WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Ranking Member of the Joint Economic Committee, helped lead a hearing yesterday focused on ways to use artificial intelligence and data to improve government efficiency and reduce waste, fraud, and abuse. In her first remarks as Ranking Member of the Joint Economic Committee, Senator Hassan emphasized the importance of bipartisan collaboration and highlighted the potential of new technologies to save taxpayer dollars.
“We need to keep working together across the aisle to save taxpayer dollars by reducing waste, fraud, and abuse. As we will discuss in today’s hearing, there are many ways to do so by embracing new technologies and better data analytics. These types of tools can help an investigator identify potential fraud, or a caseworker streamline an application process,” Senator Hassan began.
She also said that actions from the Trump Administration and Elon Musk are not improving government efficiency: “Whether the government is providing health care for veterans, Social Security checks for seniors, or loans for small businesses, we should continually strive to improve the taxpayer experience – but Mr. Musk’s slash-and-burn tactics are doing the opposite,” Senator Hassan emphasized. “In addition, I want to bring the Committee’s attention to the fact that the Administration’s decision to fire 17 Inspectors General who investigate fraud – that's what they do – is completely counterproductive to the goal of improving government efficiency.”
You can watch Senator Hassan’s opening statement here or see below, and you can watch the full hearing here:
I just really want to thank you for calling today's hearing on a really important topic and, to your point, a topic that has a lot of bipartisan interest and a lot of bipartisan potential. As this is the first JEC hearing this Congress, I also want to say how much I look forward to working with you, Mr. Chairman, in your new role as Chair of the Committee and my new role as Ranking Member. I really look forward to working together and I've appreciated our conversations so far. And I'm glad we're starting out with a topic that we can find some real common ground on – cutting waste, fraud, and abuse through the use of innovation. I also want to thank the four witnesses for testifying before the Committee and sharing your expertise on this topic. We need to keep working together across the aisle to save taxpayer dollars by reducing waste, fraud, and abuse.
As we will discuss in today's hearing, there are many ways to do so by embracing new technologies and better data analytics. These types of tools can help an investigator identify potential fraud or a caseworker streamline an application process. I know that all four of our witnesses today will outline ways that the government can better deploy technology. I really look forward to building off these ideas moving forward.
Before we get to the introduction of our witness, though, I do want to just note my serious concerns with the reckless actions so far of Elon Musk and DOGE. Whether the government is providing health care for veterans, Social Security checks for seniors, or loans for small businesses, we should continually strive to improve the taxpayer experience – but Mr. Musk's slash-and-burn tactics are doing the opposite. In addition, I want to bring the Committee's attention to the fact that the Administration's decision to fire 17 Inspectors General who investigate fraud – that's what they do – is completely counterproductive to the goal of improving government efficiency.
I firmly believe that we should be cutting waste, fraud, and abuse and that we can do so without making life harder for children, families, and seniors all across our country. I hope the conversations, including the one that we will have this afternoon, can help us chart a better path forward. So again, I thank you Mr. Chair and to our witnesses for agreeing to testify today.
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