Maggie Hassan

Thank you, Mr. Chair and Ranking Member Crapo, for holding this hearing.

Thank you for your service, for your expertise, and for your testimony today.

The longer we wait to modernize, the longer we procrastinate, the more it is going to cost.

If I had a second year added to it by a biennial, I would be able to take the projects and draw a timeline of people and dollars, and make sure that they were spent according to it, and hold people accountable to a two-year increment.

I have advocated for a biennial budgeting cycle where Congress would determine and appropriate the budget in one year

Legacy systems represent a security risk. They are not good at meeting our mission needs.

I would love to see that progress, not pause but accelerate in 2021.

I think one criterion to change this is to start to think from the outside in, from the point of view of the customer.

The use of out-of-date and commercially unsupported information technology by Federal agencies is one of the main drivers of increased IT maintenance costs.

I would look forward to that. One thing I would just add is that we are often a source of data collection for all of you, too.

To Mr. Hajjar, at my request the Postal Service Inspector General (IG) issued a report that found that the main cause of postal delays and poor service in New Hampshire was due to a lack of permanent staff.

I wanted to start with a question to Dr. Lauer.

That's why I've joined Chairman Wyden's bill to support women and minority entrepreneurs.

S. 4408 proposed to temporarily increase the dollar amount of education assistance employees can receive from employers to $12,000.

My colleague, Rob Portman, and I, together with more than 30 Democrats and Republicans, have a bipartisan bill called the JOBS Act that would extend Pell Grant eligibility to students who attend high-quality programs at community colleges…

I am optimistic about what this Committee can accomplish together.

I want to thank all of the witnesses, as well, for joining us today for a really important conversation on how we can best support workers who are unemployed, underemployed, or who have fallen out of the labor force.

To tackle all of these challenges and strengthen our workforce the way we need to, we also have to make fundamental investments.

I called for in my Relaunching America's Workforce Act, and the $100 billion for workforce development and programs President Biden called for in his American Jobs Plan.

We really should be looking at giving students flexibility when they are completing their programs.

One key priority for me is to hold predatory, for profit colleges accountable so that students get the results that they were promised and that they have paid for.

We also have to work on expanding higher education programs to engage workers who have fallen out of the labor force.

I am pleased that the American Rescue Plan that the President signed into law last month included a provision from the Protect Students Act to help stop for profit colleges from taking advantage of veterans and service members.

I recently joined Senators Young, Kaine and Cassidy in reintroducing the bipartisan Innovation Zones Act.

We have to double down. And it is critical that States have the funding that they need to continue to provide treatment for opioid use disorders.