The Biden administration added all sorts of executive requirements to the BEAD program, the rural broadband program. Curious if the Trump administration has used that as a template to add new executive requirements for some of the leftover money from the Inflation Reduction Act For some of these green projects?
We're going through a process with regard to the BEAD funding. I refer you to commerce on all the details there. And we're going to make sure we put the president's stamp on that funding. And any funding that goes out, we're always looking for opportunities on that front.
Any update on the rescissions package in the House [Inaudible]
No. We're looking forward to the House blessing the Senate package. I'm not worried about it. We need to get it done and get it across the finish line. But very historic uh moment, the return of using rescissions, getting the muscle memory for that back into the system. We've talked about defunding Corporation for Public Broadcasting for decades.
President Trump is the first one to be able to do it. He had a lot of enthusiasm for this package and we're just thrilled that we made it through that critical juncture last night.
Is the President uh satisfied with PEPFAR funding [Inaudible]
You know, the president has always been supportive of life-saving treatment and we continue to put forward proposals to make sure PEPFAR is more geared towards actual life-saving treatments. We had good reasons to put the rescission up that we did, but you have to make adjustments along the way. They maintained a $9 billion package, hard to get upset about that.
[Inaudible] the discussion about [Inaudible] I know you commented on four of them but [Inaudible] yesterday, highly unlikely that he would fire him, but also bring up an issue that that GOP lawmakers. [Inaudible]
Well, I mean, I think the president was pretty clear yesterday. He's unlikely to fire the chairman, but he has substantial concerns with regard to how he's managed the fed, and not just from an interest rate policy but with regard to cost overruns. And that's something I'm in particular looking at in conjunction with the National Capital Planning that has a number of new fantastic members.
We're trying to get a site visit right now, and get over there. I've been around it, as I've gone up to the Martin building quite a few times, but I want to see it. I want to walk around the building uh with the other members of the commission and get a sense for why is the overrun happening. The inconsistencies between the plan that was submitted to the commission originally, the statements that the chairman made before the Financial Services Committee, how those reflect, and it's either misleading the Congress or it needs to go back to the Planning Commission.
[Inaudible] cost but a different topic. Cabinet secretary is heading to Alcatraz today in California. Critics have said that reopening that prison would be very expensive [Inaudible]
Well, I think one of the features of our fiscal plans is that we have a plan to get to balance to make savings where we want to make savings. And then there are areas where we feel like we need to spend money. That could be one. There's obviously things in the national security perspective, shipbuilding, aircraft carriers.
We obviously think we need additional resources for border, that we just secured. So this notion that you know somehow if you're a fiscally responsible administration, that that means you have to take the same view to every dollar of spending, we just reject the notion, and so it doesn't make answering those kind of questions particularly hard.
Russ, back on [Inaudible], do you think there are any kinds of fraud in the renovation project? Are there early signs of fraud at this point or not yet?
Look, we want to go over there. We want to see what's going on. Obviously, the cost overrun is very concerning, and the extent to which -- we don't believe that just having the inspector general do a review is something that is going to be enough. So we want to sit down with those that are in charge of the project and get a brief from them and see where we're at.
Is that investigation [Inaudible] Powell?
No. The president's a builder. He has concerns with the overrun of this nature. I mean, it's just not an overrun of a normal building. We're talking about a building that's approaching the largest amount of spending that's ever been done on a building before and we want to know why and we want to get an answer, some clarity as to the features with regard to this largesse.
And it has implications for the country's fiscal situation. The fed's been mismanaged for a number of years. They're no longer providing a profit that comes back to the Treasury in the form of remittances. And so this is something that -- there are implications across the board and we're going to continue to get our handle on it.
HUD is also doing a major renovation in Virginia. How is that any different than what the fed is doing?
Sorry, what's that?
HUD is actually building a new building --
Have you been to HUD ever? HUD is -- if you had to work at HUD today, you would not want to work at HUD. Like, it's a bad building. It falls -- like portions of the building fall on people. It needs a new building and we're going to do everything we can to make sure the career staff and the people who work at HUD have a building that reflects the hard work and public service that they're providing.
