GSA Grillings to Begin Today
COSTELLO: It's time to hand out the pitchforks and torches. In just a few hours, Congress will begin grilling the GSA and demanding answers on how the agency has been spending your money. Outraged lawmakers already knew some of the way the lavish convention in Las Vegas and the way its employees mock its own inefficiencies in videos like this.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think meetings are good to have in between breaks.</s>COSTELLO: The GSA faces hearings from a number of committees this week and all are sure to be testy. Senior congressional correspondent Dana Bash has an exclusive look.</s>REP. DARRELL ISSA (R-CA), OVERSIGHT & GOVT. REFORM CMTE. CHAIRMAN: Dana, when we gavel the hearing, this will be a filled room instead of an empty room.</s>DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A sneak peek at the first congressional hearing on excessive spending at the GSA, the agency that's supposed to look out for taxpayer dollars, yet held a lavish 2010 conference awarding videos like this.</s>BASH (on camera): What is your primary goal?</s>ISSA: Our primary goal is make sure this doesn't happen again. What often happens is an I.G. does their job and perhaps some people are held accountable, but the culture doesn't change.</s>BASH (voice-over): The GSA inspector general briefed now former GSA administrator Martha Johnson 11 months ago about over-the-top spending. House GOP Chairman Darrell Issa wants to know why the aministrator sat on the information.</s>ISSA: Let's remember that when you're a political appointee, you're there for two reasons. One is you have the confidence of the president to execute. The second is you're the eyes and ears of the president through the process. We want to know where that process failed.</s>BASH: Issa invited us from the public hearing room --</s>ISSA: You ought to see some people that don't get overtime.</s>BASH: To the committee's private offices for an exclusive look at the weekend prep.</s>ISSA: These are some of the men and women working on a Sunday.</s>BASH: Issa's aides praise the GSA inspector general.</s>ISSA: This is an efficient investigation by comparison to the ones in which the administration is fighting us.</s>BASH: But why not question past administrations? Excess GSA spending in the Bush years. Issa insisted he'll get to that, but, for now --</s>ISSA: Remember, this president ran saying he was going to make changes. The question is: was he well-served by his political appointees when they were ordered to go in and make these cultural changes? If they didn't make it because they didn't listen to the president or because he didn't really mean it?</s>BASH: Yet for all its criticism of the Obama administration, why did Issa who took over the powerful oversight committee vowing to expose government waste rely on the inspector general to find it? (on camera): Were you asleep at the switch here?</s>ISSA: We never -- we are never feeling like we are doing enough. We have 120 people between the majority and minority on this committee. The I.G. is 12,000 people.</s>BASH (voice-over): And they found more GSA excess. Issa showed us a commemorative coin from that Las Vegas conference.</s>ISSA: Sixty-three hundred on about 300 of these in velvet boxes.</s>BASH (on camera): Taxpayer dollars?</s>ISSA: Taxpayer dollars.</s>BASH (voice-over): And a souvenir book.</s>ISSA: Just to have something to remember it by.</s>BASH: Eight thousand bucks.</s>ISSA: Eight thousand dollars.</s>COSTELLO: Dana joins us now from inside that hearing room. So, Dana, who will we hear from today?</s>BASH: Well, we are going to hear from some people we haven't heard from before. As you said, we are inside the hearing room. We have about four hours before it starts. But I want to come around and give you a sense of where the witnesses are going to sit. It's now set up for two, but we will initially have four here. First of all, the inspector general who as you heard from Chairman Issa really did most of the work for this investigation he is going to testify. Now former administrative Martha Johnson who resigned two weeks ago today, we're going to hear from her for the first time, here as well as David Foley who, remember, one of those videos -- for those paying attention to this -- he was the one who doled out the awards at that talent show at that lavish conference. And the last person I want you to take a look to remember -- this guy who we are talking about, Jeff Neely. He is going to come here and take a look at the video. He was the man on the red carpet who joked about wearing Armani. He is going to come here we are told and plead the Fifth. Why is that? Because we are told at least through his attorney through the committee that he feels he has possibly under criminal satisfaction investigation because this has been referred to the Justice Department and he doesn't want to incriminate himself by testifying before this committee. That should be kind of dramatic if he does actually come and plead the Fifth.</s>COSTELLO: Yes, it will. You're going to have an interesting afternoon. Dana Bash, thanks so much.</s>BASH: Thanks, Carol.</s>COSTELLO: At the top of the hour, we'll talk to a lawmaker heading up one of this week's hearings. Congressman Jeff Denham says he's already been digging for answers. Also still to come, President Obama pushes for a vote on the so-called Buffett Rule. What happens after the vote? Details after a break.