Kristi Noem

One of the tenets of the American dream is that no matter what your circumstances are, if you work hard here in America, that you can succeed.

I am concerned about that, especially being from a part of the country where we just don't have public transportation as an option.

We do not want to hollow out the center of this country by forcing high costs on people that can't afford it.

I come from a part of the country that a lot of folks refer to as flyover country. I call it home.

I am very concerned about transportation funding, because it is necessary to have good roads and bridges all the way across the country to move commerce.

Okay. Thank you very much.

Do you have any idea of the dollar amount change that that encompassed?

The Congressional Budget Office reports that fugitive felons will receive up to $5 billion in Social Security and SSI benefits in the next decade unless we enact reforms such as the CUFF Act.

I take it very seriously that our job here today is to try to discuss the programs that we have out there, the dollars that are being spent, and make sure that we do restore integrity where there is opportunity to do that.

I thank the gentleman. I appreciate those words of support. It certainly is important to the veterans in our State and in many States across the country that often find it very difficult to travel to local VA facilities, but now, with the…

I tend to be a person who usually sides on the side of the argument to give the States flexibility.

And I do believe you are mandated to supply information to this committee as well.

We do share some information at their request when anyone is being considered for a Senate confirmation position and their tax returns have to be--those are by consent.

And so we have come back and asked for those documents, and you told us that it would be unmanageable to look for those emails between the IRS and the White House.

I believe it is a loss of priorities.

The problem that I have today is that the IRS gets to choose where it spends some of its dollars. And it looks to me like you are purposely diverting money away from customer service to harm taxpayers.

I believe that is down to almost 10 percent of the account. And it was directly chosen by you to do that at a time when you come before our committee and you come before many other places around town talking about the fact you don't have…

You have complained today and previously several times that Congress has not given you enough money to do due diligence on customer service.

I agree with that, as well. So I appreciate that that is a part of these negotiations that are ongoing within TPP

American farmers and ranchers are extremely frustrated with China's unjustified barriers that they put up for our Ag products.

It is interesting; for my producers in South Dakota that are involved in agriculture, we sell 11½ times more goods to countries where we have trade agreements than to those countries that we don't have trade agreements.

That we not just continue to rubber-stamp programs, but that we evaluate them to see if they are fulfilling goals and actually helping people.

It is a very important hearing, specifically, because not only are we looking at our programs, but then we are trying to identify some solutions, and then hold the programs accountable to those solutions.

So to your knowledge, there has been no evaluation processes that have been gone through where seizures were discussed or talked about or even the settlements that resulted from those seizures.

So if they are not performing well and they are not getting very many seizures or aren't producing very many seizures, is that reflective on the work that they are doing?