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April 17th, 2012
11:39 AM ET

Rep. Cummings: New GSA admin. 'has to clean up this mess'

House Oversight Committee ranking member Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) on his grilling of GSA official Jeff Neely in Monday's hearing.


Filed under: GSA
April 17th, 2012
08:41 AM ET

Rep. Mica suggests White House cover up in GSA scandal, says committee thinks they held on to information

For the first time since the GSA spending scandal broke, we'll be hearing from the woman who blew the whistle on the agency's lavish conference which cost taxpayers more than $800,000.

In just a few hours, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will be holding the second of four Congressional hearings looking into the matter. On Monday, the House Oversight Committee held its hearing on the matter.

One of the toughest exchanges was between Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT_ and former GSA Administrator Martha Johnson, who resigned over the scandal.

"I think that is the fundamental problem that America gets and that government doesn't get," Chaffetz says. "There are a lot of good federal employees that work hard. They're patriotic and they're frugal with their money. But when you see this widespread abuse of money and then you, as the former administrator, says, 'Well, they're entitled to it.' That's where there is frustration just steaming out of our ears."

This morning on "Starting Point," Rep. John Mica (R-FL), head of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, previews today's hearing on the GSA scandal and alludes to a possible cover up by the White House.

"We're going to look at the sequence of when things happened," Mica says. "Looks like Susan Brita [GSA deputy administrator] did go...as soon as she heard about it she went to the inspector general and proper authorities. People from the White House knew about it, did nothing, kept it quiet until just a few days ago when a statement was released by the President condemning the act. We think they've held this information."


Filed under: GSA
April 16th, 2012
10:28 AM ET

House committee begins GSA hearings

Rep. Jason Chaffetz said the oversight committee will decide on precautions to avoid the GSA wasting more taxpayer dollars.

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Filed under: GSA
April 13th, 2012
01:16 PM ET

Roll Call Reporter Jonathan Strong talks about new details in the GSA scandal

Roll Call Reporter Jonathan Strong says although the president appoints leadership for federal agency, the GSA’s “culture of corruption” is also responsible.


Filed under: GSA