Again, this isn't a statement that says we're against renovations. Renovations need to occur. But the notion that moving the people out of HUD -- and it's literally depressing when you go there, and moving them to a place where they can have a physical presence that they can do their job effectively, that's not the same thing as a $700 million dollar cost overrun.
[Inaudible]
I'll get her and then you.
OK. Hi. I just wanted to talk a bit about on the subject of building, the Grand Canyon Lodge that fell, that has been burned to the ground in Grand Canyon, how much money do you allocate situations like that or does it only come from the state? They're doing a major investigation. 80 buildings were lost.
All the staff lost their accommodation and absolutely everything.
How quickly do you move now through FEMA? And will you [Inaudible] We'll take a very close look at it and go through our normal FEMA process, but I don't have anything for you right now on that.
Thank you, Director. Burgum and Bondi are both headed to Alcatraz today and [Inaudible] to rebuild like the [Inaudible] around $6 million. How do you square that with the cuts that the administration have been making across the entire federal government?
Well, again, you know, we don't have a cost estimate for that yet, but I would just refer you to what I said earlier. The administration puts forward a comprehensive fiscal strategy. We have cuts that we spend, we send to Congress and we have increases. And in the net, we reduce the deficit and reduce debt.
But that doesn't mean that if something costs money, we're going to treat every dollar of spending or cut the same way. The president doesn't believe that there are certain things as a federal government, we need to spend money on and the president has talked about restoring that. I'm glad that the secretaries are out there to get a handle on that.
So do you believe it would be cost effective, this renovation of Alcatraz?
We're going to go through the process like we do everything else, see what it costs, do it as efficiently as possible. And this is, I think, the start of that process on which their site visit is.
Hi, Director. Do you have evidence of fed chair Jerome Powell overseeing fraud or directing any lavish spending as part of this construction that would justify him being fired?
We're going through the process right now. The facts are very clear, and he will attest to the facts, but it's overrun by $700 million. Where we want to get a sense for is the reasons why. We want to get a sense for the difference between his statements and the plans that were submitted to the National Planning Commission and then we'll see where we are.
You might have missed it. We're trying to get a site visit, myself, the National Planning Commission members, some Senators that are concerned, Bill Pulte, the fantastic FHFA director. We want to go over there, take a tour and have some really good conversations with the fed on this.
He's disputed the idea of any terrace gardens or VIP dining room and --
And that conflicts with their own policy plans that were submitted to the commission. In my letter, you'll see the page numbers for those --
[Inaudible] from cost overruns which happen on a lot of building projects in this city and in many other cities. How do you get from there to fraud? Fraud is an accusation of committing a crime, stealing the taxpayers' money. How do you get from cost overrun to the crime [Inaudible]
We have a building that is being horribly mismanaged and there is a ton of oversight that's already going on. We've brought in an added layer with our own commissioners that are now on the job, and we're going to see where this takes us, but this is not something the American people should expect from their government, and it comes at the real-world implication of us not having the fed running a largess program that doesn't allow us to bring in the necessary resources to the Treasury.
And one more thing, on [Inaudible], the president posted on Truth Social, he had gotten information about Senator Schiff's mortgages from [Inaudible] criminal investigation department. Is [Inaudible] giving the president information on his political adversaries' mortgages?
I refer you to Bill. He's doing a great job. He's been very out in front on this issue and helping expose it. We're happy to come alongside and I'll just refer you to FHFA on that.
[Inaudible] you weren't able to get those cuts to [Inaudible] this time around [Inaudible] to try and get those cuts or any other packages [Inaudible]
You know, with regard to rescissions, we wanted to see how this vote was going to go. It was really important for it to be successful. We're on the one-yard line in the House. We need to get across that one-yard line, and the critical vote was in the Senate. We are very, very pleased with the passage of the Senate bill.
Our enthusiasm, the president's enthusiasm to send additional packages, we were watching closely about that first vote. And I think it's likely you'll see an additional package. We're not there. We're not here to announce anything on this front. But in terms of seeing whether this was a useful effort, that was not a waste of time.
It certainly has satisfied that threshold and we'll see where we go from here.
Thank you, guys.