankford. Yes. No big question on that one.
        Senator Heitkamp, any other questions?
        Senator Heitkamp. I just want to add something to all of
    that. I would assume that in these reorganization documents
    that you will be reviewing a lot of the information that the
    Chairman has just outlined, is information you should already
    have. I mean, it is unbelievable to any of us that there is not
    a master list somewhere, especially within each agency, of what
    these programs are, how many people are dedicated to these
    programs, and what is the expenditure kind of looking at a cost
    benefit.
        And the other piece of this, because I come out of State
    government, how does this activity potentially duplicate what
    States and local entities are doing, and how do we streamline
    that multiple jurisdictional problem that we consistently have?
        And so this is a very, very high priority, and it is
    absolutely essential information for oversight. And that is why
    I want to hear more about what is happening in reorganization.
    If you are not getting that information in reorganization, my
    question would be why not. I mean, why is that not part of the
    reorganization documents?
        This is not, unfortunately, the sexiest issue in Congress.
    It never rises to a level of urgency. We feel a great deal of
    urgency on these issues, because we have limited resources. We
    cannot afford to waste any of those resources, moving forward.
    There is important strategic work that needs to be done by
    every agency of government, but there are also, I would
    imagine, a lot of things that are getting done that are tired
    and old and need to be relooked. And this is a real
    opportunity, I think, for you, for someone with your skill set
    coming in.
        And I just want to make this promise to you. You will find
    a very open committee, a very interested committee, a very
    committed committee, especially our Subcommittee on these
    issues that you are going to look at. And it is very bipartisan
    and very much set with the same goal of efficiency in
    government and appropriate levels of government. And so use us.
    Talk to us if you run into problems with other agencies,
    because you are going to be the bad cop.
        Ms. Weichert. Right.
        Senator Heitkamp. I can tell you, having gone through a
    period where we consolidated offices and attorneys into the
    attorneys general (AGs) office, how difficult that was to set
    one standard for all the attorneys of State government. I mean,
    everybody was used to having their own attorneys doing their
    own thing. And we ignore efficiencies when we allow turf to be
    the issue and not efficiency.
        So you are going to have to be a bad cop, but you may
    occasionally need some backup. And I think what we are telling
    you is we are here, and we are here to listen, and when you run
    into problems it is important to bring it back to our Committee
    and let our staffs know, especially.
        Ms. Weichert. I really appreciate that.
        Senator Heitkamp. Good luck, Margaret, and we look forward
    to working with you into the future, and hope for your speedy
    confirmation because your role, albeit, not a roomful of
    interested lookers-on, but we are interested. And so, that is 2
    out of 100 who really care about what you do, and that is
    pretty good.
        Ms. Weichert. My kind of people.
        Senator Lankford. Yes, that is good. So what Senator
    Heitkamp is saying is when you get stuck in some process,
    release the redheads on them, and we will go see if we cannot
    help shake the trees.
        Ms. Weichert. My grandmother was a redhead.
        Senator Heitkamp. We live up to our reputation, you know.
        Senator Lankford. So we will be glad to be able to help
    with that.
        Senator Heitkamp. Slow to get there, but once we do, it can
    be serious.
        Ms. Weichert. Thank you both. I appreciate it.
        Senator Lankford. Ms. Weichert, I really appreciate you
    being here, for taking this task on. It is a long process to go
    through a nomination. I have yet to talk to a single person in
    the nomination process, for any task, that says, ``This is such
    a pleasant process.'' It is miserable as you go through, as you
    have total strangers going through every aspect of your life,
    sitting at a long table all alone, and answering questions,
    then waiting on the mercy of the Senate process to be able to
    go through the nomination, to actually do the work that you
    want to do.
        So let me just say thank you for going through the process.
    Let me also remind you that through your vast experience, you
    were in many different places, making quite an impact for a
    short period of time. I am sure you have looked back at some of
    these places and said, ``I wish while I was there I would have
    done this, because I had been there a shorter time than I
    thought.''
        Whatever the window is that you are going to be here,
    whether it is 3 years or 7 years, it is going to be a window.
    And so I would only encourage you, make the most of the time
    that you have, because our Nation desperately needs someone
    handling management of the Management and Budget, and it is one
    of the most important entities that no one has ever heard of,
    but it makes a significant difference to us. So please lead in
    the management area. We will need that good leadership in the
    days ahead.
        And for Andrew and James--do not mind, Andrew, if I am
    little more biased to the James than the Andrew here, because
    my first name is James as well--but for both of you, thank you
    for being here, and I hope this is a good civics lesson for you
    as well. And happy birthday. Glad that you are here, for both
    of you to be able to be here to be a part of it, and I hope it
    is not too painful. I can only imagine watching my child
    sitting on the stand and going through all the fun of it. That
    would not be as much fun as you would think it would be. So
    thank you for being here and being a part of it.
        Let me just make a quick closing statement as well. The
    nominee has made financial disclosures, provided responses to
    biographical and pre-hearing questions submitted by the
    Committee. Without objection, this information will be made a
    part of the hearing record,\1\ with the exception of the
    financial data, which is on file and available for public
    inspection in the Committee offices.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        \1\ The information of Ms. Weichert appears in the Appendix on page
    29.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        The hearing record will remain open until 12 p.m. tomorrow,
    December 15, 2017, for the submission of statements and
    questions for the record.
        Thank you again for being here and being a part of this
    process. With that, this hearing is adjourned.
        [Whereupon, at 10:59 a.m., the Committee was adjourned.]

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