LIVE: House Oversight Committee's Briefing on the Independent Report on Unidentified Aerial Phenomen

A quorum is present without objection the chair is authorized to declare a recess at any time pursuant to committee rule 5b and house rule 11 clause 2. The chair may postpone further proceedings today on the question of approving any measure or matter or adopting an amendment on which a recorded vote or the yeas and days are ordered. The chair recognizes himself to make an opening statement. The committee meets today pursuant to notice to consider house resolution 4984 the D.C. Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium Campus Revitalization Act, house resolution 5040 the Cannabis Users Restoration of Eligibility Act, house resolution 5527 the Modernizing Government Technology Reform Act, house resolution 4428 the Guidance Clarity Act of 2023, house resolution 5528 the Safe and Smart Federal Purchasing Act of 2023 and several postal naming measures. As required by house rules a copy of the legislative matters has been made available to members and the public at least 24 hours in advance. Today's agenda represents a range of bills that go to the core of this committee's legislative jurisdiction. First we will address legislation to enable the ability of the District of Columbia to better utilize one of the most important assets in our great nation land and I want to take a brief moment to recognize Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser. We really appreciate your attendance today and appreciate the close working relationship that this committee has with you and your office. Second we will debate how the federal government should vet applicants for our nation's most sensitive position. Third we will consider legislation reforming our government's financing methods for modernizing costly and risky legacy I.T. systems. Fourth we will move a targeted and common sense bill to bring clarity to the meaning of federal agency policy and regulatory guidance documents and lastly we'll take up a simple review requirement of our federal agency's procurement methods. I look forward to robust debate and bipartisan consideration of today's legislative business. With that I yield to the ranking member Mr. Raskin for his opening statement. Mr. Chairman thank you very much and I look forward to us considering all of these bills and in the spirit of bipartisanship that we've been proceeding over the last several meetings and I think that we can find common ground on pretty much everything we're looking at today. So I appreciate your leadership and I yield back to you. Without objection the opening statements of all other members will be included in the record. Our first item for consideration is H.R. 4984 the D.C. Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium Campus Revitalization Act. The clerk will please designate the bill. H.R. 4984 the D.C. Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium Campus Revitalization Act a bill to establish a new lease of federal land to the District of Columbia. Without objection the bill should be considered as read and open for amendment at any point without objection so ordered. The chair recognizes himself to offer an amendment in the nature of a substitute. The clerk will please designate the amendment. An amendment in the nature of a substitute offered to H.R. 4984 as offered by Mr. Comer of Kentucky. Without objection the amendment is considered as read and the substitute will be considered as original text for the purpose of further amendment. I now recognize myself for five minutes for statement on the bill and the amendment. In this committee's May 16th hearing on overdue oversight of the District of Columbia Mayor Bowser called on Congress to reimagine the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium Campus site in Southeast D.C. She saw the vacant site as an opportunity to bring athletics jobs and housing to the district. This committee listened and drafted the D.C. Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium Campus Revitalization Act to do just that. H.R. 4984 will repurpose approximately 174 acres of unused federal land in D.C. The site is currently under a lease that requires the land to be used for stadium purposes, recreational purposes or other public purposes but does not permit commercial or residential development. Our bill would change that.