Ron Johnson

I do not know that this is a smart thing to do. But if it is not perfect, make it better.

So you said there is quite a bit of controversy in terms of a plan for sampling using statistics.

So how do we fill in the counts then? I mean, is there no adjustment to the actual canvassing?

I think when folks were critical of the Census Bureau, including some Members of Congress, they talked about the American Community Survey.

From the first panel, it seemed like the direction we were moving was trying to bring these contracts into smaller bite-sized pieces.

That kind of speaks to really defining the scope of the project.

I appreciate your holding this hearing. This was very informational, and I think important.

Well, unfortunately, in the scheme of things, that is not that big a number in terms of what we are spending.

It would be my concern if you have a Safety Board--again, I think we are all concerned about safety--but if they are operating outside any kind of cost-benefit analysis.

But, if we were to totally Federalize it, we would have to hire tens of thousands of employees. Is that correct?

All options ought to be on the table.

We are trying to really take care of prior mismanagement back when the environment was not even considered.

It is Hanford where we are actually getting leakage right now, too, isn't it?

That is definitely heightening the concern in trying to speed this process up to address that fact.

To me, that makes sense.

So, from what you have seen as an Inspector General in the Federal Government, do you think the Federal Government--what is the likelihood that we would be able to hire those 20,000 very specialized employees and be able to pull this thing…

The problem we are facing here with cleaning up the nuclear waste from our weapons programs is literally a once in the span of human history problem.

I think it is easy in a situation like this to come into a hearing with a bias one way or the other.

Who primarily drives those changes? Is that from the Safety Board? Is that the government?

How many man-hours does the first certification process take? How many man-hours are involved in a surveillance audit?

Because I want to find out how often--if the certification is granted, are there surveillance audits on a regular basis?

If we could apply these standardized type of processes across the government, I think we would be in a far better place.

Security clearances, we have clearances for individuals, but we also have them for contractors and for facilities, correct?

There is literally no standard, no guidance for what circumstances require a clearance. None.

How do you develop a process that actually works?