Pop-up Episode: Remembering our Heroes on Memorial Day

In this Memorial Day pop-up episode of the GovNavigators Show, Robert and Adam break down a week of Washington false starts and delayed announcements, namely the Senate’s stalled reconciliation push and the White House pulling the plug on a major AI EO signing at the last minute. They also spotlight a new HHS fraud oversight initiative aimed at tightening grant accountability using AI-powered audit review. Plus, a reminder of the real meaning behind Memorial Day as the hosts honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Welcome everyone to the Gov Navigator Show, a government-focused program that won't make you seasick. We're the Gov Navigators. I'm Robert Check. And I'm Adam Hughes. We hope to enlighten and enliven your week with news and insightful, entertaining guests, all on the topic of government management.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Enjoy today's episode of Gov Navigators, brought to you by the creative geniuses behind the award-winning podcast Fedheads.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

It has, but maybe not as eventful as we thought it was going to be.

SPEAKER_02 0:53

So the Senate passed budget reconciliation?

SPEAKER_00 0:59

No. No. They didn't.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

They had one job.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

I mean, can you imagine just being a staffer, you've been gearing up for this for like two weeks? And what what time do they shut it down? Like three o'clock in the afternoon? They're like, nah no, no, forget it. We're just going away. We're gonna go home for Memorial Day.

SPEAKER_02 1:20

There are particular staffers who canceled a flurry of meetings with me in anticipation of an event that didn't happen. Have they not learned about Washington, DC? You don't do anything. Oh my lords and suspicion of anything.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

Yes. Yeah, so apparently there was some they weren't quite ready. They said that they will take it back up after this holiday week. And my guess is they'll iron out the issues and they will likely pass in the end, but just really let the air out of the balloon.

SPEAKER_02 1:54

The irony is that Rand Paul got something done and the Senate just couldn't handle it.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

Maybe that's why maybe everything is like off kilture now because Rand Paul took action.

SPEAKER_02 2:06

Well, at least the president signed the AI executive order.

SPEAKER_00 2:12

Oh no. No, that's that didn't happen either. No. He invited like 20 CEOs, big time CEOs and tech companies to the White House for the signing, but also around the same time, like a couple hours before, just pulled the plug.

SPEAKER_02 2:29

He's just driving up the national runway piece for those private gyms.

SPEAKER_00 2:34

Yes. Now they're just turning back and going home. Yeah. So yeah, the and you know it's funny because we've been following this pretty closely, and and honestly, I think I'm excited about some of the things that the administration is doing now with AI. You you might recall when when the Trump administration came into term two, they said, you know, Biden, what a chicken. We're not gonna have any any guardrails. No, don't worry about it. Everybody go out and use AI and kill it. It's gonna be great. And then Mythos came out and people lost their minds. So this EO, which I'm assuming will be signed eventually also, is gonna voluntarily ask AI companies in the US to share their new models with the government for a review and discussion before they're released publicly. But I know that there was some dispute about how far in advance and how long the government would have to review those. And I I don't know if that's why the YO signing ceremony was pulled, but I think it probably has something to do with it. So the the government wanted 90 days, the AI companies wanted 14 days. So there's a lot of space between there.

SPEAKER_02 3:37

Here's something I know that happened, unless I was hallucinating. But I know about it because I talked about it in the Wall Street Journal.

SPEAKER_00 3:44

Well, thank God you're because you're 0 for 2 so far. So I wouldn't I don't want you to go 0 for three.

SPEAKER_02 3:50

So my friend Gus Sherello, he's assistant secretary for financial resources and the CFO at HHS, has laid down the gauntlet with the audit enforcement and risk oversight initiative, ARO.

SPEAKER_00 4:03

Wow. I sorry you got an acronym. Is there a logo? It's coming, it's coming. We got to develop some theme music for this.

SPEAKER_02 4:08

Basically, Gus was telling me he was looking at single audit act findings, and he said, those were screaming fraud as far back as the eye can see. But nobody's been doing anything about it. So now it's saying that grantees, including states, universities, other big grantees, if you don't come in and show us that you've got your house in order and that you're preventing fraud, then we're gonna cut off the spigot. Now, who can argue with that?

SPEAKER_00 4:38

It's hard to argue with that. Although trying to get people excited about the single audit act is is quite a feat.

SPEAKER_02 4:48

That's what I was quoted about in the Wall Street Journal.

SPEAKER_00 4:52

Oh my lord. Well, yes, and you you talked about how it this is not new. This single audit act has been around for a very long time, and the reports are filed. It's not like they haven't been the audits have not been completed, but having access to tools like AI now allows for quick reviews of thousands and thousands and thousands of pages of documents, which people couldn't do on their own before. So it's kind of the the perfect opportunity for this type of review to happen. You know, hopefully we don't want to be writing these reports so they sit on shelves. They should be actionable things to try to make government work better.

SPEAKER_02 5:28

Kudos to the folks at HHS. So now acknowledging those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Everybody's got a three-day, maybe four-day weekend. Yeah. But take a moment to acknowledge those we honor on Memorial Day.

SPEAKER_00 5:46

And and fingers crossed that where you're listening from has better weather than Washington, D. D.C. does have for this weekend because it's gonna be cold and raining, which I feel like I don't even know where I live anymore. In late May. In late May. Yeah. Well, enjoy the holiday. Thanks for listening to another episode of the Gov Navigator Show, brought to you by GovNavigators. We sure hope you enjoyed it and learned something in the process. And didn't get seasick. Right, of course. If you want to know more about us and what we're up to, please follow us on social media or visit govnavigators.com. Ahoy!