The committee on foreign affairs will come to order. The purpose of this hearing is to assess

the accountability mechanisms that ensure American taxpayer money is being spent as intended in Ukraine.

The speaker here is Mike McCall. He's a Republican from Texas. And in March of 2023, he was chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Today we have the opportunity to question the independent inspectors, generals from the Department of State, USAID, and the Department of Defense.

This is the first time. This hearing wasn't particularly memorable.

It's just one example of the U.S. government in action.

Congress conducts oversight on federal spending, like on aid to Ukraine.

And so it called on the inspectors general of three different government departments or agencies.

Your work is a critical component to ensure that Congress is being good stewards

of the taxpayer's money. And it's necessary to prevent waste, fraud, or abuse, and if need be,

investigate and resolve any incidents. Congress has also been... An inspector general is a nonpartisan

watchdog inside the government. The role was created by a law, the Inspector General Act a nonpartisan watchdog inside the government.

The role was created by a law, the Inspector General Act of 1978, which came out of post-watergate efforts to put checks on executive power.

And under that law, Inspectors General set up independent offices within their government agencies to investigate things like waste,

fraud, and abuse.

Waste, fraud, and abuse has become a catchphrase for this Trump administration as a rationale

for making cuts to the federal government. But at the end of his first week in office, on a Friday night,

President Trump fired Inspectors General at 17 different agencies. He was asked about it the next day

during a press gaggle on Air Force One. Can you talk to us about the firing of the inspectors

general? Why did you do that? And why is it because it's a very common

thing to do. And not all of them. Trump told reporters he was keeping some inspectors general,

including Michael Horowitz from the Department of Justice, whom he had singled out for his report

...